2026 Rali Bae Ceredigion Report: Meeke storms home
Kris Meeke and Noel O’Sullivan Jr’s World Class performance saw them win the battle with Suninen and take the Ceredigion (Image: GF)
Words by James Downie, Videography by Nikolay D Nedelchev for Rally Media UK. Images supplied courtesy of Gary Fothergill/GF Rally Images & Michael Cramp/MJC Media
The Rali Bae Ceredigion represents the gold standard for closed road tarmac rallies on the uk mainland. There are other excellent rallies like the Jim Clark, East Riding Stages, Argyll, North West, Hills Ford, North West, Dales etc, but in terms of organisation, format, number and range of available roads, sponsorship, full support from its host town, residents, and local councils, and media coverage, only this one currently has it all.
With its inclusion in the excellent EHRC for 2026, as well as it’s established place in the ERC and BRC championships, this years rally had attracted a superb quality international entry. 146 cars would converge on Aberystwyth.
Also this year, Saturday night would be a cut off point in the BRC, and the Sunday stages would count as a separate rally, making the Ceredigion an all important double header as rounds 4 and 5 of the British Rally Championship. There would therefore be more onus on short term speed than overall positions on the final overall leaderboard.
Kris Meeke, Dungannon’s finest, and winner of 5 WRC Rallies, with Noel O’Sullivan Jr alongside in Rally2 Toyota Yaris, was the headline act among a stellar field from all over Europe, but Finlands experienced former WRC contender Teemu Suninen was there to hopefully seal the ERC title with co-driver Antti Haapola in the Skoda Fabia. Polish crews Mikolaj Marczyk/Szymon Gospodarczyk and Jakub Matulka/Damien Syty, (both Skoda Fabias) Italians Andrea Mabellini/Virginia Lenzi (Lancia Ypsilon), Chechia’s Erik Cais with Slovakian Co-driver Igor Bacigal (Hyundai i20), and Romanians Simone Tempestini/Francesca Maria Maior (Fabia) would be among those trying to stop him. Fighting for the BRC title but nonetheless aiming to upset the European elite overall would be the likes of Osian Pryce and James Morgan (Yaris), Max McRae/Cameron Fair (Skoda), Meirion Evans/Dale Furniss (Yaris) and Sam Touzel/Max Freeman (Skoda).
Teemu Suninen/Antti Haapola set some blistering times but ultimately backed off to seal the 2026 European Rally Championship. (Image: GF)
ERC rounds have a qualifying stage after free practice and shakedown, which is used to determine road position when the rally proper gets underway. This was all held as usual over the 4 miles of Pendam, and Suninen went quickest there from Marczyk, Meeke and Tempestini.
The main business of the rally began just before 7pm on Friday night from Aberystwyth Town Centre. The opening leg would consist of 2 runs at the traditional Town Centre stage before moving East into the countryside for a couple of moor challenging stages in the dark. The Town Centre stage may be short at under a mile but it does a fantastic job in showcasing the pretty Welsh seaside town. Its picturesque backdrop of the harbour, promenade, and the early September sunset over the Irish sea was once again very popular with the photographers.
A stage that length was never likely to be significant to the overall outcome but Meeke and Italian driver Andrea Mabellini tied for fastest time on the first run, and Meeke beat Poland’s Mikolaj Marczyk and Mabellini on the second run to move into the slenderest of leads. Six seconds were all that covered Meeke down to Osian Pryce in 11th place going into the two much tougher night stages.
Mikołaj Marczyk and Szymon Gospodarczyk could not get close to the two former WRC drivers but achieved a mature 3rd overall.
The first of them was Elerch. A 4.44 mile test starting near Tal-y-bont, heading roughly east before turning south around the windfarm on the moorland and running through Bont Goch.
It was Teemu Suninen and Antti Haapola who stole a march on the rest with the phenomenal time of 3m30.8s - an average speed of almost 76mph in the dark demonstrating just how fast this rally would be. That time took Suninen from 5th to 1st overall from Meeke, Polish due Marczyk and Jakub Matulka and Mabellini. Max McRae was best of the brits, making it 4 Skoda Fabias in the top 6, and showing his exceptional ability in the dark as he had on the Jim Clark earlier this season. The Welsh MEM Toyota pair Osian Pryce and Meirion Evans were 8th and 9th overall and 2nd and 3rd in the BRC race.
SS4 was Blaenmelindwr, a 6.10 mile stage which was the last before the overnight halt. It was a longer version of the shakedown/free practice/qualifying stage run west to east. The organisers had done a good job to clear the stage of the loose stones and mud dragged on earlier in the day but the stage still had slippery sections especially at a watersplash. Suninen and Marczyk, as the first cars on the road, dragged water and mud straight back onto the surface and made it very tricky for those following. Indeed, Andrea Mabellini described these two stages as the toughest of his life, whereas twice winner of the rally Osian Pryce said he’d “spent more time off the road than on it”.
Suninen was marginally quicker than Meeke, to lead overnight by 0.9 seconds. All the top crews admitted to being cautious on this tough stage, eager to make it through in one piece and go again tomorrow in daylight. McRae led the BRC in 6th, with Pryce, despite his troubles, just 2 seconds back in 8th, with the honour of being the leading Welsh driver. Kalum Graffin and Rhodri Evans led the BRC Rally 3 Category from Aoife Raftery and Paul McPhillips, whilst Luke Constantine’ and Ifan Devine’ss Corsa led the BRC Juniors.
Overnight leaderboard (Friday Night):
1 Suninen/Haapola (Skoda) 11m09.0s
2 Meeke/O’Sullivan Jr (Toyota) +0.9s
3 Marczyk /Gospodarczyk (Skoda) +7.5s
4 Matulka/Syty (Skoda) +9.6s
5 Mabellini/Lenzi (Lancia) +14.0s
6 McRae/Fair (Skoda) +21.8s BRC
7 Tempestini/Maior (Skoda) +23.3s
8 Pryce/Morgan (Toyota) +23.8s BRC
9 Evans/Furniss (Toyota) +24.3s BRC
10 Cais/Bacigal (Hyundai) +31.6s
Saturday, Day 2, the longest of the rally. There were 3 stages, all much longer than those the night before, looping anti clockwise in the region South East of Aberystwyth in the morning. The same loop would be repeated in the afternoon, before another two runs through the Aberystwyth Town Stage to round the day off, making 8 stages in total at close to 80 miles.
The first stage on Saturday was Aberffwrd, nearly 8 miles long, south of the host town, running near the Rheidol River towards Devils Bridge, then down to finish near a name familiar to older rally followers: Llanafan.
Max McRae and Cameron Fair won round 4 of the BRC and were 2nd in round 5 to snatch the championsip lead. (Image MJC)
The weather was changeable, rain came during the stage, and it had an immediate impact on the leaderboard. Suninen was caught out and lost time with a spin, dropping to 3rd behind Meeke and Marczyk. Worse was to come for Sam Touzel though, who put the Skoda off and out. The Protyre UK Asphalt Champion had been showing well against the strong international field, and had been 11th overall. His off also briefly delayed Max McRae, as the overnight BRC leader had to slow down at the scene. Meeke was fastest by a huge 6 seconds whilst Meirion Evans overtook both Pryce and Tempestini and closed right up on McRae with a quick time here.
SS6 was Soar y Mynydd, an 13.39 miler which used the asphalt road through the heart of Tywi Forest, location of an old RAC/Rally GB classic. Sadly, radio communication issues meant the stage could not run with guaranteed safety, so it had to be scrubbed.
Next up was the magnificent Cwm Elan, an epic 13.19 mile stretch of fast, bumpy, demanding road, twisting and turning, climbing and falling through the stunning Elan Valley and for many, the highlight of the entire rally. The RAF were not running test missions there today, but Suninen got the afterburners on to complete the stage in 9m51.6 seconds, at the insane average speed of almost 81mph. That was almost 6 seconds quicker than the next crew, which was Meeke and O’Sullivan. Fourth fastest overall through Cwm Elan, albeit 12 seconds off Suninen’s WRC class time, allowed McRae to open up a small breathing space between himself and Evans. Suninen’s time had, unsurprisingly got him back up to 2nd place, and the leading two were now a sizeable margin ahead of the two Polish crews in 3rd and 4th.
Osian Pryce and James Morgan endured a tough weekend at Ceredigion, beaten by McRae in Round 4 and suffering Gearbox failure on Round 5. Image MJC.)
The second pass of Aberffwrd was drier. Meeke knew he had to respond to Suninen after the last stage and he did, extending his lead to more than 10 seconds. There were changes lower down. McRae got past Mabellini into 5th but for the first time, Pryce felt able to push properly and was 4th fastest overall, fastest BRC runner, and overtook Evans to move into 7th overall and 2nd BRC crew.
The radio communication issues at Soar y Mynydd had been sorted out, and the second pass ran without issues. Meeke again took time out of Suninen, as the Finn seemingly started to back off to protect his hold on the ERC title. The most impressive move behind them was coming from Osian Pryce, who was 3rd fastest overall behind the two former WRC drivers, even though he claimed to have “left a lot in there”. All of a sudden he had stormed up the order to 6th and was a very real threat to McRae’s strangle hold on maximum BRC points for the first leg of the double header.
Meirion Evans had settled for 3rd place points in the BRC but that didn’t stop him enjoying the stage held on a piece of road he had first seen as a 6 year old.
Aiofe Raftery and Paul McPhillips had a great weekend and took enough points to share 4th in the overall BRC Standings with a round to go. (Image MJC.)
You would not have thought it possible but Meeke and Suninen both easily beat the Finn’s morning time over Cwm Elan on the afternoon run. Knowing where the limits were and where extra risks could be taken obviously helped. McRae had played his BRC Joker for Round 4, and needed to do something special to fend off the charging Welshman behind him, and he also took 12 seconds off his own morning time and beat the world class time set by Suninen earlier. He extended his advantage over Pryce to just under 5 seconds. With just the 2 short runs at the Aberystwyth town stage to go, it ought to have been enough to defend his round 4 BRC maximum score.
With a string of three fastest times in a row, Meeke looked to have put the rally beyond Suninen, and was leading by almost 20 seconds as the rally returned to Aberystwyth. Championship management was Suninen’s priority now. The other ERC crews were a long way back, although Marczyk, Matulka and Mabellini were still well inside the top 10 and ready to take advantage of any misfortune.
The two Town stages were not long enough to have any impact. Marczyk recorded fastest time on the first, Meeke on the 2nd, and McRae as expected, held off Pryce and claimed a BRC win from Pryce and Evans. Graffin and Raftery (on her Joker) rounded out the top 5 in their Rally3 Fiestas. Irish crew Oran England and Darragh Mullen had snook past Constantine to claim a BRC Junior win.
Overnight Leaderboard (Saturday Night):
1 Meeke/O’Sullivan Jr (Toyota) 56m10.0s
2 Suninen/Haapola (Skoda) +20.5s
3 Marcyk/Gospardarczyk (Skoda) +41.5s
4 Matulka/Syty (Skoda) +1m09.2s
5 McRae/Fair (Skoda) +1m17.2s (Winner of BRC Round 4 +Joker)
6 Pryce/Morgan (Toyota) +1m21.6s (Second BRC Round 4)
7 Mabellini/Lenzi (Lancia) +1m29.0s
8 Evans/Furniss +1m39.5s (Third BRC Round 4)
9 Cais/Bacigal +1m52.3s
10 Tempestini/Maior +2m39.1s
15 Graffin/Evans (Ford Rally3) +5m23.9s (Fourth BRC Round 4)
24 England/Mullen (Peugeot Rally4) (BRC Junior Winner Round 4)
BRC Standings after Round 4:
1 McRae 85 points (Joker Played)
2 Pryce 83
3 Evans 66
4 Pearson 39 (Joker Played)
5 Touzel 22 (Joker Played)
6 MacBeth 16
= Raftery 16 (Joker Played)
Sunday consisted of just 4 stages, the 13.14 mile Gorsgoch stage and the 7.12 miles Ty Glyn. Both were in the South West, between Lampeter and the coast. The final run at Ty Glyn would be the power stage.
A blistering drive on Sunday helped Meirion Evans and Dale Furniss take advantage of Pryce’s disaster and win Round 5 of the BRC. (Image: MJC).
Meirion Evans felt he was too cautious on Saturday. On Sunday it was wet and with BRC slate being wiped clean overnight, it was crucial to be out of the blocks quickly with just 40 stage miles left. Evans and Dale Furniss certainly were not cautious and stunned their BRC rivals with an all out assault in the wet to take a share of overall fastest time on the first run at Gorsgoch, taking 3 seconds off Pryce and a massive 10 off McRae. The stage had to be stopped though as Jakob Matulka had a heavy accident and retired the Skoda from an excellent 4th overall on the spot.
With the leaders holding position, Sunday became all about the BRC… Evans was 2nd quickest overall on Ty Glyn 1, taking another 7 seconds off McRae… but there was to be a huge twist. Disaster struck Osian Pryce and the MEM Yaris was out with gearbox failure…a huge blow for his championship chances. In some ways he was fortunate that his Saturday points were already in the bag so things could have been a lot worse, but that didn’t make him feel any better, and he would inevitably lose ground on McRae and Evans. Especially the latter, who had played his joker for the Sunday round, and it was going his way nicely.
Kalum Graffin and Rhodri Evans returned to the BRC in style and took 27 points across the two BRC rounds (Image: MJC)
Evans already had McRae well beaten in round 5 of the BRC, and just had to get home now to record a championship maximum score plus Joker points. Ditto Meeke for the rally win and Suninen for ERC title. After another part spin on Ty Glyn, the Finn had now backed off completely.
The retirements of Pryce and Matulka allowed the Rally3 Fiestas of Finlands’ Ville Vatanen/Joonas Ojala and Irelands’ Casey Jay Coleman/Killian McArdle into the overall top 10. It was a good event for the Rally3 cars, with Graffin and Raftory moving up to 12th and 13th overall respectively, and 3rd and 4th in Round 5 of the BRC with Pryce’s demise. Luke Constantine led the BRC Juniors on Sunday.
There were no heriocs on the 2nd run at Gorsgoch but Suninen did put a bit of icing on his ERC cake with a Power Stage win on the final stage back at Ty Glyn. A fine achievement for the 32 year old Finn. Despite 3 WRC podiums it never quite happened for him at WRC level but his electrifying pace was always obvious, and it really shone through in this years’ ERC. Meeke’s win proved he still has it in his 40s, with some incredible on the limit attacking driving. For the BRC contenders, McRae and Evans both took wins on their Joker rounds, whilst Pryce’s misfortune leaves him lagging behind, but he still has his Joker to play, and a 100% record of wins on the forest rounds for comfort…
See you there!
Final Results:
1 Kris Meeke/Noel O’Sullivan Jr (Toyota) 1h29m45.3s
2 Teemu Suninen/Antti Haapola (Skoda) +38.6s (2026 ERC Champion)
3 Mikolaj Marczyk/Szymon Gospodarczyk (Skoda) +1m03.4s
4 Max McRae/Cameron Fair (Skoda) +1m43.8s (Second BRC Round 5)
5 Meirion Evans/Dale Furniss (Toyota) +1m51.2s (Winner of BRC Round 5 + Joker)
6 Andrea Mabellini/Virginia Lenzi (Lancia) +2m20.1s
7 Erik Cais/Igor Bacigal (Hyundai) +2m44.8s
8 Simone Tempestini/Francesca Maior (Skoda) +3m36.2s
9 Ville Vatanen/Joonas Ojala (Ford Rally3). +7m19.7s
10 Casey Jay Coleman/Killian McArdle (Ford Rally3) +7m21.3s
11 Timo Schulz/Maresca Lade (Opel Rally4) +8m44.1s
12 Kalum Graffin/Rhodri Evans (Ford Rally3) +8m49.1s (Third BRC Round 5)
13 Aoife Raftery/Paul McPhillips (Ford Rally3) +8m58.0s (Fourth BRC Round 5)
21 Luke Constantine/Ifan Devine (Peugeot Rally4) +11m35.6s (BRC Junior Winner, Fifth BRC Round 5)
BRC Standings after Round 5:
1 McRae 103 points (Joker played)
2 Evans 96 (Joker played)
3 Pryce 83
4 Pearson 39 (Joker
= Raftery 39 (Joker played)
6 Graffin 27
7 Constantine 25 (Joker played)
ERC Standings after Round 6:
1 Suninen 137 Points (Champion)
2 Mabellini 98
3 Marczyk 92
4 Matulka 53
5 Tempestini 52
6 Basso 45
7 Meeke 34
