Teenage rally driver Aaron Jones has started the 2016 season where he left the last one off – finishing second in his class at the Rali Cwm Gwendraeth.
Eighteen-year-old Aaron, from Penpedairheol, overcame testing weather conditions and mechanical faults on Sunday February 7 to bag a surprise second placed finish, driving his new 1600cc Honda Civic Type R.
After struggling through stormy weather to reach the event in the Gwendraeth Valley, Aaron and 17-year-old co-driver Owen Evans had an excellent first stage, passing four other cars.
Disaster struck shortly after, when on the second stage the Civic suffered a loss in engine power, forcing them into last place after exceeding the maximum course time.
Never ones to give up lightly, Aaron and Owen managed to guide the repaired car around the remaining three stages, somewhat conservatively, only to find that due to a large amount of retirements and crashes by their competitors, they had actually finished second in Class 2. They now lead their class in the J D Tyres Welsh Tarmac Rally Championship .
Aaron said: “My father always told me, ‘To finish first, first you must finish’ which was very fitting after the troubles we had.”
The pair have recently welcomed new sponsors Power Maxed car care and cleaning products, and next head to the Epynt Military Ranges in Brecon on March 16.