UK rally news: Three-way British title fight goes to the Cambrian

The British Rally Championship is settled on Saturday, and Max McRae, Meirion Evans and Osian Pryce all reach the Lewis & Hunter Cambrian Rally able to win it. Twenty points separate the three on the published table, the final round pays one-and-a-half times the normal score, and only the best five results from six rounds count. Elsewhere this week, the Scottish Rally Championship has booked P&J Live in Aberdeen for its awards night, the Down Rally has won the Asphalt series’ Rally of the Year vote, and the HRCR Open Day has a date for January.

In this week’s UK rally news:

• Three drivers, one British title at the Cambrian
• Scottish champions to be crowned at P&J Live
• Down Rally wins Asphalt Rally of the Year
• HRCR Open Day returns to Gaydon in January

Three drivers, one British title at the Cambrian

Pace notes: Max McRae, Meirion Evans and Osian Pryce can each leave North Wales as British champion on Saturday 24 October. The Cambrian is the sixth and last scoring round, worth one-and-a-half times the usual points, and each of the three must drop his worst score. Nine stages and 48 competitive miles through the forests above Llandudno and Ruthin decide it.

Splits:

• McRae leads after wins on the Jim Clark Rally and the first of Rali Ceredigion’s two scoring days.
• Evans has finished on the podium at every round, then took his first full-distance win on Ceredigion’s second day.
• Pryce won the Severn Valley Stages and the Grampian Forest Rally, but a gearbox failure ended his Ceredigion Sunday before a score was banked.
• At the Cambrian, McRae must discard 12 points and Evans 15, while Pryce keeps everything he scores and still holds his Joker.
• A win would make McRae the first of his family to take the British title since his father Alister in 1995.

Meirion Evans said: “Whoever wins the Cambrian will become British Rally Champion, and I’m determined and focused on doing the best job possible.”

The road ahead: Victory guarantees the title for any of the three, and the Castrol MEM team notes that second place could still be enough for Pryce. The arithmetic has been reported two ways: the championship puts twenty points between the trio, while the event programme calls it two, the difference being whether discards are counted. Our preview of the decider works through the corrected margins and what each result would mean.

Scottish champions to be crowned at P&J Live

Pace notes: The Scottish Rally Championship holds its 2026 awards evening on Saturday 28 November at P&J Live in Aberdeen, the arena due to stage Scotland’s first World Rally Championship round next year. Garry Pearson sealed the drivers’ title at the Grampian Forest Rally in August with a round to spare, and Chris Lees took the co-drivers’ championship alongside Alex Vassallo.

Splits:

• Pearson, champion in 2021, skipped the Snowman Rally and then won all five rounds he started: Border Counties, Jim Clark Reivers, Argyll, the RSAC Scottish and Grampian.
• Lees added the 2026 title to the one he won with David Henderson in 2023, his second in four seasons.
• Craig Rutherford won both the Challengers and the two-wheel-drive championships in his Escort Mk2, with Natalie Robinson the Junior champion.
• John Rintoul took the Super Seniors and Mike Grant the Subaru Cup; every class and category is presented on the night.
• The dinner moves north from Glasgow, where the 2025 evening was held, and tickets are on sale now.

Fiona Moir, SRC chairwoman, said: “After a few years in Glasgow, it’s exciting to make the trip north to Aberdeen for the event, especially with P&J Live poised to welcome world champions next season.”

The road ahead: The evening closes a season in which the champion won every rally he started and opens 2027 with the title partnership with Asset Alliance Group already extended. One line in the notice sits oddly against the championship’s own calendar: it describes six rallies deciding the titles, while the 2026 calendar lists seven rounds with five scores counting.

Down Rally takes the Asphalt Rally of the Year award

Pace notes: The Protyre Asphalt championship’s competitors have voted the R Kings Down Rally their Rally of the Year for 2026. Rathfriland Motor Club’s event finished ahead of the Hills Ford Stages and the Manx National Rally in the vote, and collects the trophy at the series’ gala dinner on 7 November.

Splits:

• All seven rounds drew strong support in the vote, which the championship reads as a sign of the standard of organisation across the series.
• The Down Rally ran in August as a round of both the Asphalt championship and the Northern Ireland championship, with more than 100 cars expected.
• It is the second time the event has taken the award, after 2022, and it ends three straight wins for the Manx National.
• The gala at the Drayton Manor Hotel costs £55 a ticket, with rooms at £110 for a double or twin and £100 for single occupancy.
• The night also carries the Dai Roberts Memorial Trophy, Best Newcomer, the Junior awards and the Tony Davies Award.

Jason Pritchard, four-time Asphalt champion, said: “The location was fantastic. The organisers really took the rally to the people.”

The road ahead: The vote is the competitors’ own verdict on the seven rounds, and it lands before a dinner that also hands out the drivers’ and co-drivers’ trophies. For Rathfriland Motor Club it is a second Rally of the Year four seasons after the first, and it interrupts a run that had made the Manx National the safe choice.

HRCR Open Day returns to Gaydon in January

Pace notes: The Historic Rally Car Register opens its 2027 season with the annual Open Day at the British Motor Museum, Gaydon, on Saturday 9 January. Admission is free and the doors open in the morning. The theme is the Motoring News road rally championship and the RAC International Rally of Great Britain, with cars from that era on show.

Splits:

• Cars confirmed so far include Neil Jones’s Triumph TR8, Theo Bengry’s Opel Ascona and Andy Dawson’s Hillman Imp, with more to be announced.
• The register will also display the machinery that won its stage and road rally championships in 2026, indoors and out.
• Trade stands and an autojumble fill the hall, alongside the membership team and championship secretaries taking registrations for 2027.
• Clubs running HRCR-qualifying road rallies and scenic tours will be there to explain how their events work.
• Admission to the Open Day is free; entry to the museum’s collections is charged separately.

The road ahead: For anyone weighing up a first season, it is the day when the cars, the organisers and the championships are in one place before entries open. The register’s competitive year starts at Gaydon, with registrations taken in the hall and its title-winning machinery alongside as a taster of what the series rewards.

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Next on the stages

• 24 October — Lewis & Hunter Cambrian Rally 2026 — British Rally Championship, BTRDA Rally Series and Pirelli Welsh Rally Championship
• 31 October — Steve Gornall Memorial Rally 2026 — ANWCC, SD34 and ANCC road rally championships
• 1 November — Malton Forest Rally 2026 — ANCC, ANECCC and ANEMMC stage rally championships, HRCR Northern Historic