BUILTH Wells hosted the Torques Builth Showground Rally last weekend.

Hundreds of rally fans descended on the Brecknockshire town for the much anticipated event which began and started at Llanelwedd’s Royal Welsh Showground.

Overall victory belonged to the Hay crew of Wayne and Will Lloyd to guide their Escort to glory in the Herefordshire Motor Club organised event.

Steve Ellis and Iwan Thomas ended second on their BMW 325 while Builth Wells’ Christian Prynne, co-driven by daughter Carys, claimed third overall and first in class in a Peugeot 205 GTi.

Peugeot 206 Cup car crew Huw Jones/Darren Williams won their class with a worthy fourth overall while Mark Lennox and Claire Lennox led Newtown Motor Club interest in sixth in their Escort.

The anticipated Nova battle was thwarted however as previous winners Sam Davies/Martin Lasper endured problems during the day and finished seventh overall.

The Evans Motorsport team of Ian Evans/Karolina Kunigiskyte and Dan Evans and Newtown’s Jess Hockly also endured a disappointing day with both crews retiring.

Newtown’s Phil Jones and Clive Jones crossed the line in ninth place in their Vauxhall Chevette while clubmates Rob Darcy/Sam Stafford claimed a 12th place finish in a BMW E30.

Further down the rankings came Newtown’s Alwyn Passant/Denny Harris who ended 28th in a Ford Escort Mk2.

However the challenging course proved too much for more than half the field with a host of crews forced to retire early.

Among the raft of retirements included Newtown’s Ford Escort crews of Richard Edwards/Gareth Edwards, Alun Horn/Iain Beamond, Karl Chapple-Gill/Jonny Evans and Gareth Morgan/Rob Davies.