LLANDUDNO’S Matt Edwards started his 2012 rallying campaign in style last weekend finishing 8th overall and 2nd in class on the Team GMF Wyedean Forest Rally, the opening round of the Reis-Get Connected British Trial and Rally Drivers Association (BTRDA) Championship and the Pirelli MSA Welsh National Rally Championship.
26 year old Millers Oils Rising Star Award winner Edwards, co-driven in his newly acquired Class B13 Mitsubishi EVO by Chesterfield’s Sam Collis, tackled icy stages in temperatures as low as -7°C in and around the Forest of Dean.
North Wales Car Club member Edwards is no stranger to icy conditions and is currently teaching rally driving on a frozen lake in Sweden. Edwards said “In Sweden, our rally cars are equipped with studded tyres and conditions are consistent with ice throughout.
“On the Wyedean however, conditions were variable with patchy ice and exposed gravel in open sections with sheet ice in the shaded parts. Studded tyres are not permitted due to the public highway liaison sections between stages so it was either a snow tyre or gravel tyre to decide upon.”
“On stage six, we got to an open section with no ice and got some real speed going. The car felt light to drive and handled so positively which is reassuring and I’m looking forward to tackling the rest of the season on some fast and flowing gravel stages.”