Nineteen year old Motorsport Engineering student and rally sensation Osian Pryce of Aberangell near Dolgellau tasted success on his very first road rally last weekend to kick off his 2012 rally season, taking 7th place overall and winning his class.
Starting from Tywyn, Mid Wales on Saturday night, 43 crews tackled the Davies Motorsport Services sponsored Rali Mike Darowen, using classic tight and twisty tarmac lanes throughout Gwynedd.
International rally ace Pryce was co-driven by Iestyn Williams of Abersoch in his 1400 cc MGZR and the pair undertook the Dovey Valley Motor Club event to gain further valuable seat time on tarmac and rekindle their competitive edge ahead of the forthcoming British Rally Championship (BRC) which they will contest in Pryce’s new Citroën DS3.
Driving the relatively standard left-hand drive MGZR car, Pryce and Williams had a moment on the first selective when they mounted a grass verge exiting an over-tight hairpin bend and stranded the car with all four wheels off the floor, costing the pair valuable time. Eventually they worked their way free and went into refuel at the midway stage in 11th place having started as 12th seed.
Pryce and Williams got settled in on the second half of the event, this being Williams’ first time in seven years as co-driver on a road rally and they navigated their way successfully to finish first in class. To put their success into perspective, the six cars that finished ahead of Pryce and Williams were all more powerful cars with drivers well versed with road rallying.
Pryce said “We had a good night and it was nice to support my home club on this local event for me. We had a bit of an issue with the handbrake throughout the night and my window control kept shorting so with the car being left-hand drive, I kept having to open the door to get the timecards signed which cost us a bit of time.”
Pryce, current British Fiesta Sport Trophy Champion, added “We had a good blast and it was good to get back into a competitive environment after the winter break, with a great result for us too. It’s now time for us to get our heads down proper and prepare the Citroën for the first round of the BRC in two weeks-time when we will be competing against the best of British and International drivers on both gravel and tarmac stages, so we’ve got to get ourselves in the right mind set.”
by John Evans, i2i photography (Cymru)
Similar Posts:
- None Found
