Barney Mitchell | Paul Commons Motorsport

Martin McCormack and Barney Mitchell would return to the British Historic Rally Championship in some style; dominating the afternoon stages to claim Rally North Wales National Rally victory aboard the MATS prepared BMW M3 E30.

After a Storm Darragh enforced 1 year hiatus, Rally North Wales would return for 2026, this time with a slightly different route to what we have come to expect in recent years. Gone were Gartheiniog and Dyfi (possibly as a result of the aforementioned storm) and in were two runs through the ultra fast Aberhirnant forest near Bala to complement nicely the usual mileage in Dyfnant.

Round 1 winners George Lepley and Dafydd Evans would again top the historic entry list aboard their Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 but this time would face stiff inter category competition from the BMW M3 of Martin McCormack and Barney Mitchell. Category 3 meanwhile would be bolstered by the return of another rapid Northern Irishman in the form of Paul Barrett and former British Rally Championship front runner Tom Cave in his recently built MK2 Escort.

Bitterly cold conditions with sunny spells and the odd hail shower lay ahead of the crews, with an early morning blast through the nine miles of Aberhinant first up. As it was Lepley and Evans would continue their strong run of form with fastest historic time on the opening test but all did not appear well with the Japanese machine. Indeed, the Galant was clearly struggling with what appeared to be a long brake pedal at stage end and worse was to come in stage 2 as the Riponian Rally victors were forced into retirement with a broken driveshaft.

Very much the surprise package (at least on this side of the Irish sea) on the season opening Riponian Rally, Damien Tourish and Kevin Duggan would again star on the opening stages of Rally North Wales. Fastest 2 wheel drive machine through stage 1, followed up by a strong second in Dyfnant North would see the Irish duo head into the final stage of the morning with a slender National Rally lead. A puncture in Dyfnant South would however de-rail their charge before another issue in Aberhirnant 2 brought a premature end to their day. On this form however Tourish and Duggan should be treated as serious championship contenders!

It was therefore McCormack and Mitchell who would hold a 3.3 second National Rally lead by the time the crews reached the mid rally service after a full set of top 3 stage times across the opening loop. A strong morning for Paul Barrett, with Rory McCann alongside for this event, would see the Category 3 leading Ford Escort crew well in the mix for overall victory after setting fastest time in Dyfnant South. Meanwhile Tom Cave and co-driver Keaton Williams were quickly getting to grips with their new machine and would sit just 13.4 seconds off top spot. All to play for on the afternoon loop then!

The afternoon would however belong to the Category 4 BMW of McCormack and Mitchell. Rapid through the second run of Aberhirnant, the County Derry man was untouchable through both Dyfnant stages to claim victory by 23.9 seconds, a fine way to record a first rally finish on gravel for the MATS BMW M3. Hopefully this isn’t the last time we see the jovial Northern Irish duo grace the British Historic Rally Championship in 2026.

With Tourish sidelined, Barrett was the man to beat in Category 3 and despite not being able to keep pace with the German machine ahead was comfortably fastest in category over the afternoon loop to claim a well deserved second overall. Cleary happy with the day’s proceedings there was talk of a Severn Valley Rally entry which we can only hope materialises over the coming days.

Holding third at service, Cave and Williams would hit trouble in stage 5, a slow puncture unfortunately plummeting the Ford Escort duo down the leaderboard. This would however pave the way clear for Nick Elliott and Dave Price to claim the final step of the podium aboard their RSD prepared Fiat 131. Never outside the top 8 stage times, the Gloucestershire duo were rewarded with second in category 3 after a consistent run, with the Italian machine not quite able to challenge the blue oval machines on the ultra fast sections.

5th overall and rounding out the final step of the category 3 podium were Ben Friend and Osian Owen aboard their Allglass Anglia sponsored MK2 Escort. Luck had not been on Friend and Owen’s side recently, therefore third in category was just what the doctor ordered for the crowd pleasing Ford duo.

Whilst Tourish was the man of the opening loop, Ben Smith was most definitely the star of the afternoon as the Category 2 Porsche 911 pilot climbed from 9th to 4th after a stunning afternoon charge. With category victory never in doubt, 5th fastest time in Aberhirnant followed by top 3 times through both afternoon Dyfnant tests saw the Bedfordshire man just miss out on the overall podium! Securing category victory by almost 6 minutes would be the icing on the cake as he and father Steven (co-driver) now top the BHRC points table outright heading into next month’s Severn Valley.

Elsewhere Shaun Bolt and Cliffy Simmons would claim class H6 victory aboard their Ford Escort MK2 with 13th overall. Mark Holmes and Craig Simkiss meanwhile would claim runner up spot in Category two and top spot in class H3 aboard their Ford Escort MK1 whilst Ian Beveridge and David Fox would round out the category 2 podium with 27th position overall aboard their glorious Toyota Corolla TE27

Plenty of historic machinery would also grace the Interclub section of the rally where the Ford Escort MK2 of Bryan Jardine and Declan Campbell would just edge out the Vauxhall Chevette of Ben Jemison and Adam Burkill to claim historic honours with 22nd position overall. Irish duo Nigel Creagh and Seamus Cooke had topped the field after stage 2 but would never emerge from the final stage of the morning loop; thus leaving another MK2 in the hands of experienced duo Rob Dennis and Andy Boswell to round out the historic podium.

Rally North Wales had attracted a strong contingent of modern machinery at the head of the field with the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 of Meirion Evans and Skoda Fabia of Max McRae locking horns for the majority of the event. Evans and co-driver Dale Furniss had the better of the morning and had managed to build a healthy lead by the halfway point but McRae and co-driver Cameron Fair appeared to find another gear over the afternoon loop, reversing a 16 second deficit at service to claim overall rally victory by a mere 2.3 seconds!

Next up for the Historic crews is a return to Wales in just under 2 weeks time for the Severn Valley Stages Rally. Let’s hope there is enough fuel available to get there!!

FULL RESULTS

GALLERY

Managing to stay out of trouble as others faltered, Martin McCormack and Barney Mitchell perfectly circumnavigated the longest, toughest, most grueling Roger Albert Clark Rally to date to claim victory by more than 5 minutes; a record equalling fourth title for the rapid Irish driver.

Two years in the making, the 2023 running of the Roger Albert Clark Rally promised to be the best yet with a route covering 5 days, 3 countries and over 350 miles! Not only this but an incredible entry of over 150 crews had been attracted which included the likes of Oliver Solberg, Kris Meeke, Chris Ingram and Osian Pryce in addition to the usual front running historic competitors, thus making the event one of the most eagerly anticipated in many a year!

With such a grueling schedule the event was always likely to be one of attrition and Meeke, Ingram and 2023 BHRC champion Roger Chillman were all official retirements before the end of the Welsh leg! This left Solberg and Pryce to battle it out for top spot as the event moved into South West Scotland on day 3 with the former starting to pull away as he became more familiar with his father’s MK2 Escort.

Pryce had however been managing an oil leak and his victory challenge would unfortunately come to a premature end in Glen Gap as the RallyXtreme MK2 Escort eventually utilised all available lubricant after visibly smoking through most of the morning. A very disappointing end for the 2022 British Rally Champion after such a promising run over the first 2 days.

Solberg meanwhile seemed to go from strength to strength and had built a lead of over 4 minutes by the end of day 3, growing to over 5 and a half minutes by the start of Stage 28 (Harwood 2, the final stage of day 4). But then disaster struck for he and Elliot Edmondson as the Viking Motorsport machine suffered a drive shaft failure putting them out of the rally. And whilst the team had them back in the event under Super Rally rules for day 5, the amount of time required to be made up ultimately saw them end up in a Shepherdshield ditch as they went all in for victory.

Having 3 pervious RAC victories to his name Martin McCormack knows exactly what it takes to end the event on the top step. He and co-driver Barney Mitchell had sat 3^rd at the end of day 1 and 2 and had wisely decided on a more cautious approach after a few near misses early on and then an oil issue of their own on day 3. And it turned out that this was exactly the right strategy as the Irish duo maintained a 5 minute margin over the final day to claim a brilliant victory whilst still managing to put on a show with their infamous flamboyant style!.

Like McCormack, Cathan McCourt and Liam Moynihan had also opted for a safety first approach and were rewarded with an excellent 2^nd overall for their efforts, a quite unbelievable result given their lack of mileage on UK soil. In fact McCourt had started the final 39 mile Kielder test in 3^rd, 30 seconds behind the crowd pleasing Stratos of Perez, but with the intention of having a real go on the monster finale. And the charge certainly paid off as Perez was unfortunately forced into retirement with the Lancia’s engine succumbing to the heat of the battle.

Whilst McCourt set a quick time on “The Big One” no one was able to get anywhere near the time of Jason Pritchard however as the Welshman set fastest time by a monumental 51 seconds, topping off an incredible final day charge for he and Phil Clarke which saw the experienced duo climb into the podium positions. Pre rally the triple British Historic Champions would have been amongst the favourites for victory but after a trying event saw them visit a couple of ditches, suffer multiple punctures and encounter a fuel pressure issue they will have been delighted with 3rd!

The 39 mile final test was always designed to be a sting in the tail and it proved just that for the unfortunate Seb Perez and Gary McElhinney. But their incredible run will be THE lasting memory for many followers of event having peddled the Stratos with such style across some of the UK’s finest stages. We can only hope they come back for more in 2 years time!

Further back Mike Stuart and Sinclair Young put in a fabulous performance to claim category 2 honours with an excellent 5^th overall in their MK1 Escort. The Scottish pairing managed to find the perfect pace throughout the event, benefitting from the issues of others along the way to move from 13^th at the end of day 3 to 9^th by the end of day 4 and then gain another 4 spots over the final day in Kielder.

Northern Irish pairing, Robert Woodside and Dean Beckett aboard their Tuthill prepared Porsche 911, had been leading the category at the end of day 1 but were not able to match the pace of Stuart as the event progressed. However 10th overall, first none Ford and first in class C4 represented an excellent result after 5 long days. Meanwhile just one place further back after a consistent run were Class C3 winners Ben and Steven Smith aboard their RS2000, the first none BD powered Ford home.

It’s always great to see the Category 1 machines on display and victory looked to be going the way of Martin Linden and Rickard Forsell in the Volvo PV 544 only for the Swedes to be forced to Super Rally part way through day 4. This left the way clear for Pete Stimson and Mark Butler to take a well earned victory aboard their Ford Anglia with 81^st overall.

Elsewhere Mark and Andrew Constantine would claim category 4A honours in their recently built Nova SR and Aaron McClure would take Category 4B just one place further back in 55^th position overall. Meanwhile Neil Weaver put in one of the star performances of the event as he and Jack Morton took the S1600 Vauxhall Corsa to Open Rally victory with 6^th position overall, in the process recording a remarkable category victory margin of over 23 minutes!

This had been some event to follow and whilst I had only elected to take in the middle 3 days still managed to clock up a whopping 874 miles! Even the weather behaved itself this time with the trip into new territory (for me) in South West Scotland a personal highlight. Rallying has traditionally been all about endurance and this 350 mile event required it in abundance. So much so that just 4 of the top 20 seeds made it to the finish without Super Rally! If only a more traditional way of navigating the event between Wales and Carlisle could be found; stately home stages and a route through North Yorkshire or Cumbria seemingly the obvious answer but probably out of the question …

But that’s just nitpicking, what an event, bring on 2025!

FULL RESULTS

GALLERY