The thrills and spills from an epic Roger Albert Clark Rally
by Paul Lawrence · AutosportWhile 2022 British Rally champion Osian Pryce was triumphant, there were plenty of other notable performers on the gruelling event - including a Czech father and son at the wheel of a pair of humble Skodas
For five days, 176 competitors battled against the elements across the forests of England, Scotland and Wales on the Roger Albert Clark Rally.
Snow, ice, fog and rain added to the challenge of this marathon and the fans turned out in their thousands to watch the action on this biennial event.
Victory ultimately went to Osian Pryce and Dale Furniss in their Ford Escort Mk2 but not before Marty McCormack and Barney Mitchell had shown the pace of the BMW M3 on gravel.
Other challengers to the Escort hordes included the sixth-placed Triumph TR7 V8 of Mark Higgins and Carl Williamson, but the Lancia Stratos of Seb Perez and Dale Bowen was an early casualty with a high-speed off in Myherin forest.
Here are some of the notable performers from the gruelling event.
Pryce claims the big rallying prize
Osian Pryce and Dale Furniss emerged as commanding winners of this year's Roger Albert Clark Rally after five incredibly challenging days.
For his third attempt at the marathon event, 2022 British Rally champion Pryce teamed up with Wales Motorsport and delivered a faultless performance in a Ford Escort Mk2 to win the rally by over two-and-a-half minutes from Northern Ireland’s Paul Barrett and Gordon Noble.
For both Pryce and team boss Meirion Evans, this event was unfinished business but it all came together and the car ran faultlessly.
At the finish of the final 38-mile special stage in Kielder forest, an elated Pryce said: “It was pretty difficult at times with the snow and ice, and it's been a tough rally. I’m happy just to get through and finally tick that all-important box. The only thing we've had to put on the car is fuel, tyres and brake pads, and that's it.
“This rally has been a roller coaster. We've had our ups, we've had our downs, but we never gave up. We persevered and I’m glad to be here at the end. This project came together about 12 months ago and Meirion and I have had the same sort of bad luck in the past.”
McRae rolls out of rally debut
Hollie McRae’s debut as a rally driver was sadly shortlived when she was one of many drivers caught out by tough conditions in the Riccarton stage of the Roger Albert Clark Rally.
McRae was making her debut in the Mini Rally Challenge, which ran on one day within the five-day event, using the Saturday loop of stages in the Scottish borders.
With her partner Jon Armstrong, the European Rally Championship pacesetter, co-driving, Hollie successfully completed the first of six special stages in Tommy’s Fell with a respectable time. However, the higher Riccarton stage was covered in snow and ice and she was one of many to fall foul of the conditions.
Over a crest, the car slid wide and spun into a ditch, which flipped it onto its roof with only minimal damage. McRae and Armstrong were both unhurt but frustrated at the early end to her rally driving debut. Remarkably, Hollie's debut came exactly 30 years to the day from when her late father Colin sealed his World Rally Championship title on Wales Rally GB back in 1995.
Radstrom thrills the fans in mighty Volvo
The biggest impression from a record entry of 34 overseas crews was made by Swedish star Arne Radstrom in his Volvo 262, which was nicknamed the ‘orange brick’.
Radstrom’s Volvo wowed the fans as he hurled it through the forests on his first UK rally and, despite some challenges, he battled the big car up into a fine ninth overall among the quicker Ford Escort Mk2s.
Radstrom has been rallying Volvos for a quarter of a century and finally achieved a dream of competing on the new version of the original RAC Rally.
“I get so emotional,” said a tearful Radstrom on the finish line of the final special stage. “This is my boyhood dream come true when we reach the top 10. It's unbelievable."
“That's how we drive,” he said of his spectacular progress. “It's been very difficult from the beginning with the ice, snow, fog and darkness and so on. But we made it. I must say thank you to all the marshals for this rally.
“It's a tough, tough challenge and we expected it to be tough, so we were well prepared with spare parts. We had some problems because the fuel tank was leaking with a big hole in it and the power steering failed so it has been a big challenge.”
Edwards fights back
Third overall in the Roger Albert Clark Rally was a tremendous result for Matt Edwards and Sion Williams. But three-time BRC champion Edwards could have reasonably expected more, running a Ford Escort Mk2 from the CarrPrep team in Yorkshire.
Edwards was on the pace from the start, but in Hafren forest on Friday they picked up a puncture and had to stop and change the wheel. Problems with the jack meant that they lost around six minutes in the process and dropped well down the order.
But Edwards dug deep and kept pushing and set a series of fastest stage times across the balance of the rally to haul the car back up to third overall, finishing four minutes down on rally winner Pryce.
Edwards said: “I think it's probably one of the best rallies I've ever driven because even, despite all the adversity, I just kept to the plan and doing the process and following exactly what I know works.”
Edwards said that the car had never been close to going off but two more punctures added to the main time-consuming one cost them a real shot at victory.
Skoda Octavia bounces back
One of the stories that won the hearts of those following the Roger Albert Clark Rally was that of Oldrich Kovarik Sr from the Czech Republic in his rare 1961 Skoda Octavia Super.
With just about the oldest car in the rally, Kovarik and his son Oldrich Jr travelled 1000 miles from the Czech Republic to compete in the rally, with Kovarik Jr driving a Skoda Favorit.
Unfortunately, in the ice of Thursday early evening, Kovarik Sr put the Octavia a long way down a bank off the road in Crychan and inflicted considerable damage to the 55bhp car.
However, they then started a mammoth project to repair it, borrowing parts and equipment from other teams and finally it was ready to run again on Sunday. It received a tumultuous reception as it motored through the stages, looking slightly battered, but still going strong.
The Kovarik family even turned the rallying adventure into a bit of a holiday and spent some time touring the UK before arriving in Carmarthen for the start of the contest.
McCormack’s M3 challenger
As the most successful driver in the history of the Roger Albert Clark Rally with four overall wins, Marty McCormack came back this time around with a new challenge.
McCormack and Barney Mitchell contested the event in a BMW M3 in a bid to take on the Ford Escort Mk2s and McCormack came close to breaking the Escort dominance of the event, until sidelined with a broken gearbox early on Monday morning.
The M3, which runs as a Category 4 historic, is a joint venture between the McCormack family and the MATS organisation in Holland. Mats van den Brand has built around 60 M3s for asphalt rallying but is keen to show that the M3 can be a gravel weapon as well and that's just what McCormack did by running consistently in the top three until retirement.
The sight and sound of the wailing M3 thrilled the fans in the forests and McCormack's exuberant driving style made for a great spectacle. “We’ve been running a Tarmac car for a couple of years,” said McCormack. “And then Mats said he’d built an M3 for gravel and invited me to test it. This is definitely the beginning. We love it and we had so much fun."
“Did we expect to come here and be the fastest? No way, never,” said McCormack, before acknowledging this is the start of a move that could reshape the historic rallying landscape.
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- The Autosport.com Team