The weather got progressively kinder as the day went on, the skies clearing and the sunshine returning the feel of summer.  This was the view from the battlements of Gwrych Castle looking down towards the start of the test, which some found more of a challenge than others.

With the order on the road being capriciously decided by a formula based on the number of characters in the name of each car’s make and model, the route took competitors along the shore towards Penrhyn Bay and onward towards Rhos before crossing the A55. It skirted the margins of the Myndd Marian nature reserve at Lysfaen before a road section amid farmland across which marched the national grid pylons, all of them in turn dwarfed by the Cefn Du transmitter mast in the distance, the tallest in Wales at more than 1000 feet.

The regularity began just beyond the village of Bryn-y-Maen with its distinctive late nineteenth century church featuring a squat, square tower. Known locally as the ‘Cathedral of the Hills’ the church itself could only be described as ‘modern’ in what is a truly archaic landscape dotted with earthworks, tumuli and the evidence of ancient fortifications built by its earliest settlers.

Using mostly minor roads, the regularity route tracked south, east, north and west, squeezing a good deal of navigation into what was a small geographic area.  There was no way of forecasting the disruption and delay caused by the demands of a working farm at a point beyond the last passage control. The equitable course was to declare the end of the regularity at a point before the obstruction to discount the effect. No matter how well laid...all plans occasionally need to change.

Only a short road section remained before arriving to turn through the imposing gatehouse of Gwrych Castle for the sample test.  After ascending the hill and negotiating a slalom, which surprisingly succeeded in catching one or two competitors out, cars made a stop astride a line to obtain a signature before a second stop astride and a final tight turn uphill, avoiding a cone, to the end of the test - all things the rally will demand of competitors when it begins in earnest.

Currently being used for the production of a feature film, the castle was closed to the public and much of it shrouded in scaffolding but as in previous years, rally competitors drove on through, descending through the trees before heading towards the coast where they rejoined the A55 for the last leg of the journey.

A busy two hours or so had packed a good deal of experience into the ‘sampler’ the prologue represented.  The weather had been benevolent and on their return to a by then sunny Llandudno, crews had time to compare notes and prepare for battle the following day…only the welcome dinner left on the agenda of the one just ending.