by Geoff Mayes
The last stage of the final round of the 2006 Tesco 99 octane MSA British Rally Championship appropriately summed up the entire championship. A nail biting last stage drama meant that right up until the ceremonial finish back in Cardiff no one was really sure who had won the three-day rally.
Indeed it was courtesy of the much debated SupeRally that event long leader Ryan Champion, already a double rally winner in 2006, took the laurels from young Welshman Stuart Jones who was in dominant form on the final day of the rally, winning every single stage of the day as he climbed from fifth to second in four stages.
With Mark Higgins already crowned the 2006 Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Champion the main focus was on the fight for second, which no less than eight drivers could clinch. As well as this the battles for the 2006 Mitsubishi Evo Challenge, the BRC junior title and the battle for class R3 were all still to be resolved.
Day one saw the crews begin with a 17 kilometre run through a very foggy Port Talbot. With poor visibility local knowledge and confidence in your notes was almost essential. Gwyndaf Evans, a pre-event favourite, immediately went quickest, 2 seconds quicker than Phil Morrow and 4.5 seconds faster than Champion who suffered a puncture near the end of the stage. Alistair McRae, making the international debut of the new Toyota Corolla S2000 was down in 10th position as he took the first couple of stages easy.
Stage 2, Resolfen, saw a Welsh lock out as team-mates Evans and Jones went quickest, with Gwyndaf just 0.8 seconds quicker than his younger team-mate who caught a World Rally Car near the end of the stage. Third quickest was Guy Wilks who was also fighting for the FIA Junior World Rally Championship this weekend. David Higgins, competing in a SG Petch Motorsport-run Mitsubishi Evo 9 lost a lot of time with two time consuming punctures but promptly fought back on Stage 3, Rheola, to go second fastest, less than 2 seconds behind Stuart Jones, whilst Gwyndaf dropped time with a puncture half way through the stage. This time loss dropped Evans down to 5th at the mid day service, but with his team-mate leading the team were still happy with the morning.
Despite the roads cutting up very badly the BRC boys continued to push hard in the afternoon with Jones taking another stage win on the second run through Port Talbot before his team-mate took the fastest time on Stage 5 and 6. Despite breaking an engine mounting Niall McShea was getting back in the grove and was second quickest in the final stage of the day.
This all meant that Gwyndaf Evans was back in the lead, but by only 3 seconds from Ryan Champion, who was just keeping his nose clean with some consistent stage times. Niall McShea was now third, with Alistair McRae fourth in the impressive Toyota S2000.
A broken sensor had sidelined Stuart Jones and a broken gearbox meant that young Zimbabwean Conrad Rautenbach would join Jones on the list of competitors to rejoin on Saturday under the SupeRally rules.
One driver who would not be returning was Justin Dale, after his engine broke on the second stage of the rally. This meant that with two thirds of the rally left to go Matt Beebe was assured of the 2006 R3 championship title.
