If you wanted an argument that the Roger Albert Clark Rally is now Britain’s “real” RAC, 2025 just delivered it in spades.
Five days, 35 stages and over 300 competitive miles across Wales, England and Scotland, with snow, ice, fog and rain thrown in for good measure, just to test the drivers, crews and cars to their limits.
Overall results
2022 British Rally Champion Osian Pryce took overall victory on the Roger Albert Clark Rally.
Armed with a Wales Motorsport-built Ford Escort RS1800 Mk2 and co-driver Dale Furniss on the notes, Pryce led almost from the first stage in Carmarthen to the final monster in Kielder Forest. At the end of the 40-mile final stage, the pair arrived back at Carlisle Airport with a winning margin of 2 minutes 39 seconds, having set 11 fastest stage times.
The podium had a proper “who’s who” of historic rallying:
- 1st – Osian Pryce / Dale Furniss – Ford Escort RS1800 Mk2
- 2nd – Paul Barrett / Gordon Noble – Ford Escort Mk2
- 3rd – Matt Edwards / Sion Williams – Ford Escort Mk2
However, whilst Pryce and Furniss took the silverware, it was very much Mark Higgins in the David Appleby-Engineered TR7 V8 who won the hearts and minds of the spectators. That V8 bark echoing off the banks is one of the enduring soundtracks of the 2025 event and was hugely popular on social media. Jaguar Enthusiast Club members would remember David and his team from running the F-TYPE that the Club sponsored in the 2019 British GT Championship.
Ed Abbott and the Jaguar XJ-S: a brave project, a watery end
Away from the top-ten drama, one of the most talked-about entries of the whole rally was Ed Abbott’s Jaguar XJ-S – a 5.3-litre V12 bruiser that we covered the full story of in the November edition of Jaguar Enthusiast Magazine.
Abbott isn’t just any Jaguar owner; he’s a former Jaguar development engineer from Browns Lane and the man behind Abbott Jaguar, long regarded as an authority on the XJ-S and its V12. You can hear his story on our podcast here.
Sadly, the RAC can be cruel – and the Jaguar’s story in 2025 is a perfect example. Mid-event, social media started to fill with images and clips of the car in serious trouble. One Facebook group post summed it up bluntly: “A watery end for this XJS in the RAC Rally.”
An Instagram post then confirmed what many feared: it was “an unfortunate end for the Jaguar XJS V12 of Ed Abbott … on the Roger Albert Clarke rally. Crew ok”
Other posts from Jaguar enthusiasts expressed their disappointment at seeing such a special car out of the rally, but were quick to note that Abbott and his co-driver were unhurt.
Speaking on social media, Ed Abbott said, “A local farmer agreed in an instant to help the next morning and soon was on its feet and drove onto the team trailer. Only superficial damage to the lights; all impact into the OE 5 mph bumper design from 1975, which is very robust!!”
Ed reported that he hit a patch of black ice on a very tricky bend during the night which caused their off. However, he also reported that the car handled the event well overall, and that the lessons learned are already feeding back into improvements for their XJ-S work.
That’s very much the Ed Abbott way: treat the RAC not just as a bucket-list adventure, but as a 300-mile rolling test programme for making a 50-year-old V12 Jaguar survive on some of the harshest rally stages in Europe. You get the feeling the story of the XJ-S on the Roger Albert Clark Rally isn’t finished yet…
