EMLYN DRIVER TAKES NZ RALLY

Tears shed as Newcastle Emlyn driver takes NZ rally title

The seven day Silver Fern Rally in New Zealand last week saw local rally driver Meirion Evans of Beulah, near Newcastle Emlyn and Iestyn Williams from north Wales in their Ford Escort Mk2 RS1800 taking the prestigious title. Writes Anwen Francis.

With less than a minute in it at the end, father of two Meirion pulled it out of the bag to win his first ever international rally – the 2016 Historic Rally, one that many can only dream of winning.

Held every other year, the Silver Fern is known as one of the few genuine marathon-style multi-day gravel events left on the world historic rallying calendar and as such attracts as many entries from the home of the sport, the UK, and Australia, as it does New Zealand. This year’s event covered over 1000kms of closed special stages and over 1700km of touring stages between Christchurch in the north and Papatowai in the south.

“Winning was unreal and seriously emotional. When we finished, the boys were crying and all of the hard work of shipping spares and months of preparation had paid off,” said Meirion from Wales Motorsport. “It was a challenge and it has seriously opened the doors to business opportunities the other side of the world.”

But it wasn’t all plain sailing for the Welsh crew as Friday saw them having a puncture.

“I had a headache, sun stroke, my legs were shaking as I hadn’t eaten enough and for a split second, I lost concentration and went off the road. This resulted in a puncture and I lost my three minute lead. So the following day, I had to work really hard to claim my lead back,” added Meirion.

When he left Wales for New Zealand, he admits he had the title on his mind.

“Of course I was going there to win, but my main objective was to complete it. It was a huge deal and out of 50 cars, we as a team nailed it. It was emotional and in April I’ll be returning to New Zealand to take part in the Otago Rally in Dunedin, South Island,” said Meirion.

Second home to Meirion was the sister car. Meirion built the Mk 2 Ford Escort and sold it to the Australian Stewart Reid and Kiwi co-driver Dave Neil in 2015. “He was on my heels all the time and Saturday it was a close battle. But Sunday came and he couldn’t catch me. I’m very proud though that both cars in the top two were from Wales and from a small workshop here in Beulah.” Meirion would like to thank all who supported him, especially Gwyndaf Evans, Ian Jones from Express Motors, Dave Billingham, Carwyn Evans, Pantsod and Iestyn Williams.