RAVENOL Welsh Challenge Winner Takes First Victory at Rally North Wales

2018 Pirelli Welsh Junior Rally Champion Matthew Hirst, winner also of the 2018 RAVENOL Welsh Challenge, hit new heights over the weekend with his first ever outright victory at Rally North Wales.

The RAVENOL Challenge offers a prize pot of £3000 and is open to drivers and co-drivers who have not finished within the top 10 overall on any round of the Welsh Rally Championship. For winning the Challenge, Hirst and co-driver Declan Dear won £600 worth of RAVENOL products for use on their 2019 season, and right from the start they’ve showed what a difference an engine full of RAVENOL can do!

The young Doncaster driver said he was over the moon about his victory, later adding, “It will take a week for what I have achieved to sink in.”  

In second place was Ieuan Rowlands and Emyr Hall in their Ford Escort, overcoming a 7 second deficit to overhaul Osian Pryce and Dale Furniss. Further back, 6th place overall and 1st in the highly competitive two-wheel drive category, was enough for 18-year-old Pembrokeshire driver Tom Llewellin to secure the championship lead. Llewellin is also therefore currently leading both the Junior driver category as well as the 2019 RAVENOL Welsh Challenge.

Wug Utting and co-driver Bob Stokoe took the Group N honours for the less modified cars, after a close call with a big drop on the Cwm Celli stage. The Group N championship standings are headed by Machynlleth driver Rhydian Price and co-driver Steven Brown, who finished second in the category in their Ford Fiesta ST.

For the next round we head to Builth Wells for the Rallynuts Stages Rally on the 13^th of April. More information on the event is available on either the rally website www.rallynutsrally.co.uk or the Pirelli MotorsportUK Welsh Forest Rally Championship website https://wnrc.wamc.org.uk/.

Photograph c/o www.rallysportmedia.com