The 12th and 13th of September 2026 would see the running of the ever-popular Carmarthen and District Motor Club organised Autumn Road Rally once again take its spot in the rallying calendar, this year making up the seventh round of the Welsh Championship. 

Rally HQ would once again be the cattlemart ground just outside of the rally’s hometown, and this year a route of some 100 miles was laid out for competitors, over OS maps 145, 146, 158 and 159. The organisers provided map cuts in the finals so all navigators could cut and paste one map together before the night. 

Car 1 was due to be Meirion Evans with last year’s winning navigator Marc Hughes, but sadly the car failed scrutineering with new stricter advertising rules coming into place, this would mean current Welsh Champions Arwel Hughes Jones and Dylan John Williams would be the first car on the road at number 2, Arwel using borrowing his old Escort for this event. Behind them would be George Williams and Cadog Davies in their Mk2 Ford Escort, and behind them at number 4 would be Andy Davies and Kieran Price in Andy’s Subaru Impreza.

As with what is becoming something of a tradition for the Autumn Rally the heavens well and truly opened for large parts of the night, which would sadly see the demise of car 5, the Escort of Richard Jerman and Shaun Richards. Sadly, their Escorts’ wiper motor would pack up on the way out of the car park, ending their night. As well as this there would be patches of heavy fog present, especially in the opening sections of the night.

The first section would take place in the lanes to the east of Peniel, and would feature three time controls, and everyone would drop at time controls 2 and 4. It would be car 11, the Mk2 Ford Escort of Rhodri Evans and David “Garth” Powell that would do best on this first dropper, with only 34 seconds dropped. George and Cadog would do best at the next one, dropping one minute exactly, these two crews would be involved in a tight battle all night. More names would unfortunately join the retirements list as the Nissan Micra or Osian Jones and Jamie MIlls would retire in the first section with a blown engine. 

The second section would begin to the North of Alltwalis and would go South towards Cynwyl Elfed. Many competitors were having a challenging night, with Andy and Kieran’s Subaru losing its heater, which would see the windscreen fog up, costing them time. Also suffering a similar issue would be the Peugeot 206 of semi expert crews Benjamin Jones and Gregory Harrand, who would be hampered with poor vision, they would go on to retire early in the second half with a broken clutch. George and Cadog would drop down the order in this section too, as they would once suffer with a misfiring engine, although thankfully it would clear and they were able to continue. Rhodri and David did best in this section, dropping only 58 seconds. 

A short but tight section west of Cynwyl Elfed, with three time controls located in this section, with the final one, time control 12, seeing everyone drop. George and Cadog had a storming run through it, dropping only 43 seconds through it, lifting themselves a couple of positions up the leaderboard, but it would still be Rhodri and David that held the lead. 

A short section between Meidrim and the A40 would end the first half. At the halfway halt taken at St. Clears it would be Rhodri and Garth with the overall lead, having dropped 4 minutes 10 seconds. George and Cadog climbed to second in the last section, their time penalty standing at 4 minutes 58 seconds. Gethin and Ryan held third with 6 minutes 11 seconds.

The second half would begin in the maze of lanes to the north of St Clears, and end up at Whitland. Most of the top twenty would go clean over these sections, the next dropper not coming until time control 29 south of Llanddowror, which George and Cadog would clean. Time control 30 located at Laugharne would see everyone drop, George and Cadog tying with Gethin and Ryan with 29 seconds. Sadly, there would be another joining the retirements list with Andy’s Subaru retiring after picking up punctures.

The final section would be to the North of Llangynog, and whilst they weren't the quickest through it, Rhodri and David did enough at this clock to hold onto their lead, giving them a well earnt victory, giving Rhodri his first win. Arwel and Dylan had a steady run in their Escort finishing in ninth overall, but this was enough to see them take the Welsh Championship crown again. 

With thanks to Joseph John Gilbertson for the use of his images.