Two familiar faces claimed victory at the returning Bro Caron road rally in and around the Lampeter area.

Andy Davies and Michael Gilbey, who have two Bro Caron wins under their belt, including most recently in 2020, were the fastest team in what was the 40th Bro Caron rally and the first since the Covid pandemic.

The duo brought their ever faithful IDZ Subaru Impreza home just one second ahead of Arwel Hughes Jones and Dylan Jones Williams in a Ford Escort Mk2.

The Vauxhall Astra of John Davies and Eurig Davies was third, a full minute and a half down on the winning crew.

The 100-mile event saw the majority of the competition on the northern half of OS map 146, while rally HQ was the Black Lion Hotel in Lampeter.

The first half of the rally, although short, was action packed with many tight sections as competitors traversed the roads around SIlian, Abermeurig and Cellan.

At the petrol halt at checkpoint garage the top five positions stood as: 1, Lewis Morgan and Marc Hughes, 1 minute and 32 seconds; 2, Hughes-Jones and Williams, 1 minute and 40 seconds; Davies and Gilbey, 1 minute and 47 seconds; 3, Davies and Davies, 2 minutes and 23 seconds; 5, Iwan Jones and Andrew Lowe, 2 minutes and 25 seconds.

The lanes around Parc-y-Rhos followed before the route crossed through Llanybydder and Alltyblaca, and then Cwrtnewydd, Moyddin Fawr, Mydroilyn, Dihewyd and towards Oakford.

There was one final tight section to end the night, and that was just outside of Llanwnnen before heading over to the rugby club for the finish.

Here it was declared that the winners were Davies and Gilbey, who managed to take their third victory by the narrowest of margins.

The top five were: 1, Andy Davies and Michael Gilbey, 3 minutes and 35 seconds; 2, Arwel Hughes Jones and Dylan John Williams, 3 minutes and 36 seconds; 3, John Davies and Eurig Davies, 5 minutes and 5 seconds; 4, Iwan Jones and Andrew Lowe, 5 minutes and 29 seconds; 5, Richard Jerman and Alan James, 6 minutes and 10 seconds.

Expert class winners were Owain Evans and Arfon Griffiths who finished in 12th overall with a penalty count of 9 minutes and 38 seconds.

The semi expert class was won by Steffan Davies and Eurig Evans finished in 17th overall with 11 minutes and 54 seconds.

The novice class winners were Dion James and Richard James who finished in a very respectable 18th overall with 12 minutes and 13 seconds.

Winner Andy Davies said: “Elated, buzzing, ecstatic. As most people know, the Bro Caron holds a special place in my heart, and always will. To start at number 1 and get the win today, on the 40th anniversary event, is something I never really dreamed of when sitting alongside Greg at number 89 in my XR3 back in 2009.

“To do all three wins alongside Mike just shows how strong and forged a partnership this is. We knew tonight would be the ultimate test. We had to go, and we had to go hard.

“We were perhaps complacent in the first half not realising how fast everyone would be going, but we soon woke up and pulled our fingers out.

“To Cadog, Dafydd and the organising team, that was a real treat you put on for us. It just shows you don’t need trickery, excessive whites or indeed rain, to get time out of crews of that calibre.

“Clever, slick, well executed and no less than expected from the seasoned LDMC team. To the boys, Owen, Matt, and Josh for your efforts and sorting us a proper car to go chasing fast Escorts, thank you!

“And Delun for the unwavering moral support and encouragement you give us, to enable us to commit to the job and take over yet another weekend!”