Last Sunday saw the second running of the Brecon Motor Club Old Forge Garage Gremlin Rally as an historic event.

A great selection of historic rally cars gathered at the Old Railway Line Garden Centre and were issued route instructions ranging from pre plot OS map sections to ‘plot and bash’ sections and tulip diagram sections - enough to keep the navigators more than busy for the regularity sections.

The route wound its way to the Epynt ranges where a number of special tests were negotiated and more regularity took crews to a fuel and lunch halt at North Road Garage in Builth Wells.

A special test on farmland at Graig Goch Garage near Newbridge-on-Wye followed before more mileage and tests on the Epynt.

Crews then tackled a final regularity section ending near Boughrood and including a trip over Llanstephan bridge and a tremendous carvery meal to finish at the garden centre.

Incredibly, after a full day of competition the top three finishers were exactly the same as the previous Gremlin Rally with Carnforth driver Dan Willan taking the win with navigator Niall Frost in their Volvo PV544.

Paul Crosby and Ali Proctor brought their Porsche 911 into the runner-up spot with Mick Valentine, whose day job is with Mercedes McLaren, and John Thornley finished in third place in a Mk2 Ford Escort RS2000.

Local interest sat with young navigator Sam Weller who landed a ride with Dan Willan’s 19-year-old son, Jack in a Talbot Samba, they had a testing but enjoyable day but retired eventually with fuel starvation issues.

Brecon Motor Club is, as always grateful to residents on the route, many of whom were out and about to see the passage of the cars.