I think the official hashtag of #DirtyWeekend was pretty spot on. With a large storm passing over the UK during the WRC weekend it was always going to be an interesting couple of days. Amazingly Friday stayed dry, however Saturday did its best to make up for this by raining relentlessly from 6am till about 9.30pm.

Friday Photos (Hafren)


I was expecting this year to be slightly less spectacular than last year, as the speed of the cars wasn’t a surprise. Boy was I wrong. Seeing Ogier coming round a fast sweeper on this angle at a ridiculous speed just blew me away. The top boys are just on another level.


Oh and they absolutely destroy the track. After 3 cars had come through they had already cut through the top surface on the fast right hander I was at.


Well I think the Citroen is 4 wheel drive, but clearly 3 wheel drive is more than enough.



Polish was by far the most prevalent language after English, with lots of fans out going mad when Kubica came past.


Mark this day in history, the sun was out in Wales!


Serious speed on the straight, and braking far too late for any sane person. I could watch these WRC boys all day.



Mad welsh fans hiding up in the hills. You had to work on your climbing skills to get to some of the best spots.


The last of the WRC runners is this chap, a privateer from Italy. Cool to see someone out there living the dream without the big manufacturer budgets.



Local lad Elvyn Evans was out representing the Brits, along with Kris Meeke. Not sure where he ended up in the standings but he seemed to be bouyed by the home crowd in the build up to the event, and looking forward to getting out into the woods.


These rally boys would make some good drifters.



Craig Breen in the Peugeot 208 R5. In Peugeot works colours, YAY!


Somewhere under the mud is a tribute to his late Co-Driver Gareth Roberts who was sadly killed back in 2012, and Craig still clearly carries this with him.


Ex works S2000 Mini sounded awesome, and always great to have some variety amongst the dozens of Fiestas and DS3s that make up the lower running of the international field.



Blue Scooby! There were a lot of people waiting for Higgins to come through that I spoke to. Clearly that livery on a Subaru really got through to people.


Skoda were also out playing with their new R5 spec Fabia. In matt black is certainly looked the part.


And the old Fabia S2000 was running very quickly in its class.


More three wheeling Polos.


This Fiesta is driven by the motoring editor of the Sun newspaper over here in the UK. Clearly journalism is a lucrative career.....




Henning Solberg, brother of Petter was out for a play, having done a select few rounds this year.

Edit 1: not Henning as pointed out by Hoccy, but Martin Prokop.



One of the junior cars, the DS3. I think I saw more DS3s this weekend on the stage than I have on the roads.



MOAR SUBBBARUUUUU!


Not sure if he has enough lights there.... Should just about suffice as a second sun though should he have to run in the dark as they did Saturday evening.


This Japanese team was running, fairly slowly mind, in this little Yaris.

National Entries


Along with 2 runs of each stage for the international cars, a field of around 90 cars came out in the national rally which supports the WRC.


Whilst the majority of the early runners are the 4WD Subarus, Evos, and a couple of ex WRC cars, there were some oddities in there.


This ex works Ford Focus WRC from 2003 was out on the stages just like it was 12 years ago.


The picture of the Focus and this picture were taken 1 minute apart. Thats hail for reference.


and about another 5 minutes later, lovely and clear again. Welsh weather...


BRAKE!!! Yeah he came in slightly too hot to this tight left hander.


More blue Subaru action.


One of the many oddities is this Vauxhall Firenza V8, run by Jimmy McRae (yep, that McRae family)


And because its a national rally in the UK, of course there were Escorts.


Both mark 1 and mark 2 were popular cars on the entry.


And then there was this little VW Lupo. Sadly the Nationals got cancelled after around 20 cars, because of a roll early in the stage. So all the cars had to cut through the stage through a random forest track which I was handily enough right next too, otherwise I wouldn’t have had a clue what was going on. Shame that they couldn’t run but the next run for the internationals was fast approaching and they have to run on time.


One of the casualties of the runs. Not sure what had happened but this Subaru was facing oncoming traffic and not going anywhere.


Side note about this group of Polish fans, who were drinking Coffee and Jagermeister at 9.30am and generally having a blast throughout the first runs. Such passion for Kubica, was great to see.

Saturday (the day of biblical rain) - Dyfi

Saturday was the day that Abigail, a pretty hefty storm hit this part of Wales. So heavy rain, high winds and cold temperatures made for a perfect day to stand outside for 12 hours...


This is the Welsh Rally equivalent of a packed Spanish hillside for their WRC. The first few cars did come through in only spitting rain before it really started to come down.


Latvala and Neuville both had crashes on the Friday so came through before the main field under Super-rally, or whatever that rule is called now.


Then Ogier arrived, cutting the corner to throw debris on the line for the following drivers. Now that is skill!


Rains arrived properly now.


Kris Meeke might be out of a drive in 2016 which is a crying shame as he’s the only driver to beat the VWs this year. He was giving it his all in Wales to try and save his seat, hopefully it was enough.


A bit too much of a cut of Evans there, whoops.


Martin Prokop is another of the privateers. M-Sport who make the Fords do offer support for the cars, but I’m surprised neither VW, Citroen or Hyundai will sell cars. Seems like VW especially would be very popular.


Kubica made it through day 1 without crashing. Actually thats not fair, this year he seems to have gotten a handle on making it to the end of stages.


Because of the rain I took slightly less pictures on Saturday, electing to stay drier and hide under my umbrella.


On the second run of Dyfi I moved down to the inside of a fast right hander with a view over the valley to the scene below.



The valley provided and amazing view, and watching the cars, even from this distance showed the speed these boys can carry. When I walked this bit after the WRC boys had been through I was really surprised by how narrow the road was, and how steep the drop off was. Yep these boys are seriously brave


Kris Meeke made it to second on the podium, beating 2 of the VWs. Admittedly Latvala did throw it off the road, but Mikkelson is no slouch and in what is without doubt the best car.



Evans sadly crashed out of forth this morning (Sunday) otherwise he was on for a great result in his home run.

Edit 2: Evans actually finished 6th, Tanak crashed out of forth, thanks to Hoccy & Dusty Ventures (not for the crash, for pointing it out).





There was a warning sign in the bottom right of this picture. Thats just mud now.




Thats a pretty big rock to be launching. I think a spectator was hit on Friday by a rock, and had to be ambulanced out according to one of the officials I spoke to. Sounded pretty nasty.


And to finish, more SUBARUUUUU action.

Really glad I went this year, as I nearly passed on it. Even with the awful weather (did I mention it rained?) it was still a brilliant weekend and well worth the long drive, early starts and general cold and wet. Roll on 2o16.


As always all photos are on my Flickr too, for easier downloading. RWSMotorsport