THERE was double delight for Llandysul-based Spencer Sport as Osian Pryce took the BRC lead with a podium finish in Ypres and team-mate James Williams finished third in BRC Juniors.
It was a magnificent double celebration for the team on the Ypres Rally with both its drivers scoring podium results on their first appearance on the Belgian event.
Osian Pryce and co-driver Dale Furniss have taken the lead in the Prestone MSA British Rally Championship standings after finishing a magnificent third, while team-mates James Williams and Dai Roberts also finished on the podium in the BRC Junior category.
On his ever first Tarmac rally in an R5 specification car, Osian and co-driver Dale Furniss maintained an incredibly fast and consistent pace in their Hills Ford/Alphera FS Fiesta R5 over the super-fast West Flanders roads, to maintain their record of finishing every round of the 2017 BRC so far (that’s four out of four) on the podium.
The two-day, 20-stage event began in dramatic fashion with BRC rivals Fredrik Åhlin, David Bogie, Marty McCormack and Alex Laffey all crashing on day one. 
Even Belgium’s top rally star Thierry Neuville rolled into a field. Having driven well and worked on fine-tuning the car’s set-up, Osian finished the first day a solid fifth in the BRC.
Leg 2 was almost twice as long as the previous opening day of action and, within Saturday’s first five stages, the 24-year old Machynlleth driver had moved up to third. 
Although it was a very long and challenging day, as the final stages were played out in twilight, Osian continued his inch-perfect performance right to the end. Two seconds and now two third place results give Osian 66 points in the BRC drivers’ standings - overhauling Åhlin who is now second on 63 points.
“I’m over the moon to come away from the Ypres Rally with third place and my fourth consecutive podium finish in the British Rally Championship,” said Osian. 
“The event didn’t start well for us and to be honest we struggled a little, but the amount we’ve learnt is absolutely massive.”
Like his team-mate, James Williams was also making his Ypres Rally debut – and at just 19 was determined to gain the maximum amount of experience from contesting one of mainland Europe’s most famous rallies for the first time. 
The Newcastle Emlyn teenager finished the opening day in third position, but dropped to sixth when an engine mount broke on his HT Installations/West Wales Rally Spares Fiesta R2T, but fought back to take a well-deserved third placed podium finish by the end of the 160 stage mile event.
"What a fantastic rally," said James. “I’m delighted to have come away with third BRC Junior and first Ford home in class in Ypres at only 19 years old.”
The fifth round of the 2017 Prestone MSA British Rally Championship, the Nicky Grist Stages (July 8-9), is fast approaching. The Builth Wells-based event is the only mixed-surface round of the BRC, with eight stages on gravel in the forest on the Carmarthenshire/Powys border on day one and a further 12 stages over the famous asphalt roads up on the Epynt military ranges on day two.