Rally Archive
Rali Bro Caron
Sponsored by Windy Corner Coaches
Lampeter & District Motor Club
7th/8th March 2026
Winners: Arwel Hughes Jones/Dylan John Williams (Ford Escort)
Photograph: © Adrian Convery Photography
Organiser: Lampeter & District Motor Club
Date: 7th/8th March 2026
Clerk of the Course: Marc Hughes
Route: 90 Miles (Maps 159 & 146)
Base: Lampeter
Starters: 90
A full 90 car field took the start of the Rali Bro Caron, Round Two of the 2026 Welsh Road Rally Championship. Cars were flagged away from the traditional start location, under the arch of the Black Lion Hotel in Lampeter High Street. From there crews travelled the short distance, just to the south of the host town, for another Bro Caron tradition, a section using the lanes around Parc-y-rhos.
The layout on this occasion was a sort of decapitated figure of eight, beginning on the Llanybyther main road and finishing on the Llandovery main road. It was a four minute section and everyone lost time. Fastest were the top seeds Arwel Hughes Jones/Dylan John Williams (Ford Escort), although they were only one second quicker to SF2 than Osian Jones/Llyr Davies (Nissan Micra). There was a significant retirement at this early stage - the Escort of Cambrian winners, Stefan 'DR' Davies/Kieran Price broke a driveshaft before the first PC.
The action then moved to the other side of a main road and the Cellan area. Again, all were late at TC5, with Jones/Davies being fastest, nine seconds ahead of Hughes Jones/Williams, this gave the little 1300cc Micra a lead of five seconds over Phillip Jenkins/Lewis Jenkins (Ford Escort). However, it was not to last, soon afterwards the car broke a wheel and the leaders were out.
On the opening section George Williams/Cadog Davies (Ford Escort) were only two seconds off first place, but on the run to TC5 they hit a rock, which bent the steering, this slowed their progress for the remainder of the event, they eventually were classified in eleventh place.
Lower down the field, Car 56, the Citroen Saxo of Rhodri Lewis/Richard James rolled at PC6, blocking the road for the following half dozen cars. The event regulations allowed for a notional time to be awarded to cars delayed in such a manner and a time, based on the slowest clean time to that point was given. Also, all penalties at TC6 were scrubbed as cars diverted around the blockage to reach the control and picked up large penalties as a result.
The end of the 'Cellan' section finished around Llanycrwys, all crews dropped time at the finished control, SF7. Owain Rowlands/Owen Rowlands (Mazda MX5) were fastest to the control and this put them into a two second lead ahead of Hughes Jones/Williams.
Prior to the Bro Caron, Gethin Dafis had had an unbroken run of 23 rallies without a retirement. For the Lampeter event he had a new engine fitted to the Escort that he was to share with Dion Lewis; early on it developed a serious misfire and Dafis' exceptional sequence of reliability came to an end.
The next section was a short, but tight, four minuter, starting at Derwen Mawr Farm and finishing after Pantydderwen; again, all were late here. Hughes Jones/Williams were quickest, three seconds ahead of Cilwendeg winners, Arwyn Jones/Mathew Pryce (Ford Escort). The top seeds were now back in the lead, as Rowlands/Rowlands fell to fifth.
The route moved further south with a section starting at Abergorlech and finishing at Cwmifor, with two timing points at which all competitors lost time. While Hughes Jones/Williams extended their lead, Richard Jerman/Alan James (Ford Escort) overtook Jenkins/Jenkins for second place.
Petrol was taken at Manordeilo, where Hughes Jones/Williams were holding a lead of just over a minute. There was a tight contest for second place with Jerman/James seven seconds ahead of Jenkins/Jenkins, while Rowlands/Rowlands were just two seconds further back.
Sam Woodcock/Mark Rodway had been as high as fourth before dropping back to seventh on the section before Petrol. However, at some point they had lost the complete back bumper of their Impreza and, at the halt, the crew were disqualified by the scrutineers as the car broke the damage rules.
At this halfway point there was a tie for lead of the Semi-Expert Class, with Robert Clark/Gethin Jones (BMW Compact) and Wyn Mathias/Llyr Mathias (Vauxhall Astra) being on the same penalty. The former crew were to go on to secure the category win at the Finish, while Mathias/Mathias fell back to sixth in class.
Five seconds separated the first placed Novice crew, Lee Evans/Carwyn Thomas (Peugeot 206 GTi), from second placed Osian Savinelli/Iolo Clement (Ford Escort). These positions were to be reversed in the second half with Savinelli/Clement ending the rally with a 28 second advantage over Evans/Thomas.
The second half took the route back north to Lampeter, starting with two tight sections in the Vale of Cothi, while the final section ran through Brechfa Forest, which was covered in thick fog. It was a demanding course with even the fastest crews dropping time at six controls.
In the battle for the top positions Hughes Jones/Williams continued to pull away from the field and finished with a victory margin of 1m 42s. In the battle for the runner up spot they key feature was that Jenkins/Jenkins had the clutch cylinder break on their Escort and they were forced to cut out the Brechfa section to reach the Finish back at Lampeter Rugby Club.
The challenge from Rowlands/Rowlands in their MX5 faded over the final part of the event and they fell to fifth at the end. They did however have the honour of being the only non-Escort in the top 18 finishers.
This left Jerman/James to fend off a strong charge from Jones/Pryce, who were the fastest crew through the fog and ended in third place, twenty seconds behind Jerman/James, who took the runner up spot. Also going well in the difficult conditions were Rhodri Evans/Gerwyn Barry (Ford Escort), they moved up from eighth at Petrol to fourth place at the Finish and secured the Expert Class win.
RESULTS
- Overall Positions
- Award Winners
- Class Positions
- Time Penalty Details
- Fail Penalties
- Overall Positions at Petrol
- Non-Finishers
- List of Starters