Portmeirion village once more provided an entertaining destination for and excellent rally lunch. Those walking down to the quayside hotel receiving the full picture of the eccentric Italianate village familiar to TV viewers of a certain age.
After the lurid excitement of Glasfryn, on departure competitors were immediately immersed in the fourth regularity section. The scenery was less dramatic than the Ogwen valley, with walls of bracken at the side of the road before it plunged into woodland and ran beneath trees towards Llanystumdwy, where Lloyd George chose to be buried, having grown up nearby.
The route continued winding eastwards on quiet roads, passing remote farms before crossing the A487 to resume the eastward momentum of the day’s longest regularity which drew to close outside Penmort. From there, the route took cars to Porthmadog, across the mouths of the rivers Glaslyn and Dwyryd beside the Ffestiniog railway, towards the very welcome lunch halt at Portmeirion.
Mostly designed to evoke the atmosphere of the Mediterranean by architect and pioneering conservationist Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, the rally’s culinary destination was the Portmeirion Hotel facing the quay, once a foundry and boatyard. Whilst descending the steep hillside on which the village is built is not arduous, from the bottom, the buggy looked the immeasurably more attractive option for the journey back to the car park to resume rally progress.
After lunch, a road section continued the eastward progress following the Vale of Ffestiniog and the River Dwyryd. Keeping the river to the left it took cars towards Llan Ffestiniog and the wide open moorlands beyond it that eventually reached the fifth regularity section of the day once leaving the A4212. There were rocky outcrops and steep hills to each side of the road, the risk of wandering sheep diminished by the walls and fences that flanked the narrow strip of tarmac that wandered southwards towards the end of the section at Parc.
A four mile link section through more rolling hills, dissected by multiple streams that eventually join the Afon Dwfrdwy, led to the start of another regularity, number six of the eight the day contained. Scenic lanes gave way to an open moorland landscape where sheep grazed at the side of the road or sometimes, on it. The section ended when the course of the rally crossed the river Gain to start test four at the Ranges Motorsport Centre.
Regrettably, Bronwyn Burrell and Suzanne Barker, (Car 33) were left stranded here by a broken throttle cable, the World Cup Maxi due to be recovered with hopes for an overnight fix by Brit Assist at the rally’s service facility in Llandudno. In the course of previous long night in Builder Street they had kept car 34 Robert and Timothy Carr in the rally by changing a failing clutch pressure plate that was making gear changes difficult if not impossible. It was the clutch that sidelined the car two years ago and reprieve was gratefully received. Conversely, the 'absent without leave' reverse gear on the 1934 Aston Martin of Nigel Dowding and Mary Antcliff, required no similar intervention, merely reconsidered its position overnight and decided to co-operate again.
Notwithstanding the potential for unexploded ordnance at the Ranges Motorsport Centre, it was mostly notable for the sudden, short lived, downpour that some attributed to the influence of Ilech Idris, the neolithic standing stone on the adjacent hill. As cars completed the test, their route forward instantly became another regularity section, the seventh of the day. The open road across moorland headed southwards leading into a densely wooded area as it pushed further into the Coed y Brenin forest. After around nine miles, the route crossed the Afon Mawddach to the end of the regularity, which was followed by a road section on the refreshingly wide (and dry) A470. The rally retraced its steps briefly, heading past Lyn Trawsfynydd towards Llan Ffestiniog and a B road linking to the eighth regularity of the day, starting at the holy well or sacred spring Ffynnon Eidda. As far as tiring crews were concerned, it was mercifully shorter than all but one of its predecessors yet yielded splendidly panoramic views, the narrow smooth road making for an enjoyable driving experience. For most of the field the late afternoon sunshine only added to the effect and after a brief link section on the A5 it was the wide A470 that took them to the afternoon tea halt at Bodnant Welsh Foods and the end of another day.
There was the same fierce competition at the head of the field as always but with the King/Woodcock Escort leading the results, nine seconds ahead of Rikki Profit in the red 911, the margin to Graham Walker and Sean Toohey in the Elan only three more. Splendidly, at the end of Day 2, despite all the more modern machinery, tenth place was held by the 1924 Bentley, the oldest car in the entry, in the hands of Shaun Harborne Mike Cochrane.
Whilst not as long, the final day of the rally, still to come, has a total of ten tests and eight regularities so nothing is certain…if it ever is.