Osian brings the Volkswagen brand name back to the British Rally Championship on his Southern Ireland rally debut

Osian Pryce will bring the Volkswagen brand name back to the British Rally Championship (BRC) when he drives a Polo GTI R5 on the West Cork Rally (14/15 March).

It will be the first time that the talented 27-year old Machynlleth-born pilot has driven a Volkswagen in competition and the first time that he has ever rallied in Southern Ireland. Whilst his co-driver Noel O’Sullivan comes from Killarney, this will also be his first appearance at the famous West Cork Rally.

Pryce is no stranger to closed road asphalt rallies and won Rae Bae Ceredigion, Wales’ first closed road stage rally, last September in his first rally in a Hyundai i20 R5. He is currently second in the BRC drivers’ standings, after a magnificent result on his first gravel rally in the same car on the opening round of the series, last month’s Visit Conwy Cambrian Rally. Both times Pryce was driving a car prepared and run by Melvyn Evans Motorsport, and it will be the same again this weekend in Ireland, as the Polo GTI R5 is maintained by the same top west Wales team.

Support for the West Cork Rally appearance comes from Omologato Watches, Rentokill Initial, Ryan Motorsport Insurance, Pirelli, Kevin Williams Plant Hire and G&M Pryce Ltd.

In addition, Omologato Watches is offering a special discount on purchases made on-line. All customers have to do is put in the promotional code OSIAN10 at checkout at omologatowatches.com.

Pryce said: “It’s taken me a long time to make my rally debut in Southern Ireland, but it’s something that I’ve always wanted to do and needless to say I’m really looking forward to this one! I’m also excited to be driving a new car, and bringing the Volkswagen brand name back to the British Rally Championship. All I’ve done so far is driven the Polo GTI R5 out of Melvyn Evans’ garage to take some pictures of it and then reversed it back in – so I’ve driven it backwards as much as I’ve driven it forwards! But we’ll have a short shakedown test on Friday over in Ireland and then it will be straight into the rally. That’s not much time to prepare, but it’s obviously a pretty well sorted car and a very long rally, so I’ll just have to be a bit sensible at the start and bed myself in.

“As always, I’ll stick to my pre-event game plan and do my own rally. The guys in the Irish Tarmac Championship obviously know the West Cork stages well, but they also have slightly different rules regarding things like the number of tyres that they can use, so I won’t be worrying too much about them. We’ll be focused on trying so score as many British Rally Championship points as we can, so it will be the BRC boys that we’ll be competing against. Matt Edwards and Tom Cave set some very good stage times in West Cork last year, so I don’t see why we won’t be competitive ourselves, even in a new car and on an event that we have no prior experience of. If we have a good recce and make no mistakes, I see no reason why we couldn’t come away with a good result. And if, once we’ve found our feet, we can set some competitive stage times along the way, I’ll be really happy with that.

“And as ever, I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who is supporting me in the BRC this year, particularly Omologato Watches, Rentokill Initial, Ryan Motorsport Insurance, Pirelli, Kevin Williams Plant Hire and G&M Pryce Ltd.”

The traditional St Patrick’s weekend West Cork Rally has this year attracted a massive 180 car entry, and therefore promises to be a thrilling and closely fought event. The ceremonial start takes place in the centre of Clonakilty on the night of Friday 13 March, with 14 stages, totalling 140 miles, spread out over Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 March.