LLOYD AND WILLIAMS TAKE PODIUM FINISH IN AUSTRIA
22 JULY 2026 12:15
Ioan Lloyd and Sion Williams took a podium finish in the ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup in round three of the season, Rallye Weiz in Austria over the weekend (July 17-18).
Lloyd, 23-years old from Llandysul in West Wales, and his co-driver Williams from North Wales are competing in the all-electric seven-round rally championship in their Vauxhall UK Mokka GSE Rally and went to the Austrian event fresh from victory on round two. On Rallye Weiz, Ioan scored an overall podium and important championship points on what proved to be a tricky rally.
As well as fierce competition among the 15 identical Mokka GSE Rallys, they had to contend with challenging weather conditions. “The weather was even worse than west Wales, which is hard to believe,” joked Lloyd. “It was incredible. There were fierce thunderstorm showers for 10 to 15 minutes and then you’d drive to the next stage and it was born dry with not a cloud in the sky and 30 degrees. It made things very interesting in terms of tyre choice and the road surface was just as low grip as I'd heard. So a bit of rain didn't make things any easier!”
On the opening stages, Lloyd set competitive times against his key rivals, Timo Schulz from Germany and Tom Dufour from France. “Timo was a two-time winner of the event already, so we expected him to be strong. Tom did a super job and it’s great to have such good competition in the championship.
“We went fastest on stage six and I was delighted with that. We even managed to take five seconds out of Francois Delecour, who was competing in the historic class in a Peugeot 306 Maxi, so that showed the potential of the Mokka GSE.”
With Schulz no longer qualifying as a junior, Lloyd took another strong result and now lies just three points behind Dufour in the title race with four rounds still to run.
“It was a very challenging rally. I was glad to get to the end and score decent points but disappointed not to be fighting for the win,” said Lloyd. “It wasn't to be this weekend. We still scored a good result and we're still in a good position in the championship. For sure, there's room for improvement from my side.”
The ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup now moves to Germany for round four, the ADAC Saarland-Pfalz Rallye over the weekend of August 14-15.
Ioan Lloyd is proud confirm his 2026 athlete sponsor list: Mark Jukes Containers, Huw Jeffreys and Sons Plumbing and Heating Engineers, Castell Howell Foods, David Byrne Auto Repairs, West Wales Rally Spares and Vauxhall Motors.
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