Interview by Kira Evans.

Ryland James - Carmarthen Club secretary.

I met up at for an interview in Pembrey, Llanelli with Ryland James who is the entry secretary at this event, the West Wales Rally Spares JAFFA Stages 2014.

Q: I see that you are wearing attire from the Carmarthen Motor Club, could you tell me something about that?

A: The Carmarthen Motor Club, yes, it goes back a very long way, well we celebrated our centenary two or three years ago, it being formed in 1911. I guess the formula to running a rally event would have been very different back in those days to what it is now. It would have been very difficult to put on one of these types of events, such as this one today at Pembrey - those early days!

Like most clubs we have a small nucleus of people and we enjoy putting these events on. We run three rally events every year, with two of them based here at Pembre. The WWRS “JAFFA” Stages are always held in December, the other two being The Autumn Road Rally in September and The Peter Lloyd Rallying Stages in October.

The “JAFFA” Stages, rally is just before the New Year and is the most popular one, as people just love to come here, both spectators and crews because they want to get out and have something to do. As organisers, we are really just a lot of rally fans who enjoy coming out to organise the rally.

Apart from being the Carmarthen Club Secretary, I am one of the few organisers who also competes as well.

For most of the boys it gives them quite a bit of enjoyment, coming out on a car rally event. And we run two events a year, this one is always very popular just after Christmas in Pembrey, and the people just love it because they can get out and have some fresh air, and it's great fun.

Q: How many members do you have in the club?

A: Club membership is probably about one hundred members ,most of those are spread all around this area but with a nucleus on club nights we might only have say about 15 But we always seem to have enough to put the event on.

Q: What can you tell me about your role here today?

My role here today is basically as Entry Secretary and I take the entries from the competitors. I also try to look at it as a bit of a competitor liaison role, particularly where the younger competitors are concerned. That's one of the reasons why I do the job because when they first start they don't really know where to go.

But I think if you ask in most clubs there are people like myself, who have a fair few number of years experience, or as some may say in my case, far too many years! But I try to encourage the 'new blood' to become involved, and I try to help them out, particularly with the younger competitors. Although with all due respect, I don't get involved with them on the rally stages as they get themselves around!

What gives me great pleasure as an Entry Secretary is seeing all the guys.We have a little section on the entry form which shows the seeded entry from previous rallies, so we get to know how they have previously performed and so then we can get to seed them in the running order.

And it gives me quite a buzz to see them going round on their first stage rally, because it's unlike anything in life at all, if you don't get the new blood in, you're gonna die! And here at Pembrey, we've always been very, very lucky because we always get a lot of first timers on these events. After the rally we have the lists of seeded entries, and afterwards they can see themselves hopefully moving up on the seeded entry list for the next time.

Q: So How many classes have you got running today?

A: On this event today, we are actually running seven classes, very largely in stage rallying they're largely based on the performance of the car. That is the basic structure for all rallies.

Mostly in stage rallies we have Class 1 which is upto smaller cars 1400cc , and that's the entry level because you can pick up a little 1300cc or 1400cc car like a Nissan Micra and you can have absolutely tremendous fun because the cars are not too powerful and they are less costly to run and maintain. Then you have the bigger Classes eg. Class 6 which is for over 2 litre cars, like the turbocharged four-wheel drive cars, like the Mitsubishi's or Subaru's. So this is where you have to decide as a rally driver which is the better option for you... ' you pay the money..well, you take your choice.'

The other special event that we run is a class in October, a very interesting class which is called the Juniors.

This class is for drivers who are aged 14-17 years old and they run at the end of the main field.

One thing we have noted from the Junior events, is that we have then seen a number of these names who have been rallying for five or six years now. We have seen that they're moving up into the British Championship Stages at the top level and I can remember them starting off from here when they were about 14 or 15 years of age, and they're proved to be very, very successful. So it's nice to see them doing so well and I find that extremely rewarding that they have used the Junior's as their stepping stone.

Q:How do you find the newspaper coverage for rallying generally?

A: It all depends on the weather really. News coverage tends to be fairly good around here and if all the football, was called off because of the snow, and we'd have very good coverage then!! I remember once, about five years ago that because the rugby and football matches had been snowed off, then we got the coverage in a major paper!! It varies with the press, as it depends on what the editors are able to put to the press to keep them informed.

It depends what the competitors give to the press, to make it interesting to read. If the drivers/co-drivers can send their information to someone like yourself from Rally2Report.co.uk, you know just a few paragraphs as to what has gone on during and after the rally, then there's a good chance of getting some press coverage. I think it is good if the coverage includes some of the driver and co-drivers road coverage, so that people can really get to know what has gone on - well maybe the newspapers will pick up on that. I do have some friends that do not have any interest in the rallying but I’m not surprised that they always seem to read up all about all those little rally snippets, when those are in the newspapers. So it's good for everyone really.

Q: How do you see Car Rallying going in the UK? Is it up and coming?

A: WellI think that if I had that kind of foresight, I think I might be a contender for the lottery! It is just one of those things that has to evolve like motoring in general. We see a lot more front wheel drive cars, particularly in the lower classes these days, because that's the way the industry has gone.

It is quite interesting that we have others who gone to other disciplines and quite often they then seem to come back to rallying. It may be that having tried other disciplines after rallying, they have had nothing else to compare to it. It is something that takes you through something different, even the same events, in a year's time it will be a different type of event. Whereas if you are on a race circuit, that's a racing circuit!

Q: What did you think of the weather conditions?

A: Very good but this morning it was very icy in patches, you have to drive with a certain degree of caution. And that's one thing I've found with rallying; there's one guy I know, I have done a lot of rallying with him and he has a Nissan Micra, but he has done quite a lot of motorcycle racing events. He wants to do the Dakar Rally out in Chile. He was trying to update his license, from the last time he was over there. And I thought it was great because he is coming from a motorbike racing discipline. So when you are motorcycle racing you are really, really searching for that search for grip, but in rallying, on a bad line you can slip and the rally crew and fans really enjoy that. I'm quite happy with the conditions here, and I think the crews have enjoyed it, they like to get the cars out of line at times and that's the enjoyment.

Q: It seems very well supported today, how do you think the marshals are coping with the crowds?

A: The marshals are very good here, we have several here doing the crowd control. It can be a frustrating job for them sometimes because some people do not always want to listen but we have an excellent team. Then we have in excess of a hundred marshals scattered around doing different functions, all looking out in case cars come off the track or in case something else happens and everything is radio controlled between them. Also, if something amiss happens, it too, is linked back by radio directly to the control tower, to keep in touch with everyone and everything can be seen at every different stage.