2025 Roger Albert Clark Rally Report: The Ultimate Pryce! Welsh Wizard leads Barrett Home…
Osian Pryce finally took a win on the Roger Albert Clark
Words by James Downie, Photography by George Sims, Amber Laybourne and James Downie, Video by Nikolay Nedelchev for Rally Media UK.
The 2025 Roger Albert Clark Rally was a thrilling and unforgiving test of endurance, skill, and resilience, reaffirming its place as one of the toughest events in British motorsport.
Starting on Thursday 20th November, in Carmarthen, the latest edition had 35 stages and over 300 competitive miles in store for the 177 starters, across Wales, England, and Scotland over the next five-days before finishing in Carlisle.
The rally lived up to its fearsome reputation, with competitors facing a virtually relentless mix of snow, ice, fog, and heavy rain. Each leg brought its own unique challenges — from the icy Welsh stages to the tricky, wet, muddy and even snowy Forest stages in Kielder and Scotland, a large proportion of which ran in darkness. The finale would be a 40 mile stage south of Kielder water.
Osian Pryce’s winning margin of 2 minutes 39 seconds suggests it was easy, but it was far from it and some big moments in zero grip conditions cost him a lot of time. Even though he dominated the welsh stages, the 2022 BRC champion would briefly drop behind the similar Escort of Northern Ireland’s Paul Barrett during the third leg. Although he was unable to hold the lead for long, Barrett survived to claim 2nd behind Pryce.
Paul Barrett passes the TR7V8 of Mark Higgins on his way to 2nd overall
There was disappointment for the vast number of spectators when Seb Perez crashed early on day 2 in Wales, meaning that the legendary Lancia Stratos went no further. Northern fans were denied the chance experience this glorious sight and sound.
The early retirement of the Stratos was a big disappointment for the thousands of spectators.
The anticipated tight battle between Pryce and welsh rivals Matt Edwards and Jason Pritchard never materialised either. Mechanical and tyre issues meant they dropped well down the order early on and were never able challenge for honours. Thrice BRC champion Edwards eventually clawing his way up to 4th overall and Pritchard 8th.
Matt Edwards fought back up to 4th at the finish after numerous early delays.
After the retirement of the Stratos the crowd favourites were the bellowing 320bhp Triumph TR7V8 driven by Mark Higgins, the tank like Volvo of Swede Arne Radstrom and the BMW M3 of 4 time Roger Albert winner Marty McCormack.
A frustrating rally for Jason Pritchard who could get no higher than 8th.
1997 BRC champion Higgins got the unwieldy Dave Appleby Engineering TR home 7th, in spite of a 4 minute off on the final morning. A brilliant result in a car which is far more suited to racing tyres and dry tarmac then soaking British Forests.
Mark Higgins survived an off and conditions which were unsuited to the powerful TR7V8 to finish 7th.
Radstrom also gained a lot of fans on his first visit to the UK for his handling of the enormous Swedish machine and would ultimately finish 9th overall.
Arne Radstrom’s Volvo was popular with the spectators and finished 9th.
McCormack almost ran throughout the entire rally in the top 3. This was a superb drive in another car which probably has too much power and not enough grip for the conditions in British forests but his luck ran out on the final morning and gearbox failure sidelined the M3.
Marty McCormack was quick and spectacular in the BMW M3 but a broken gearbox robbed him of 3rd overall on the final morning.
Also out of luck almost within sight of the finish was Ben Friend, putting the Escort off the road on the penultimate stage. Undamaged but stuck.
Ben Friend’s troubled rally ended two stages from home.
Greg McKnight takes a lot of credit for his impressive performance on this years RAC. The 33 year old Scot had not rallied at all in 2025 prior to the RAC but produced a smart and safe drive to climb up to 3rd overall by the finish, dominating the Open Category.
Greg McKnight won the open category and took a fine 3rd overall.
Fast times on home territory saw Welshman Dyfrig James establish himself high on the leaderboard from the start and he would convert this into a fine 5th place finish in his Escort.
Dyfrig James survived the tough conditions to come home 5th overall.
Highest placed Yorkshireman was Dan Mennell in 6th. A cautious start and other niggling issues meant he was never in a position to challenge for a higher place so he will be satisfied with his best finish on the Roger Albert, beating his 8th in 2023.
Dan Mennell had a steady run to claim his second top 10 finish in a row on the RAC.
The 2025 Rally was not without its problems. In some ways it felt as if it has become too big for its own good. The British rally public has been starved of rallying of the highest class since we lost our WRC round, and the numbers attempting to see this years Roger Albert suggest that many see this rally as the closest thing we’re going to get to that. Huge spectator volumes plus the heavy traffic this brings to the narrow country lanes that provide access to the stages, plus 180 or so competitors and their associated service crews and vehicles using the same lanes is a recipe for chaos. Add the hostile November weather into the mix, and long delays and stage cancellations were almost inevitable. Certainly it appeared as though the rally ground to a complete halt on day three when access roads were blocked and the second loop of stages had to be scrubbed. This is not a good look with high entry fees for competitors and £30 per day being charged for spectator parking. Their commitment to a romantic nostalgic ideal in trying to run so many stages for so many competitors remains admirable but this is a hump that the Roger Albert Clark team will doubtless be looking at ironing out for 2027 to maintain the current reputation of their rally.
Final Results:
Osian Pryce Ford Escort RS 4h41m23s
Paul Barrett Ford Escort RS +2m39s
Greg McKnight Ford Escort RS +3.10 Open Winner
Matt Edwards Ford Escort RS +3.57
Dyfrig James Ford Escort RS +7.40
Dan Mennell Ford Escort RS +8.29
Mark Higgins Triumph TR7V8 +9.17
Jason Pritchard Ford Escort RS +10.58
Arne Radstrom Volvo 262C +15.39
James Ford Ford Escort RS +16.55
Check out our video of the event by Nikolay Nedelchev.
