2026 competitors assembled outside the Kinmel Arms where tea and cakes brought the day to a suitably relaxed end before the return to Llandudno.
A lengthy road section led on to the ten mile long regularity 1.5. It began in the Clocaenog forest, continuing over the hills delivering fine views of open countryside, partly populated by wind turbines. Regularity 1.6 followed very swiftly, the second longest of the day. Beginning just south east of the A544, the serpentine route zig zagged through farmland, using a combination of B roads and narrow lanes, gently edging north and west in the course of its fourteen miles towards tests number four and five at Plas yn Cefn. The rally wound itself around this Jacobean country house - home to the Lords of Cern and, much like day one of the rally, subject to continuous change. The result is a blend of seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth century styles and ideas, later concessions to modernity keeping the house viable without disturbing its history.
From here, the rally headed north again towards St Asaph, following the course of an old Roman Road, with the afternoon tea halt at the Kinmel Arms beckoning. Very familiar to Three Castles veterans from previous visits, the rally day ended here, the pressure eased and nothing needing to change before the return to Llandudno and whatever choice of dining experience the evening held for everyone.
If change really is as good as a rest, it would have been a restful day but the truth was not quite that simple. There was just four seconds between the Graham Walker / Sean Toohey Lotus Elan and the Ford Escort crewed by Mark Godfrey / Ryan Pickering. There were other familiar names at the top of the results sheet too. Third place was occupied by John King and Henry Woodcock in another Escort with two Porsches filling fourth and fifth places, Rikki Proffitt and Henry Carr leading the blue 911 of James and Gill Holt.
Tomorrow is the longest of the rally with eight regularities and four tests, making for plenty of scope for change in the future.