THE fight for the Probite British Rally Championship crown will go down to the wire at the final round, after the merciless Welsh mountain stages of the JDS Machinery Rali Ceredigion saw a dramatic rise and fall of several title challengers at the weekend.

The Aberystwyth-based event featured on the FIA European Rally Championship [ERC] roster for the first time and brought some of Europe’s fastest drivers to Wales to go head-to-head with the BRC regulars.

A qualifying session kicked off proceedings on Friday morning to determine road order for the following day and it was series leader William Creighton who took his Pirelli shod M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2 to third fastest overall and top BRC time against the ERC regulars.

Chris Ingram won round five but went out early on Sunday (Image: JAMES WARD)

After the afternoon’s sell-out ceremonial start on Aberystwyth seafront, two blasts around the promenade street stage were in order and the short sharp test saw Chris Ingram set the pace with two scratch times despite this event marking his debut on asphalt in the Michelin-backed Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.

While the opening day was brief, Saturday offered up a stark contrast with over 124km of special stages and eight tests providing the bulk of the competitive driving.

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The opening Brechfa test saw a masterclass performance from James Williams, who recorded a breath-taking pace which was not only the scratch BRC time, but also the fastest time overall, his maiden European stage win.

Sadly, that would be all undone on the very next test when he and co-driver Ross Whittock left the road, tipping the Hyundai i20 N Rally2 onto its roof.

Punctures for William Creighton and Jon Armstrong over the opening loop of the day threw the leaderboard into chaos and positions would change with every passing stage.

Action from Rali Ceredigion 2024. (Image: Tom Banks)

Heading into the mid-point service it was Ingram out front followed by Keith Cronin in second and Machynlleth's Osian Pryce in third.

Armstrong would be the man of the moment over the repeat loop, setting the fastest BRC time over each one of the afternoon’s five tests but his earlier puncture meant that fourth would be the best he could manage.

Despite just one stage win, Ingram was uncatchable and ended the day in second overall, giving him his third maximum BRC score of the season.

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With the clocks reset for points purposes, Sunday would be a short, sharp blast of just four stages, kicking off with the treacherous Bethania test. 

Braking for a fast right-hander, Ingram’s Yaris rear end stepped away and launched him off the road and into instant retirement.

 

If that wasn’t enough, just a few minutes later Cronin clipped the inside of a wall and rolled his Fiesta spectacularly, meaning once again the BRC leaderboard was thrown into disarray.

Another scratch time from Armstrong on the final stage of the rally gave him the win on paper, before electing to check into the finish time control late to incur a 20 second penalty – enough to hand teammate William Creighton the round six win and a vital top score for the Irishman’s Championship aspirations.

Matt Edwards did enough to clinch third with Pryce fourth. 

The title fight now goes down to the wire at the Cambrian in October, where a handful of BRC1 contenders still have a chance of clinching the crown.