GWYNDAF EVANS: A CHAMPION DAD
Gwyndaf Evans has just celebrated the 40th anniversary year of his first rally, launching a career which has not only brought him a British rally championship title (in 1996), but also the admiration of the fans and the industry insiders alike.
Calm and level-headed under pressure, a demon development driver and a personality that belies the competitive fire raging within, Evans has been a bastion of the British sport.
He’s also got a son, whom you might have heard of. Said youngster is pretty handy in a rally car, too. But with plenty to look forward to from Elfyn Evans in 2022, MN was delighted to turn the spotlight back on his father’s illustrious career with some questions from our readership.
Question: At what stage did rallying first appeal to you and did your parents approve of you rallying in the same way that you’ve supported Elfyn? Michelle Perry Via Twitter Gwyndaf Evans: “I got the interest from my uncle, who was competing doing loads of road rallies and, basically, [at] around 12 or 13 years old I used to go and spectate. Being brought up in a small village garage, cars were inevitably not going to be that far away. So, I knew full well what I wanted to do. I’d been doing a bit of banger racing, which is just going round a field. Luckily there were a few events around where I live so I converted an old Mini Traveller van, welded a cage in and what have you, when I was 13 or 14, and did banger racing around the fields.
“In rallying I did some co-driving when I was 16 and sort of got the bug without telling my parents. My parents, I think, had enough experience with my uncle, who had not a great track record with bending cars and costing a bit of money. They knew where I was going to end up was going to cost the family money as well and I didn’t think that I would get any brownie points if I told them I was going to go rallying. I did the co-driving on a secret basis from my family, but my sister eventually split from me and showed them my trophies from doing very, very small events and the cat was out of the jar, then!”
Question: You had a lot of success in the Motoring News Championship early on in your career and you featured a lot in our coverage back in the early eighties. The modern MN Circuit Rally Championship is back underway but what was the series like at that time?
Matt James Motorsport News GE: “David Williams started with Motoring News the same year as I started rallying, and basically, like so many other people, I had all the time in the world for David. He was probably the most knowledgeable and nicest journalist I ever shared my experiences with. I thought he was brilliant, and I guess that’s why I ended up with my fair share [of stories] in Motoring News – Motorsport News today, of course. It was amateur but… I started doing the 1300 championship in 1981 and even that was competitive, and the main championship was very, very competitive indeed.
“There were Ford RS2000s and Triumph TR7s and Sunbeam Lotuses
