Max McRae and Cammy Fair kept their 2026 BRC title chances firmly alive by storming to victory in round four of the series at JDS Machinery Rali Ceredigion, heading into Sunday’s fifth round contest in the lead of the Championship.
McRae threaded his Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 through the darkness of the Welsh lanes on Friday night to open up a tender two-second lead over championship protagonist Osian Pryce.
Having to deal with a ‘bouncing’ lamp pod, McRae managed to hold onto the lead into the overnight halt. Behind him, Pryce replaced Castrol MEM teammate Meirion Evans in second as the two-time Ceredigion winner recovered from a poor road position thanks to a small overshoot during Qualifying.
Heading into day two, the benefit of daylight would see the speeds in the Welsh countryside rise even further and with a full tank of points available to contenders at the end of Saturday, the focus was very much on bagging vital championship points.
On paper, the championship could be sealed in Ceredigion, but it would require Pryce to win both the Friday/Saturday points offering and Sunday’s round six score and after a slow start in the darkness, Pryce brought his A-game to fully challenge McRae’s lead during Saturday.
Evans would take the opening Saturday stage win to show his intent, before McRae responded over the first pass of Cwm Elan, leaving the Castrol MEM teammates to fight it out, split by just 0.1s after the seventh test.
After the mid-day service halt, Pryce found the form he’d been missing, punching in back-to-back scratch times to close in on McRae’s lead to just 4.3 seconds. With just the two street stages in Aberystwyth left, the Scot couldn’t be caught and secured his second BRC victory of the season, adding to his Jim Clark win and, more importantly, now leading the championship by two points over Pryce.
“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. It’s been a big challenge, but we have really enjoyed it; can’t quite believe it’s gone so quickly, and we are getting ready for Sunday already. If we can do the same tomorrow, that would be great!”
Pryce took all-important points in second, whilst Evans had a consistent day in third. Sadly Sam Touzel’s international debut ended on the opening stage on Saturday with an off into a fence; the damage was too great to continue.
Championship returnee Kalum Graffin set a blistering BRC3 pace in the darkness, with a healthy 38s lead over Aoife Raftery, with Junzhe Tang third after the opening day. Graffin went on to set the fastest time on all but one stage during Saturday, courtesy of a puncture straight after service. Luckily, the young Irishman had a sizeable lead over Raftery and went on to ensure he won round four by over one and a half minutes. The top points score marks Graffin’s second BRC category win, adding to his Junior BRC victory on the East Riding Stages in 2024. Sadly, Junzhe Tang’s day would end in Cwm Elan.
An intense day in the Junior BRC contest saw Oran England stamp his mark on his series debut in fine style, taking his maiden win after a sensational afternoon loop. Heading into the daylight stages, England trailed Constantine by over 15s but set about making inroads on the Opel driver.
Stage by stage, England picked up the pace, and on the last proper test before the Aberystwyth Super Special, he finally overhauled Constantine to scoop an impressive victory. Ben McFall rounded out the podium places in his Fiesta, meaning the title fight evens out a little heading into Sunday’s fifth round.
The National Rally Title took a dramatic turn on the final stage, as both Chris Richmond-Hand and Owen Paterson retired on the Street Stage. A scintillating day-long battle between all three contenders saw Paterson lose his lead on stage nine to a hard-charging Alfie Hammond, who finally claimed his first maximum score.
Sunday offers four stages and over 63 kilometres of action, and another opportunity to gather points as the clocks are reset to determine BRC round 5 scores.
