WILLIAM Creighton led a Castrol MEM Rally Team one-two on the Nicky Grist Stages on Saturday 12 when he won in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – finishing just ahead of team-mate Lampeter’s Meirion Evans.

Builth Wells Mayor Cllr Mark Hammond flagged the cars away from the start of the Quinton Motor Club organised event as 142 crews headed out for the morning loop of four stages in Monument, Route 60, Halfway and Bowlsey (Crychan).

Co-driven by Liam Regan, number one seed Creighton had the benefit of a dust-free road – offset by the challenge of trying to find grip on the loose gravel surface.

He nevertheless set a clean sweep of fastest stage times to arrive at the mid-day service halt on the Builth Wells RFC pitch with an 11.1 second lead.

Conditions were a lot more abrasive in the afternoon, and Creighton, balancing tyre management and speed to perfection, held on to win the 45-stage mile event – beating team-mate Evans by just 2.6 seconds.

Evans lost 12 seconds with a spin on the opening stage – with most of the time lost contributed to the car failing to engage reverse gear.

That ultimately cost him and co-driver Dale Furniss victory, but the Welshman was delighted by what he considered to be his best performance on gravel.

Despite picking up a couple of punctures, Matthew Hirst/Declan Dear held second for much of the event.

Evans demoted them to third on the final stage – although the Škoda Fabia R5 crew scored top Protyre Autocare BTRDA Rally Series and Pirelli Welsh Rally Championship points.

Machynlleth’s Osian Pryce led the Historic section from start to finish in his first rally in a Wales Motorsport supplied Ford Escort RS1800 Mk2.

Co-driven by Phil Pugh, the 2022 British rally champion finished 12th overall, first 2WD and won the BTRDA Silver Star section.