A NUMBER of Ludlow Castle Motor Club members made their way to Llandovery for the Tour of Epynt Rally, the first round of the Protyre MSA Asphalt Rally Championship and a round of several regional championships.

The seven-stage 75-mile event along the notoriously tricky roads of the Epynt Military Ranges started in the dry before the heavens opened ahead of stage seven catching out crews who had

opted to run on slicks.

Phil Clarke was out once more with Builth Wells-based driver Jason Pritchard, the pair taking a break from the British Historic Championship this year and looking for other challenges. They were out in Pritchard’s Fiesta S2000, seeded at five.

Mike Williams returned to the stages following last year’s break and his upgraded MG ZR 1900 with Ken Bills in the passenger seat was seeded 33. Also taking part was 90th seed Frazer Moss who made his tarmac debut in his Peugeot 205 GTi with dad Andy alongside.

Pritchard/Clarke started well posting the fourth fastest times through the opening two stages while the others made a steadier start.

The stages were then repeated on another loop and this time Williams/Bills lost around eight seconds when they overshot a junction. Moss was having no such trouble, regularly catching slower cars.

Pritchard continued his good form through the remaining stages and picked up valuable Championship points finishing third overall and second in class.

Williams/Bills finished strongly in spite of losing their intercom at one stage and their sixth best time through the final stage lifted them to 12th and third in class.

And it was smiles all around from the Moss pairing who not only survived Epynt – half the field didn’t – but also finished an impressive 41st and sixth in class.