McRae wins the Ceredigion opener to seize the BRC lead
Max McRae and Cammy Fair won the Friday-and-Saturday British Rally Championship contest at Rali Ceredigion, turning a 10-point deficit into a two-point lead over Osian Pryce before Sunday's separate round. Evans third; wins for Graffin, England and Hammond in the support classes.
Max McRae and Cammy Fair (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) won the Friday-and-Saturday British Rally Championship contest at the JDS Machinery Rali Ceredigion, turning a 10-point deficit into a two-point championship lead over Osian Pryce with one scoring day still to run.
Two rounds in one weekend
Ceredigion carries extra weight this year. After the Carlisle Stages was cancelled, JDS Machinery stepped in to host rounds four and five of the BRC, so the Aberystwyth event pays championship points twice: once on the Friday-evening and Saturday leg, and again after Sunday’s four stages, for which the clocks are reset. The rest of the format is unchanged, with the best five of six scores counting towards the title and the season ending at the Cambrian Rally in October.
“Rali Ceredigion is the jewel in the crown of rallying in the UK and going head to head with the FIA European Rally Championship always adds an additional layer to the BRC battle each year,” said BRC Championship Manager Reece Tarren when the double-header was confirmed. “Having two opportunities to score will certainly ensure a fantastic duel for a maximum score as the season heads towards its final round.”
Friday night: McRae leads, Pryce climbs, Evans hangs on
The contest opened with two passes of the Aberystwyth Street Stage before two tests in the dark. McRae led Meirion Evans by 0.2s after the street runs, then held the advantage through the night despite a “bouncing” lamp pod, ending the leg two seconds clear of Pryce.
Pryce had started the weekend as the championship leader, 10 points ahead of McRae, but a small overshoot in qualifying left him with a poor road position. He recovered to displace Evans for second on the night stages, while Evans — third — was only a further 0.5s back. Sam Touzel and Max Freeman ran fourth on their international debut, less than ten seconds off the podium.
Saturday: a three-way fight settled late
Evans drew first blood on Saturday, taking the opening stage win, before McRae hit back on the first run through Cwm Elan, the weekend’s longest test at 13 miles. The Castrol MEM team-mates Pryce and Evans were split by just 0.1s after the seventh stage.
The rally turned after the midday service in Aberystwyth. Pryce found the pace he had been missing and set back-to-back fastest times to cut McRae’s lead to 4.3 seconds. With only the two closing street stages left, the margin held, and McRae took his second BRC win of the season after his Jim Clark Rally victory earlier in the year.
“It’s been a brilliant battle,” said McRae. “Thanks to Osian for the fight, I’m sure there will be another one tomorrow. I think if it wasn’t for that crazy push in stage ten, we wouldn’t have done it.”
Touzel’s weekend ended almost as soon as the daylight running began: he went off into a fence on Saturday’s opening stage and the damage was too great to continue.
What it means for the title
McRae now leads the championship by two points from Pryce. Evans came to Wales third in the standings; on the BRC’s own pre-event reckoning he needed a win to keep a realistic title challenge alive. On paper the crown could have been settled in Wales — Pryce would have had to win both Ceredigion rounds with McRae finishing lower than third each time — but McRae’s win closed that door for the weekend. McRae had elected to play his Joker, which boosts his points haul, on this Friday/Saturday round; Evans is holding his for Sunday.
Before the event, Pryce had stressed the need to treat the weekend as two separate rallies. “Even if we’re in a good overall position on Saturday night, we can’t ease off,” he said. “In terms of scoring BRC points, we’ll have to be back on it 100% on Sunday as well. It’s two rallies for us and BRC points are the priority.”
BRC3: Graffin returns and dominates
Championship returnee Kalum Graffin set the pace in the dark, opening a 38-second lead over Aoife Raftery, with Junzhe Tang third. Graffin then set the fastest BRC3 time on all but one of Saturday’s stages — the exception following a puncture straight after service — and won the round by more than a minute and a half. It was his second BRC category win, after taking Junior BRC honours on the East Riding Stages in 2024. Tang retired in Cwm Elan.
The result reshaped the class picture. Raftery, who played her Joker here, had arrived able to clinch the BRC3 title with maximum scores across both weekend rounds against Tang; Graffin’s return, and his round-four win, makes that job harder.
Junior BRC: a maiden win on debut
Luke Constantine looked in control of the Junior BRC after Friday, three fastest times from four stages giving him more than 15 seconds over newcomer Oran England. In daylight England chipped away stage by stage and finally passed Constantine on the last proper test before the Aberystwyth Super Special to take victory on his series debut. Ben McFall, the Junior BRC and BRC4 points leader, completed the podium in his Ford Fiesta Rally4.
McFall could still wrap up both the Junior BRC and BRC4 titles at Ceredigion by winning both weekend rounds — he has room to finish as low as fourth on one if he wins the other — but England’s win means the fight “evens out a little” heading into Sunday.
National Rally Title: drama on the final stage
The National Rally Title contest produced a day-long scrap between its three contenders. Owen Paterson lost the lead on stage nine to a hard-charging Alfie Hammond, who claimed his first maximum score of the year. Both Paterson and Chris Richmond-Hand then retired on the closing street stage. Before the weekend the BRC had rated Paterson the strongest-placed of the National contenders, despite his having missed the season opener.
Sunday to come
The record 149-car entry also takes in the FIA European Rally Championship — led on the road by five-time World Rally Championship event winner Kris Meeke — and, for the first time, the FIA European Historic Rally Championship. For the BRC crews, Sunday is a clean sheet: four stages, a fresh set of full points, and the penultimate round of the 2026 championship before the Cambrian finale.