The Great Orme/Mandy Twynham... Banbury Cross

It's been a while since I have been out with you guys, but just want you to know that I hope to be back one day.

Good practice @ NE though, as I have now got myself a seat with 18 year old Stuart Jones (son of Mad Mick Jones) in a Peugeot 206!  We competed on 3 rallies in 3 weeks to see how we got on etc. Came 2nd in class on the
Wyedean, slid off while in the top ten overall at Sweet Lamb and then competed in  the final round of the Peugeot Winter Cup on the Sunseeker Rally. Came home 1st in class, 1st Peugeot and this was enough for us to win the Winter Cup!!  Not a bad start!!.  We are now going to do the full 2003 season together (around 25 rallies!!), the Peugeot Cup, BTRDA, Welsh Clubmans Forest and Tarmac for starters.  Not all will be in the Peugeot but that is still to be sorted, as they say watch this space...

Richard Edwards Rally Career 

In the beginning -     Started by doing 12 Car Navigational events run by Northern Exposure in the Midlands. 
1^st ever was in Feb 1995.  In total did 44 events, getting 5 wins, 4 seconds and 7 thirds. 
Was first Novice in 1995/96 and runner up overall in 96/97 and 97/98 seasons. 

1997 – Chris Hodson – Ford Escort MK2 – 3 Rallies, Mixture of events.

1997 – Paul Bunch – Ford Escort MK1 – 1 Road Rally.

3 Stage rallies in first year, first ever rally being the Tour Of Lincs Rally with Chris Hodson. Best result of the year was 8^th in class on first forest rally – The Woodpecker Rally.  1 Road rally, first time out for both of us and finished 3^rd Novice and picked up first ever award. 

1998 – Chris Hodson – Ford Escort MK2 – 4 Rallies, Welsh National.

1998 – Shane Gamble – Ford Escort Cosworth – 1 Rally, Mewla National.

1998 – Lee Bartlett – Ford Fiesta 1600 – 2 Road Rallies.

Finished runner up in class in Welsh National Championship alongside Chris Hodson and had a one off driver with Shane Gamble as a late replacement.  This was first experience on pace notes and was over Epynt, unfortantly the turbo blew.  Had a 2^nd in class on one of the road rallies. 

1999 – Richard Sykes – Peugeot 106 Rallye – 4 Rallies, BTRDA.

1999 – Lee Bartlett – Ford Fiesta 1600 – 5 Road Rallies.

Sat with Richard Sykes when his regular co driver couldn’t.  Best result was first in class A5 on the Somerset Rally where we were fastest in class on 11 of 12 stages; the other we hit a tree!  Had a 1^st overall on the Saw & Weld Novice Road Rally with Lee Bartlett, winning by over 8 minutes on a very wet night. 

2000 – Richard Sykes – Peugeot 106 GTI – 8 Rallies, Peugeot Cup.

2000 – Pat Macarthur – Peugeot 106 Rallye – 1 Rally, BTRDA.

2000 – Robin Bolt – Peugeot 306 GTI – 1 Rally, Tour of Flanders.

2000 – Lee Bartlett – Peugeot 309 GTI – 2 Road Rallies.

2000 – Lee Bartlett – Peugeot 205 GTI – 1 Road Rally.

Great experience on maps and notes this year.  First year in the Peugeot Cup alongside Richard Sykes, with the best result being runner up in round three at Carlisle.  Was leading round four before a crash.  First chance to recce a rally on the Jim Clark and then first foreign rally including recce in Flanders, which was a one off rally alongside Robin Bolt.  Also had a one off outing alongside Pat Macarthur as stand in for his injured codriver.  Finished season with a 3^rd in class with Richard Sykes on the Rally GB my first WRC rally, where Sebastian Loeb won the class. 

2001 – Barry Mayers – Peugeot 106 GTI – 7 Rallies, Peugeot Cup.

2001 – Barry Mayers – Toyota Starlett – 1 Rally, Barbados International.

2001 – Mandy Twynham – Peugeot 106 XSI – 2 Rallies, Mixture of events.

2001 – Simon Rigsby – Peugeot 309 GTI – 1 Road Rally.

Full season of cup with Barbadian youngster Barry Mayers, in his first year over here.  Lots of experience on notes and recce’s, our best cup result being 7^th.  Plus given the chance to compete in Barbados for their International Rally where we finished 9^th overall and 1^st in class.  Also helped out new starter Mandy Twynham by sitting with her on her first two events. 

2002 – Alan Doncaster – Peugeot 206 – 3 Rallies, Peugeot Cup.

2002 – Mandy Twynham – Peugeot 106 XSI – 1 Rally, Red Kite Stages.

2002 – Olly Marshall – Peugeot 206 – 1 Rally, Galloway Hills Rally.

2002 – Lee Bartlett – Peugeot 309 GTI – 8 Road Rallies, AWMCC.

Quieter year due to lack of funds, but did manage to win the AWMCC Road Rally Championship with one 1^st in class a 2^nd and a 3^rd alongside Lee Bartlett. We were very consistent finishing all 8 rounds we entered.   Worked with Peugeot on one of their cup rounds before sitting with Alan Doncaster on 3 rounds before funds ran out. Finished the year alongside Olly Marshall on the first Peugeot Winter Cup rally.  Met the night before but was leading before an off in stage 4. 

2003 – Olly Marshall – Peugeot 206 – 1 Rally, Red Kite Stages.

2003 – Stuart Jones – Peugeot 206 – 17 Rallies, Peugeot Cup/BTRDA/Welsh.

2003 – Stuart Jones – Mitsubishi Evo 3 – 1 Rally, Red Dragon.

2003 – Stuart Jones – Proton Satria – 7 Rallies, BTRDA/Mixture.

Started year with a Winter Cup outing with Olly Marshall where we finished 3^rd before being given 5 rallies alongside Welsh youngster Stuart Jones to see how I did.  One of these was the Sunseeker rally where we won the Peugeot Winter Cup.  Got the rest of the year with him, winning our class 9 times in total.  Won 1^st ever Cup round on the Harry Flatters rally, where we lead from stage 1 and won by 40 seconds. Also BTRDA class A6 winners and did the Tempest rally in the BRC with S1600 Proton claiming a 1^st and 2^nd fastest class time before retiring.  Busiest year to date, the only downer being the Scottish rally where we crashed out of both days. 

2004 – Stuart Jones – Proton Satria – 2 Rallies, Mixture of events.

2004 – Stuart Jones – Peugeot 206 – 8 Rallies, Peugeot Cup.

2004 – Stuart Jones – Mitsubishi Evo 3 – 1 Rally, Jim Clark.

2004 – Robin Bolt – Peugeot 206 – 9 Rallies, BTRDA/Mixture.

Peugeot 206 Cup Champion alongside Stuart Jones, winning 3 rounds and being fastest crew on over half of the stages competed on all year. First win being in Swansea by over a minute, then won over Epynt on the Mewla after fighting back from a minute down after car problems. Then won the final round leading from stage 1 to claim the championship. BTRDA class A6 runner up thanks to Robin Bolt and a one off outing on the Cambrian with Stuart. On the Cambrian we were the first fwd winners of the Silverstar class.  The Ryton Employees rally team ran Robin in the BTRDA and we won our class twice in a development 206 (Wyedean and Woodpecker). Voted Wolverhampton & South Staffs Car Club Competitor of the Year. 

2005 – Richard Sykes – Peugeot 206 – 1 Rally, Red Kite.

2005 – Ed Stallard – Mitsubishi Evo 8 – 8 Rallies, Evo Challenge/Mixture.

2005 – Stuart Jones – Mitsubishi Evo 8 – 1 Rally, Jim Clark.

Helped Richard Sykes to his first ever Peugeot win at the start of the year on a winter cup round.  Joined up with 2004 Evo Challenge winning team VRS in the winning car and
with PIAA Junior Champion Ed Stallard.  On our first outing at the Wyedean we set joint fastest time on the 1^st stage and fastest on the last stage.  My first year in the Evo challenge was mixed but Ed and myself worked hard and learnt plenty to carry into 2006.  One off outing with Stuart Jones but unfortunately the head gasket went, so didn’t get many miles in alongside the MSA Elite driver.  Also Worked with Vision Motorsport and Innovation Motorsport at there rally Schools.

ALL GEARED TOWARDS 2006 FOR EDWARDS 

A promising year sets Wolverhampton Co-driver Richard Edwards up nicely for what will be a very important 2006. 

For Richard 2005 was always going to be a learning year and was going to be hard to hit the heights of 2004 when he was crowned Peugeot Cup Champion, following in the footsteps of former British World Championship winning co-driver Robert Reid.  So it proved but still there was plenty of encouragement going into next year. 

Having parted company with his championship-winning driver Stuart Jones, after 2 years and 36 rallies, which had brought 19 top 3 class results, it was time for a new challenge.  First off though the year started off by reforming an old partnership with Stourbridge ace Richard Sykes.  Sykes and Edwards had done 12 rallies back in 1999-2000, a partnership that came close to success without ever quite having the luck.  Well in January they were back and had the success at last by winning the 2^nd round of the Peugeot Winter Cup.  A delighted Edwards said “I’d planned that I wouldn’t come back to Peugeots after winning the championship, but Sykes asked and I just couldn’t turn him down.  It’s great that he has finally won a round as he deserves it for the commitment he has shown over the years”. 

By now plans for the season were falling into place, Richard had been approached by Chesterfield based VRS Motorsport, the team that had won the overall Mitsubishi Championship in 2004 and the Junior Championship.  This was the next step up and where he wanted to be.  The seat was alongside Cheltenham’s Ed Stallard, the junior champion who was looking to challenge for overall honours in the championship in the winning car he had just brought.  A successful test was followed by a warm up rally, the Wyedean in Chepstow.  First time out they were equal fastest on the 1^st stage and won the last outright to finish an excellent 8^th overall.  

The Mitsubishi Championship covered 8 rallies in England, Wales, Scotland and the Isle of Man, and for the new partnership a solid 5^th place started their campaign in Bournemouth.  Next up was the daunting Kielder forest, where they were quick out the blocks.  3^rd fastest through the opening stage, but disaster on the next when one of the famous ditches caught them out. 

The Isle of Man was next up and with Ed not having much experience on tarmac again a solid 5^th followed.  Illness held them back on the next round and they missed the 5^th before coming back for the Swansea Rally.  A small off left the crew with damage and repairs on the side of the road delayed there progress and the decision was taken to start planning for the next season. 

They competed on Ludlow’s Woodpecker rally which wasn’t part of the championship and proved they had lost none of there pace, being inside the top 10 before a problem and a small fire stopped there outing, but back in the championship for the final round showed a solid 5^th again.  “We may not have the results on paper” said Edwards “but we have worked hard together and with the team to improve our notes and what we do in the stages and showed on most rallies we had the pace but it just didn’t come together for us.  This is the most professional team I have been in and Ed is keen to do well so we will have a big push next year”. 

Richard is now starting to plan for 2006 and in the next few weeks will be looking for sponsors to help support their ambitious programme of events.  The Mitsubishi championship is joining up with the British Rally championship.  6 rallies are planned, 3 on gravel (2 in England and 1 in Wales which is also the round of the World Rally Championship) and 3 tarmac rounds (Scotland, Isle of Man and Ireland).   

The BRC has banned World Rally Cars meaning while challenging for Mitsubishi honours they can also be challenging for overall honours in this countries top championship.   

As well as this they are looking to do 8 rallies in the BTRDA championship of which they were running in the top 10 on the two rounds they competed in this year and believe they can challenge for overall as well as class success. 

Championship Winning Driver, Co-Driver, Team and Car... Stallard, Edwards, VRS, Mitsubishi Evo 8

So hopefully you can understand why I haven't been out for a while!!!

Catch you soon.   Rich Edwards.

Click onto www.rallycodriver.co.uk and learn more about this man and his chosen sport.