Hot on the heels of the opening round, the second round of this year's Pirelli Motorsport UK Welsh Rally Championship runs within this weekend's Severn Valley Stages (Saturday April 11).
Another fine entry of PWRC contenders makes up around half of the total rally entry and crews will gather in Builth Wells on Friday before a ceremonial start in Llandrindod Wells on Friday evening. The popular event will take in 51 stage miles in the Sarnau and Myherin complexes on Saturday.
Although Meirion Evans and Dale Furniss took maximum points on Rally North Wales with their Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, they will not be scoring points on the Severn Valley as it is also the opening round of the British Rally Championship and they will take part in the pre-event BRC recce, which makes them ineligible for Welsh championship points. However, it is hoped that they will return to the PWRC later in the season.
Instead, leading the Welsh contenders away will be Liam Clark and Michael Gilbey in their Ford Fiesta Rally2 on the back of a strong run on the opening round. Ranged against Clark in class 10 for the R5 and Rally2 cars will be the rapid Irish crew James Wilson and Craig Nelson (Road Tankers Armagh/Rigual/Emco Wheaton/Pirelli-Skoda Fabia Rally2) and Dan O'Brien/Rob Fagg (M O'Brien Group-Ford Fiesta Rally2). More rapid contenders in the class include Bob Morgan/Ade Williams (Winner Garage Skoda Cinderford-Skoda Fabia R5) and event sponsor David Tomlin/Paul Spooner (Axon Commercial Catering Equipment-Ford Fiesta R5), while Colin Minton/Izzie Holman (Ignition Motorsport Rally Team-Ford Fiesta R5) and Paul Bonas/Elgan Davies (Rallynuts Motorsport Ltd-Ford Fiesta R5) wrap up a strong class.
Class nine is home to the non-R5/Rally2 four-wheel-drive cars, and making their 2026 championship debut will be James Giddings and Aled Davies (Fordpad-Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9). Not only will they set a fierce pace in Class nine, but they will also aim to be well up in the overall PWRC ranks. Key rivals to Giddings and Davies include Patrick Naylor/Tom Bishop (Fuchs/GPM/MRF/Bremax-Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9), father and son Wug Utting/Max Utting (Utting Estates/Geoff Jones (Wales) Motorsport-Subaru Impreza) and Arwel Parry/Catrin Price (Moduron Arwel Parry Motors/GPrice Photographs-Subaru Impreza) who will be hoping for a longer rally after a frustrating early retirement on Rally North Wales.
More depth in this very strong class comes from the hard-charging Craig Jones/Elwyn Manuel (CMJ Motors-Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9), Keith Gapper/Paul Price (Total Spray Solutions-Subaru Impreza) and Gary Bollands/Nigel Baldwin (GB Motorservices/CiderOnline /GB Furniture Solutions-Subaru Impreza Wagon) while Rob Aslett/Ashley Aslett (Retro Race and Rally-Subaru Impreza), Chris Gash/Dylan Williams (Subaru Impreza) and Martyn Andrews/Tim Currie (Subaru Impreza) maintain the quality within the class.
Class 8 for the over 2000cc 2WD cars is an all-BMW contest as Andrew Fox/Jaime-Lee Fox (Severnside Defibs and Training/Fitzgerald Plant Services-BMW 325) take on Dan Chester/Jack Morris (Dan's Action Vehicles Ltd/Silverstone Rally School-BMW E30).
A strong Class 7 entry for the 1600 to 2000cc cars includes Geoff Phelps/Colin Jenkins (Cherry Rock Ltd/Dave Jenkins Motorsport-Ford Escort Mk2), another car to post an early round one retirement. Class rivals are Damian Cole/Ian Allsop (Get Connected-Ford Escort MK2), Tom Todd/Dan Morefield (Historic Motorsport-Ford Escort Mk1) and Steve Chaplin/Rich Suter (Ford Escort MK2) while Jeremy Harris/Alexandra Harris (Kilcot Garage Ltd/Gurneys Family Butchers/Edge Communications-Ford Escort Mk1) and Gary Smith/Phil Clarke (Ford Escort Mk1) join the battle after missing the season opener.
In the 1600cc Class 6 Michael Jenkins/Jordan Joines (Ignition Motorsport-Ford Fiesta R2) will seek to add to their round one victory but have new rivals in the form of Neil Commons/Christian Brown (Ford Fiesta R2) and Christopher Skinner/Mark Williams (Peugeot 205 GTi). Meanwhile Class 1, for road rally cars, is again headed by Colin Evans/John Evans (Towy Waste-BMW 318ti) who have Richard Phillipson/Brian Cammack (BL Mini 1000 MK3) as class rivals.
Class 0 for the 1400cc cars will be as fiercely contested as ever, and it was Dylan Fowler-Bishop (Restruct Ltd/Total Spray Solutions/JFB Motorsport/Jordan Road Surfacing-Nissan Micra),who scooped maximum points on Rally North Wales. This time Dan Evans will be co-driving in the flying Nissan as Geraint Williams/Ifan Rowlands (GW Services/Gwynedd Skip and Plant/Carafanau Hamdden/Ceir Seiont/Cacenau Tyn Twll Cakes-Vauxhall Nova) and Gethin Rhun Price/Steven Brown (R Keith Price Haulage-Nissan Micra) head the pursuit.
Joining this strong class on the Severn Valley will be Matthew Jackson/Sasha Heriot in their Nissan Micra which is the result of a three-year build project by Jackson. Adding further to the class are Joel Lewis/Jamie Mills (Bucknell Auto Services-Peugeot 106 XSi) and Jeffrey Jones/Graham Isaac (Peugeot 106 GTi).
The entry for the historic classes is again strong and Class H3 for the Category 2 cars is headed by Rally North Wales winners Ben Smith/Steven Smith (Amigos Tequila Flavoured Beer-Porsche 911 RS). Chasing the Porsche will be Neal James/Steven James (Valley Auto Sport/Classic Car Storage Ammanford-Ford Escort Mk2), David Hopkins/Siobhan Pugh (Hopgrove Construction/Ribbons of Treorchy/Mosley's Rolling Road/WOS Performance-Ford Escort Mk1), Jeremy Wells/Martin Saunders (Wells Masonry Solutions Ltd-Ford Escort Mk1), Mark Tugwell/Steve Pugh (Metalways-Ford Escort Mk1) and Jon Adams/James Wardle (Ford Escort).
Class H4 for Category 3 over 1600cc cars is all about Ford Escort Mk2s and pacesetters should be Ben Friend/Osian Owen (Allglass Anglia/Speedline Wheels/Press Glass UK/Listers). Their rivals include Mike Simpson/Dale Gibbons, Lyn Davies/Aled Richards (57 Tyres), John Greves/Russell Thompson (Greves Transport), Peter Jones/Gareth Davies and James Chambers/James Brown (Superfast Properties Ltd).
For 2026 the Restruct Junior Challenge within the PWRC will only be open to crews in two-wheel-drive cars and is for competitors aged under 25 at January 1, 2026. In a continuation of the unique partnership between M-Sport and the Pirelli Welsh Rally Championship, the leading junior driver and co-driver after round three of the season, the Plains Rally in June, will get the chance to travel to Rally Italia and work with the M-Sport team as part of the weather crew for the event.
The Motorsport UK Pirelli Welsh Rally Championship is supported by Pirelli, Ashmores Press Brake Tooling, Restruct, Moduron Arwel Parry Motors, 57 Tyres and LH Motorsport.
For this round of the Pirelli Motorsport UK Welsh Rally Championship, Paul Loveridge will be the event co-ordinator. Loveridge is the chair of the Welsh Association of Motor Clubs and will be on hand at scrutineering for any crews wishing to register for the championship.
