Cambrian rally scoops top awards

The Cambrian Rally has received the huge accolade of being named the best in Britain by competitors.

Organised by the North Wales Car Club, the Cambrian Rally, which starts and finishes in Llandudno, and encompasses testing timed special stages in the forests of Conwy county has received the prestigious Bill Turner Award as the best rally in the 2014 British Trials and Rally Drivers’ Association championship series.

It’s the first time the Cambrian has taken the award since winning it back to back in 2008 and 2009, and chairman of the organising committee Keith Pulling, who accepted the honour at a glittering ceremony in Telford on Saturday evening, said it acknowledged the hard work the organisers had put in.

“It was a very special moment, especially as this year we have had many hurdles to overcome to put together a largely new route for the event, but it paid off in that competitors were impressed that we put together a compact, yet very challenging end of season event which meant they had to really fight for championship honours,” he commented.

The Cambrian was one of three rallies short listed for the award, and BTRDA chairman, Norman Robertson said what made it stand out from the others was the new route which was put together under considerable pressure as many of the organising team were also involved in the organisation of Wales Rally GB which ran four weeks after the Cambrian.
And he said the event had proved a fitting finale to the 2014 championship.

Next year will see the 60th running of the Cambrian which is not only the final round of the BTRDA Championship, but also of the Welsh Forest Rally Championship and that of the Association of North West Car Clubs. Over the years many of the great names of rallying have competed on the event including British former World Rally Champion, the late Richard Burns, and legends of the sport like Stig Blumquist, Markku Allen, Per Eklund and Juha Kankkunen, as well as more recently newly retired WRC driver Mikko Hirvonen and current leading WRC drivers Mads Ostberg and Andreas Mikklesen who won the Cambrian when he was only 17.