AFTER five gruelling days and 350 competitive miles over 33 special stages local businessman Dave Hopkins together with co-driver Richard Wise brought the Hopgrove Construction, Ribbons of Treorchy-backed Talbot Sunbeam Ti home first in class and, this time, a very impressive 19th overall for the second successive Roger Albert Clark Rally, writes Paul Willetts.

This year’s event attracted the biggest and best entry to date as it celebrated its 20th anniversary with former Citroën and Mini works driver Kris Meeke, current WRC2 front unner Oliver Solberg both Escort RS1800 mounted and favourites to head the field against the cream of historic rallying which included the wonderful Lancia Stratos of Seb Perez the sound of which will live in the memory for many years.

There were 165 cars lined up for this mammoth event in the West Wales town of Camarthen with crews coming from all over the world

After a Wednesday evening’s ceremonial start with crowds not seen on a British Rally for 30 years enjoying meeting the crews, the serious business got underway on Thursday morning.

This year’s route intertwined the first two days in the classic Welsh stages  before the long trip north,with Saturday’s loop saw stages in the beautiful but very icy Scottish Borders region before the final two days action taking place in the vast expanses of Kielder Forest before the Monday evening finish in Carlisle.

The sting in the tail this year was the monstrous 38.92 final stage ,the longest stage in British rallying for over 40 years and the last thing crews needed after five tough days rallying.

Other local crews included 14th seeded  beautiful Allglass Anglia-backed Escort RS1800 of the new BTRDA 2WD champions Ben Friend and Cliffy Simmons hoping repeat their fourth place in 2021.

Chepstow businessman Sacha Kakad together with regular co driver James Aldridge was back for more in the Wales Motorsport-prepared Escort RS1800 after an impressive run to nintth in 2021.

Friend didn’t get off to the best possible with two spins on the opening two tests costing some 20 seconds with Kakad settling down into a consistent rhythm building his speed after a year circuit racing a GT3 car.

Hopkins was having a good start leading class D2 from the off, the Welsh stages were lined with thousands of spectators enjoying some thrilling battles.

By the time the crews ended day two to head north in readiness for the Scottish loop on Saturday, our three local crews had had a fairly trouble-free event with Friend holding seventh Kakad 16th, and Hopkins 41st but already with a four-minute class lead such was his pace.

Saturday’s leg offered nearly 80 miles in the Borders region with such classics as Ae,Dalbeattie and Glengap.

Temperatures dropped to -6 overnight leading to some interesting stories, Kakad punctured, Hopkins bent a propshaft but all survived a difficult day as temperatures plummeted as darkness fell.

Friend held sixth place, Kakad was now 14th and Hopkins 36th and dominating class D2 Day four saw the first of two difficult days and 88 miles in the Kielder complex and again the dreaded ice reared its ugly head on the opening 17 mile Kershope test.

Hopkins lost two minutes with an off on the ice, Friend also visited a ditch losing over a minute but as darkness fell the slippery roads in Kielder were starting to take their toll.

On the penultimate stage of the day Sacha Kakad was one of these when he was caught out by a tightening right hander and rolled out of the rally while holding 10th overall.

He said: “Really disappointed just come in a little to fast, and once your rear wheels drop off the edge of the road it pulled us in and over we went ,but with no spectators around that was it for us .”

Friend ended the day in a strong fifth – despite the off he had set some top five stage times during the day, with Hopkins now up to 32nd although the Sunbeam had been losing water all event it was not a cause for concern and the Sunbeam had run faultlessly.

The final day saw some 77 miles in the classic Kielder Forest.

It was a day that saw a lot of crews hit trouble – Friend was one of these having moved up to fourth after the opening test of the day when Oliver Solberg went off, he too slid off and was beached with just three stages remaining a disappointing end to a fantastic drive.

Cliffy said: “I can’t believe we slid off as we weren’t pushing but it was just a slippery corner and it just went and that was it, but what a fantastic event I’ve never seen so many spectators watching an event in my 40 years of rallying, thanks to all the team and to everyone connected with the event.”

So it was left to the Hopkins and Wise combination to uphold local honours and bring the Sunbeam home in 19th overall and a huge class win by some 27 minutes.

“When I entered the event I thought after the result two years ago a top 20 might be nice, but when I saw the quality of entry I realised I was being very optimistic, so to finish 19th is really pleasing, thanks to Richard spot on as always, all my sponsors, Rhodri who looks after my car and the whole team, apart from a few offs it was faultless we actually did the whole event with part worn tyres, heartfelt thanks to all the organisers, officials, marshals, for one tough event,” said a delighted Hopkins.

The battle for the victory wasn’t really settled until Monday morning as expected Kris Meeke was first out the blocks but he was embroiled in a battle with the brilliant Welshman Osian Pryce with Solberg third.

Meeke retired with engine issues on Thursday’s final stage and it was then left to Solberg and Pryce who went at it hammer and tongs with Solberg gradually edging a small gap before Pryce succumbed to engine failure.

By late on Sunday evening the young Norwegian held a five-minute lead from the Irish duo of Marty McCormack and Barney Mitchell,but then the leaderboard got turned upside down when Solberg broke a shaft on Sunday’s final test, leaving McCormack in the lead with Solberg now down in fourth, but with 77 miles still left on Monday he was going to come hard at the Irishman, but sadly Solberg slid off on Mondays opening test to leave the three-time winner now able to cruise to a fourth RAC victory and a very popular win.

Of the 165 crews who started on Thursday 103 made it to the finish in Carlisle on Monday evening.

There is no doubt the Roger Albert Clark proved yet again that British rallying needs events like this it captures people's imagination and thousands upon thousands lined the route over the 5 days to enjoy this fabulous spectacle.

The organising team, marshals and everyone connected with the event should be rightly proud of a job well done so roll on 2025 and let’s do it all again.