Ben Friend and Cliffy Simmons got their 2019 Fuchs British Historic Rally Championship off to an excellent start in the brand new Allglass sponsored Escort RS1800 on last weekend’s excellent Rally North Wales, finishing 6th overall but taking away 4th championship points during the first time out with the new BDA engine.

The Dolgellau based event attracted a very high class entry of a 110 cars for the eight stages in the classic Dyfi Forestry complex, which was bathed in glorious sunshine.

After a steady start on stage one,with the duo playing themselves in, they picked up the pace on the remaining three morning tests, to arrive at the midday service 6th.

Simmons said: “All good so far, Ben’s getting used to more power and it’s a different driving technique to the pinto engine, it’s a bit slippery in places under the trees, so we’ll try and push a bit this afternoon.”

Ross-on-Wye garage owner, Steve Bennett, together with Osian Owen, was another top crew who were trying to blow off the rustiness after the winter break in the Bennett Tyres RS1800, after lying a disappointing 13th at halfway, climbed to 10th overall at the end with a better afternoon run.

Will Rogers was back in the co-driving seat alongside Alan Walker in another BDA engined RS1800. These two had a very good run in the morning and managed to hold 7th overall at halfway.

However, on the penultimate test, the car ground to a halt with an ignition pack issue, and over two minutes were lost getting the BDA to fire up. This dropped them from 7th to finally finishing 22nd overall.

The overall event winners were local men, Osian Pryce and Dale Furniss, who totally dominated the event from start to finish in the G&M Pryce Building Escort RS1800 to win by 37 seconds.See the full story in this week’s edition of the Ross Gazette, or subscribe to our online edition here