A puncture, a night stage and a missing round: how the 2026 BRC title fight began
After two rounds, Osian Pryce, Max McRae and Meirion Evans were separated by four points. Pryce and McRae had won a round each, and the third round, the Kielder Carlisle Stages, had been cancelled.
A former champion in a car he had never raced, his team-mate on different tyres, and a 21-year-old Scot whose father won the title in 1995. After two rounds of the 2026 British Rally Championship the three were separated by four points, and the calendar had already lost a round.
Same team, same car, different tyres
Two of the three contenders shared a team and a car model, and ran different tyres. Castrol MEM Rally Team ran two Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 crews, Osian Pryce/James Morgan on Michelin and Meirion Evans/Dale Furniss on Pirelli, the brand that also supplied Max McRae’s Škoda.
Pick a driver. What he shares with the others lights up.
Pryce was the returning champion in a new car. He won the 2022 title driving for Melvyn Evans Motorsport (MEM), and the Severn Valley Stages was his first event in the Yaris and his 125th rally start. He and Morgan had done one rally together before, the 2015 Cambrian.
Evans was in his third season with the team he set up with his father Melvyn at the start of 2024, and had finished 2025 third in the championship on 83 points. He was still looking for his first major rally win on gravel, after a puncture near the end of the 2025 Malcolm Wilson Rally.
McRae and co-driver Cameron Fair brought a family name and a Dom Buckley RSC Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 for a full season. McRae was 21 and had been fifth in 2025 on 58 points, but he had won that year’s Cambrian Rally, his first BRC win. His father Alister was the 1995 champion.
The benchmark was last year’s champion, William Creighton, who finished 2025 on 104.5 points for the same team. MEM’s stated aim for 2026 was a third straight drivers’ and co-drivers’ title. Garry Pearson/Hannah McKillop (Ford Fiesta Rally2), the 2023 runner-up, and Scott MacBeth/Ross Whittock (Volkswagen Polo GTI R5) were also entered.
What they said they wanted, and what the warm-ups showed
There’s no reason in me to think that we can’t win the championship this year, especially after having a full year learning last year. It didn’t go to plan, we had some retirements, but that’s rallying. I’m pretty confident and I’m sure we’ll enjoy it regardless.Max McRae, before the season
On 28 March he won the non-championship Rally North Wales by 2.3 seconds from Evans’s Toyota. It was his third win in a row, after the McRae Rally Challenge and the 2025 Cambrian, and the first time the event had been won by four members of the McRae family: Jimmy, Colin, Alister and Max.
I’m looking forward to this weekend’s Severn Valley Stages, as it’s nice to get the show on the road again. We’re starting the new season aiming for some more strong results and hoping to challenge for rally victories and the BRC title like we did last year.Meirion Evans, before the opener
At Rally North Wales he lost the win with a spin on the final stage. In the week of the opener the team tested in Gorsedd Bran forest in Denbighshire, and Evans made set-up changes to the car there.
Pryce drove the Yaris for the first time at that same test. Having done so, he said he saw no reason not to aim for a win on the Severn Valley Stages. He was seeded car number one, first on the road.
I’m also happy with being seeded at car number one. At the end of the day, I won the rally two years ago, so it’s our turn to run first on the road and I’m looking forward to it. Having a clean road ahead might even suit me. It is what it is, and we’ll have to wait and see how that plays out.Osian Pryce
Rules that keep the heaviest weight for the end
A lead in April or May was worth less than it looked. The final round, the Cambrian Rally, scored 1.5 times the normal points, so a win there was worth 37.5 against 25 at any other round, and the multiplier did not apply to Joker points. A Cambrian win therefore scored 12.5 points more than the 25 for a win at any other round.
A win at any other round
Two other rules changed the arithmetic. Only the best five of six scores counted, so one poor round could be dropped. And each driver could nominate one round as a Joker, adding bonus points for a top-five finish, overall or in class: 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 points for first to fifth. A Joker win was worth 30.
The Open Rally Title did not run in 2026, because Motorsport UK regulations required R5 and Rally2 cars to run with their homologated turbo restrictors. The BRC expected the British title fight to come from the Rally2 class.
The calendar announced on 16 February had six rounds:
Severn Valley: Pryce first on the road and first at the finish
Seeded first, Pryce won the Severn Valley Stages in 48:46.9, with five stage wins from seven. The day was seven stages and just over 50 stage miles in the Sarnau, Myherin and Tarenig forests, run in hail, snow, rain and intermittent sunshine.
Evans finished second, 19.0 seconds behind him, and won one stage. On the same rally in previous years he had been several minutes adrift of the lead.
Over the opening loop McRae closed in on Pryce. Then came the puncture on the fourth stage and a wheel change that cost him more than two minutes. He recovered to fourth, 2:52.0 behind. Pearson was third, 1:07.9 behind after an early spin, and MacBeth took fifth on his BRC1 debut.
Gaps in seconds. Pearson 1:07.9, McRae 2:52.0.
The 2022 champion was returning to the series, and at the finish Pryce said:
It’s so good to be back! It’s much easier coming back here with the title in hand; you can just relax and enjoy it! James and MEM have done a great job in getting me comfortable in this car. I think that’s been the key, and you know, to set a fastest time for the first time out in the car, I’m more than happy with that. From my side, I’ve got a bit of work to do with my driving to get used to the car, but no, I’m very happyOsian Pryce, at the finish
The opening table read Pryce 25 points, Evans 18, Pearson 15 and McRae 12.
Carlisle: the round that went
In 2025 the Carlisle Stages stood in for the Severn Valley Stages. In 2026 the Severn Valley returned to open the season, and on 15 May Carlisle was the round that went.
The Roger Albert Clark Rally Motor Club cancelled the Kielder Carlisle Stages, due on 5 and 6 June, after too few crews had entered the two-day event. The announcement came a week before the Jim Clark Rally. Reece Tarren, the BRC Championship Manager, said:
The Carlisle Stages was a fantastic addition to the calendar in 2025 when the BRC was looking for a replacement event, thanks to the cancellation of the Severn Valley Stages due to storm damage in the Welsh forests. It was enjoyed by all our crews, so to hear that the entry numbers are low is very dishearteningReece Tarren, BRC Championship Manager
The championship said it would consider its options and make an announcement in due course.
Jim Clark: McRae comes alive after dark
The Jim Clark Rally turned after dark. Pryce arrived at the head of the table, and by the finish it had closed up.
The rally ran on closed roads around Duns, from Friday night into Saturday on 22 and 23 May, over ten stages and more than 100 miles. In the opening stages the Toyotas set the times. Pryce was fastest on Bothwell by half a second from McRae, and Evans took the longer Abbey St Bathans stage. Once darkness fell, McRae was seven seconds faster than Evans on the repeat of Bothwell, and he reached the overnight halt 12 seconds in front.
Neither Toyota crew had a clean rally. Evans had forgotten to connect his auxiliary spotlights before the final stage of Friday night. Pryce said set-up changes had left him struggling for confidence in the Toyota, and an overshoot on Saturday’s opening loop cost him around 27 seconds.
McRae and Fair won in 1:13:35.1, 30.0 seconds ahead of Evans/Furniss, and took seven of the ten stages. “This win feels pretty good,” said McRae. It was his second BRC win and his first on the Jim Clark Rally. Evans was second again, and Pryce third, 1:02.6 behind.
Gaps in seconds. Pryce, third, 1:02.6 behind.
Where the title fight stood after the Jim Clark Rally
Pryce’s lead had been 13 points over McRae and 7 over Evans after the Severn Valley Stages. After the Jim Clark Rally it was 3 and 4. Two rounds, two winners, and Evans second at both.
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Osian Pryce | 25 | 15 | 40 |
| Max McRae | 12 | 25 | 37 |
| Meirion Evans | 18 | 18 | 36 |
| Garry Pearson | 15 | 10 | 25 |
Red: the round each driver won.
What followed was an extended summer break. The next date on the announced calendar, the Grampian Forest Rally on 7 and 8 August, came 76 days after the Jim Clark Rally finished.
Four points apart, three rounds to go
Pryce had won the opener running first on the road, McRae had answered with a Jim Clark win built after dark, a round after a puncture had left him fourth, and Evans had finished second both times. Carlisle was gone, three rounds were left, and the last of them, the Cambrian, would pay one and a half times the usual points.