IOAN Lloyd and Sion Williams pulled off a sensational last stage attack on the Clare Forestry Rally on Sunday (October 6) to claim seventh overall and a spectacular class win as the first two-wheel-drive car on the event.
Rising Welsh rally star Lloyd was using the Irish event as a lead in to the final round of the Stellantis Motorsport Rally Cup at the end of October, as he moved back to gravel rallying after two major asphalt events.
Ioan, 22-years old from Llandysul, and his Peugeot 208 Rally4 stayed in Ireland after the previous weekend's Cork 20 Rally to tackle the forest event in a field of 110 starters.
Having built their pace over the opening five stages, Ioan and Sion went into the final stage 11th overall and third in the Rally4 class behind their rivals Craig Rahill and Keelan Grogan. The gap to Rahill was over eight seconds heading into the final stage, but Lloyd went into maximum attack mode and pulled off a sensational performance to move up to seventh overall and win the Rally4 category.
His final stage time headed Grogan by over five seconds and Rahill by more than 12 seconds to leave Lloyd winning the class by just 2.4s from Grogan. Not only was it a performance good enough to win the Rally4 category, it left Lloyd and Williams a remarkable seventh overall behind six four-wheel-drive turbocharged Rally2 and R5 cars. It is believed to be the first time that a front-wheel-drive Rally4 car has beaten all other two-wheel-drive cars on a significant event in Ireland.
“It was incredible racing with the boys today,” said Lloyd. “We came to the event with the intention of finding a good rhythm on gravel again before the Cambrian Rally. We got a good feeling in the car again and it's such a nice feeling to win here. But we have a job to do in three weeks’ time, so we'll keep our full focus on that.”
Lloyd paid tribute to his service crew for another outstanding weekend, once more in tough conditions, and to Williams for a flawless job on the route notes.
“I'd also like to thank David Byrne and the Byrne family for their amazing hospitality this week. Without them, this would not have been possible. And a big thanks to Kevin and Lourda for the hospitality in keeping us going over the weekend. Particular thanks go to all our sponsors who make it happen, especially the Suirway Group for making this weekend possible.”
Lloyd and Williams will now prepare for the Cambrian Rally in North Wales on October 25-26, which will be the deciding round of the prestigious Stellantis Motorsport Rally Cup.