HERO Challenge Three is a fitting Championship finale in Wales

After a fierce five-way fight in the third and final rally in the HERO Challenge Championship 2025, James Holt drove brilliantly in his BMW 325i to take the win and become the HERO Challenge Driver’s Champion, navigated by former double champion Alistair Leckie.

James was elated, and temporarily blinded, after spraying and tasting the victory champagne with his illustrious navigator and former double champion Alistair Leckie, who had nothing but praise for the 2025 HERO Challenge Champion Driver: “Working alongside this man has been so enjoyable, he has excelled himself. I think three times we were a minute down, out in the regularities, and three times he made the time back. It was a cracking route, a really good event today, but it's nice having someone you can really trust in that right hand seat, and I don't have to look after him too much!”

James Holt responded: “Great compliments considering he is a top navigator and driver himself, so with Alistair, it’s not just winning HERO Challenge Three, but he has been a major reason for my first ever win of the HERO Challenge Driver's Championship.

“It's amazing to win the title and this event, especially against such formidable competition, there's been a lot of very talented people here, but I wouldn't be on the top step today unless Alistair had been in that hot seat alongside me. He is very capable, well done and thank you Alistair. We have been competitive, and the BMW is the car to have. There's no doubt about it. Some people like to frown upon it as it is a bit more on the modern side, but it's ideal for these events, nice and small with reasonable speed.”

Mark Lillington and Mark Bramall were right up there in the mix in their MGB, as they have been throughout the HERO Challenges this year, but they were dejected at the finish of the compact Welsh rally comprising five tests and six regularities.

Navigator Mark Bramall; We were pretty dejected. We thought we'd had a really bad last regularity, so we thought we'd blown it completely. We had loaded up the car and were on our way home when we got better news! So yes, second is fantastic, it’s been a great event, with great organisation, amazing. A big well done to the Clerk of the Course James Phillips and the rest of the HERO team, a great route and terrific competition.”

Mark Lillington was beaming from ear to ear, a total contrast to the previous hour before the results were announced. “We were almost over the bridge on our way back to England, when the news came in, so we turned around! Yes, we had a great day, until the last regularity which proved problematical. Should we say, it had been a great day, but what happened wasn’t anything to do with the navigator or driver, it just didn't go as well as it could have done!”

Mark was being very diplomatic, but reports confirmed that another competitor baulked them badly to the extent that they lost nearly 30 seconds, which was why they thought they had blown their chances, but the result was a pleasant surprise, adding to their great season.

Mike Cochrane has partnered with his friend and driver Angus McQueen over six seasons now as the pair have climbed the ladder to podium success. But now after all that work, Mike is the HERO Challenge Navigator’s Champion, and he enjoyed the adulation of the other podium sitters alongside him after receiving a thorough soaking in champagne. Mike: “It is fantastic; absolutely fantastic, I am really pleased after all the work.

We had a few issues today, and we also thought our chances of a podium were out of the window. Some cars were coming back down the regularity at us today, a few people, and we lost time, but it was very close to being a head-on with someone today. It was… yeah, not ideal. But you know, this man, luckily, had a very heavy brake foot today, it was a highlight just being with Angus, really, as we've not had enough time together in the car these days. And it's good to be together.”

Angus commented: What a great podium result! And Mike has done it, it is fantastic, isn't it? I'm really happy for him, he's worked so hard and done really well. This season now he has had a first, second and third this time. So, it’s just brilliant.

And we get the partnership back together as we head to the RAC Rally of the Tests at the beginning of November, so this was also a great shakedown for that event.”

The HERO-ERA Competition Team, led by Guy Woodcock also organised a round of the prestigious HRCR Championship, the Interclub event running over the same route, but ahead of the HC3, even having its own Prologue which went well into the Friday night in the pitch black and streaming rain. Clerk of the Course for both rallies, James Phillips and his team had their hands full as capacity entries for both meant over 130 cars to deal with.

Friday night started with two very fast tests around the gravel roads and rutted wet tracks of the perimeter roads of Chepstow Racecourse. Top competitor and Flying Scotsman winner Paul Dyas was throwing his Cortina around in the dark and the spray said; “It was a tough night, in fact it was as hard as any Rally of the Tests, but then we were on the HRCR event to shake down for the RAC, so it was good practice for me and Martyn Taylor.”

Nick Bloxham and Emily Anderson had been leading in spectacular style in their Ford Escort but then made a late mistake. John King and Matthew Vokes won in their Lotus Elan Plus 2 following on from their win on the Great Western in August. Niall Frost and Amy Henchoz were a superb second in their Volvo 142, but Peter Higton and Ryan Pickering had to be the story of the rally.

They mistakenly filled up their Mazda MX5 with Super Diesel at the petrol station but once they realised their error, they found every vessel and container they could lay their hands on and drained all the fuel out and then filled up with petrol. They made the lunch control by seconds with no penalty and went on to finish third!

Back on the HERO Challenge Rally, the leaders at lunchtime were Claire and Christopher Day, who were as rapid as ever over the test courses in their Morris Mini Cooper S, Chris earning himself the Test Pilot Award for the fastest driver on all the Tests. Sadly for them, traffic got in their way in the afternoon, and despite playing their Joker, they dropped down to fifth overall and second in class behind former champions both, Paul Crosby and Pete Johnson, fourth in their Cooper S. Paul was also shaking down for the RAC Rally of the Tests when he will be navigated by his Flying Scotsman winning partner Ali Procter in November.

Crews praised the excellent route and driving roads. They were tight, twisty and demanding, often with very high hedges and no margin for error or passing places! One crew of a 1967 Jaguar S Type, over from Germany, found the roads amazing. They flung the 3.8 Jaguar around on the tests as if it was a Mini, not a sedate sedan looking like it should be cruising the Autobahns! “We loved it” said Caspar Gernhardt, “we will come back but maybe not with this car!” added the navigator Felix van Haniel.

‘Billy’s Blast’ a test around the estate roads of beautiful Cefn Tilla Court, was an absolute hit with the teams. The tarmac was slippery under trees but none the less, the crews were going for it! A prime example were the returning Susan Dixon and Darren Everitt who were slinging their throaty Triumph 2.5 around the tracks sideways as ever. We have missed them, but they are back, and already back to winning their class.

The final words went to the winners James Holt and Alistair Leckie at the prize giving as they thanked everyone for their work and organisation. In particular, Alistair singled out the results crew of Sian and Ian Mills who do such wonderful work on HERO-ERA rallies. The whole room applauded, and rightly so.