Elfyn Evans has had to show more than just driving skills in the past few months. Patience, resolve and single-mindedness have all been necessary, but now he sits close to an historic achievement as Paul Evans reports. Now that Elfyn Evans has resumed his challenge for what could be the first FIA World Rally Championship title for a Welsh driver, fans will be able to follow every gravel twist and Tarmac turn from the sofa, as the hugely popular motorsports programme Ralïo roars back to S4C. Before Covid-19 restrictions interrupted proceedings, Evans had made his best ever start to a WRC campaign when, on his debut for the Toyota Gazoo team, he scored his maiden podium finish on the Monte Carlo Rally.

Elfyn Evans is refusing to be drawn on title talk as the World Rally Championship battle hots up in Turkey this weekend (18-20 September) Wales’ rally ace is just nine points behind Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Sebastien Ogier with three rounds of the truncated season left.

Scoring points is all that matters in a considerably Covid-19 shortened World Rally Championship season – and when he discovered that his car wasn’t ideally set up for the conditions, that’s exactly what Elfyn Evans set out to achieve at Rally Estonia. This Toyota Gazoo Racing team had expected the gravel roads to be much faster than they had turned out to be, so with the Yaris WRC’s set up not ideal for the twistier and deeply rutted roads, it wasn’t easy for Evans to maintain a good fast rhythm.

His two previous outings in Estonia have been brutal and bruising affairs – but that won’t stop Elfyn Evans going for a win on this weekend’s ‘very, very fast’ Rally Estonia, as his challenge for the world rally title finally restarts after a six month coronavirus enforced break. Last year, Evans injured his back after his car’s sumpguard took the full impact of an awkward landing during a promotional event in Estonia – the physical results of the shock waves forcing him out of the next two rounds of the WRC. And a few weeks ago, he walked away from one of the biggest high-speed accidents of his career, after crashing out of a test event in the south of the country.

Elfyn Evans will be heading to Italy earlier than planned after the Rally Italia Sardegna was moved forward by three weeks to 8 – 11 October. The request to reschedule came from event organiser Automobile Club d’Italia and was agreed by the FIA, motorsport’s governing body, and WRC Promoter following the forced cancellation of Rally Deutschland.

Elfyn Evans has walked away from an enormous accident on the South Estonia Rally, which destroyed his Toyota Yaris WRC rally car. On what was a dress rehearsal for next month’s Rally Estonia – which signals the re-start of the FIA World Rally Championship – Evans was lying fourth on the fast gravel event when he cut a corner too severely and clipped a tree stump on a very high-speed sixth gear corner. The car was thrown wide into a field, before rolling several times and coming to a halt amongst a cluster of trees.

Elfyn Evans is relishing the restart of the FIA World Rally Championship – even more so as the Welshman currently holds a strong second place in the title race having made his best-ever start to a season. After the opening three rounds before the global COVID-19 lockdown, Evans is only topped in the points standings by Sébastien Ogier, his six-time World Champion team-mate at Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT.

The immense and far-reaching benefits delivered by Wales Rally GB have been highlighted in a new infographic depicting many of the widespread rewards generated by last year’s staging of the UK’s annual round of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC). Now that 2019’s final figures have been verified, it is possible to judge the full extent of the losses experienced in Wales following the enforced cancellation of this year’s planned event due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wales Rally GB bit the dust this week as the latest sporting event to be shelved due the coronavirus pandemic. Infection rates may be falling, but until sport more generally is able to adapt to the realities imposed by social distancing, then the disappointment for fans will continue, as Paul Evans considers. There is nothing like a global pandemic to make you appreciate what you have – or had. Visiting loved ones, caring what day it is, driving for more than five miles just for the hell of it – simple pleasures that we took for granted.

Wales Rally GB has been cancelled for the first time in over 40 years. The event – due to take place at the end of October and the high point of the sport in Wales – has been shelved due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic The Deeside-based rally has become the third round of the World Rally Championship in less than a week to be cancelled and casts major doubts over the viability of this season’s championship. Last Wednesday Rally Finland suffered the same fate followed 24 hours later by Rally New Zealand.

The world of rallying may have ground to a halt, but Wales’ top driver Elfyn Evans is not allowing his own wheels to stop spinning. This season’s Rally Sweden winner is running and cycling to improve his overall fitness as he told Paul Evans. Elfyn Evans has found the stunning countryside around his hometown of Dolgellau is providing the perfect training ground as he awaits the restart of FIA World Rally Championship. The coronavirus pandemic slammed the brakes on Evans’ best ever start to a season, just as he had established himself as a serious title contender.

Less than four year ago, Craig Parry was co-driver for Elfyn Evans as they lifted the British Rally Championship. Two years later, that world came to a shuddering halt – but a whole new one has opened up as Paul Evans discovered. It had started as just another ordinary day for Craig Parry. He was in Germany, at the vast Baumholder military training range near the Luxembourg/France border to be precise, testing in preparation for the following week’s Rallye Deutschland.