Local rally ace Matt Edwards made a successful return to the driving seat on Sunday, after a long recovery from an accident in March curtailed his 2015 rallying season.

Organised by Bala & District Motor Club, the event is run in memorandum of former club member and competitor Gareth Hall who passed away in 2002 shortly after becoming Welsh Association Class Champion.

Running over the former military ranges at Trawsfynydd, nearly 50 crews were set to tackle the twelve challenging tarmac stages and leading them away were Machynlleth’s Geoff Jones who was joined by a new navigator, who had won an online charity auction to sit alongside last years winner in a Ford Escort Mk2. Simon Jones, from Nercwys bid over £400 for the ride and was excited at the prospect of sitting alongside the former work Nissan and Proton driver.

The day was to feature a close battle among the top three and after the first four stages the top crews were separated by just one second, as Matt Edwards and Glenn Latham in their Snowdonia Cabin backed Mitsubishi Evolution were just behind Denbigh’s Will Rowlands, with Abergele based Heather Merrison alongside, who were level pegging with Geoff and Simon.

A wrong tyre choice cost Geoff and Simon time in the middle loop of stages as Will Rowlands and Matt Edwards were then tied for the lead on stage eight. Going into the final four stages Edwards was keen to keep momentum, “We came here to get back into the swing of things, it certainly has been a while since I last competed so to be back on the pace is encouraging. We’ll see what we can do, but we are happy with the way the day is going.”

As the rally entered the final stage, Rowlands had pushed too hard and worn away his tyres. With no grip, the Denbigh-based driver was to drop ten seconds to Edwards, giving the Llandudno man the victory. “We’re delighted for today, it’s been a tough few months being injured and not competing. But this shows the recovery process has worked and thanks to Bala Motor Club for organizing an exceptional event in honour of Gareth.”

Eventually Geoff Jones and new navigator Simon Jones were to finish third overall and second in class. Geoff said “It is always a pleasure to come up here, a worthwhile event and we’ve raised some money for charity.”

After agreeing to swap roles for the rally, usual pairing Dan Nieroda from Chester and Dolgellau’s Sion Ellis exchanged seats to allow Dan to drive on the rally. A good run saw Dan finish the rally in 31st place, fifth in class. Dan said “I’ve got to thank Sion and AutoMax for letting me use the car. I hope I didn’t scare him too much in the passenger seat! It certainly was entertaining getting into that side of the car for the day.” But normal service will resume for the Morris Lubricants backed pair next month at Rally Yorkshire.

With the online auction and the money from the events car park being put forward to charity, Bala and District Motor Club will be able to donate £700 to Wales Air Ambulance and around £400 to be donated to local Bala charites. Event organizer Emyr Hall said, “Once again we have been overwhelmed by the support for the rally, with such a good entry the spectator numbers were greater than last year too. We are already looking forward to next year now.”