THE Castrol MEM Rally Team scored its third consecutive British Rally Championship double podium finish on the Voly Grampian Forest Rally (7/8 August), with Osian Pryce/James Morgan taking maximum points for the second time this year to extend their series lead.
Team-mates Meirion Evans/Dale Furniss completed another strong team performance by taking third-place BRC points in an identical Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.
Pryce finished fourth overall on the event, behind three FIA World Rally Championship drivers and ahead of another – but was focused only on scoring maximum BRC points.
The BRC was also a priority for Evans, whose latest strong gravel performance maintains his third place in the championship standings.
The Grampian is a notoriously low-grip gravel event, and the Castrol MEM Rally Team constantly adjusted the suspension set-up – including spring rates, damper settings and ride height – to adapt to the changing road conditions.
Each adjustment altered the handling characteristics of the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, making it difficult for both drivers to push to the limit when they could only discover how effective the changes had been once they were back on a competitive stage.
Despite this, and an engine pop-off valve issue, Pryce led the all-important BRC standings at the end of Friday night.
The 2022 British champion felt that he was “under-driving” the car, and he wasn't completely confident in predicting how the rear of the Toyota would react on the loose surface.
Yet the 33-year-old Machynlleth-born driver still went into the overnight halt with an impressive 11.2 second BRC lead, ahead of team-mate Evans.
Pryce enjoyed a good run through Saturday’s stages to gradually increase his BRC advantage.
He felt that the car was sliding a little too much on the looser sections, but on the cleaner parts, where there was more grip, he was able to post some excellent stage times in his Michelin-shod Yaris.
A controlled and polished performance saw Pryce eventually secure a comfortable 26.1 second BRC victory.
Evans made a good start, but an impact with a rock midway through SS2 upset the balance of the car and disrupted his rhythm.
The 31-year old Lampeter driver started the second day in a strong second BRC position – but with the constantly changing road conditions wasn’t entirely happy with the balance of the car.
He felt more comfortable with the car on the afternoon’s ultra-fast Aberdeenshire gravel forest roads.
Having avoided the worst of the unearthed rocks on the penultimate stage, he completed the tenth and final test in his Pirelli-shod Yaris to clinch third-place BRC points – just 1.3 seconds shy of second after a close battle with Max McRae.
Pryce said: “It's been a good weekend, and championship-wise we did exactly what we needed to do.
“We came here to do a job and score as many points as possible, and we achieved that.
“We were in amongst the leading guys anyway, but there was no need to push that extra bit and take unnecessary risks when it wasn't going to make any difference to our championship result.
"We weren't completely happy with the car all weekend and struggled a little with the handling.
“We made a few changes and sometimes they worked, while other times they didn't – we changed something before the final stage which, logically, should have been the right thing to do, but unfortunately it went the other way.
“It felt like we were chasing our tail a little at times, so there's definitely some work to do to get the car where we want it on gravel.
"But to come away with maximum British Rally Championship points is the most important thing.
“We've had a really strong start to the season, and you can't ask for much more than the results we've had from the first three rounds.
“We've been in this position before and know what we need to do – it's about keeping the points coming and building that championship lead.
“Wins and maximum scores are particularly important early in the season, so it's great to have another one on the board."
Evans added: “Overall, I think we can be quite pleased with the performance, particularly with the pace we had by the end of the rally.
“We didn't quite have the feeling with the car at the start to push at the level we needed to and we were missing some traction in places, so I think we lost time through not having the optimum set-up for the conditions rather than through the driving.
"We adapted the car as the rally went on and from around stage four onwards we found a good place with it, which meant we could really concentrate on pushing.
“By the end we were matching and taking time out of some very successful WRC drivers on the stages, which was really encouraging.
“It's just a shame we missed out on second by only one second, but overall I think we made a big step forward.
"The level of competition was probably as high as we've seen on gravel in the UK for quite some time, and to challenge right at the front against competition like that you need to be at 100% from the very start.
“We're still learning and developing what I need from the car on gravel as I become more comfortable with it, so there's certainly more to come.
“It's also great for the team to come away with another strong haul of BRC points, with Osian taking maximum points and third-place points for us.
“We're now heading back to asphalt, which is probably still my preferred surface, and hopefully we can have a change of fortune there.
“With two points-scoring opportunities, the next round is going to be very important for the championship, so we'll be doing everything we can to get a big result."
The next round of the British Rally Championship is the JDS Machinery Rali Ceredigion (4-6 September).
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