Kelly, one of 10 Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy-supported drivers contesting the penultimate round of the ERC season, completed leg one of the all-asphalt event leading Jakub Matulka by 19.2sec.
ERC3 newcomer Michał Chorbiński is third on his Rally3 debut, but Filip Kohn faces a battle to land the FIA ERC3 Championship title after he finished Saturday’s route one place behind the third spot that he needs to become champion.
Kohn, who clinched the ERC Fiesta Rally3 Trophy crown on Barum Czech Rally Zlín earlier this month, is fourth after 10 stages, 13.3sec behind Chorbiński, with the leading quartet all driving Ford Fiesta Rally3s.
“We were quite struggling throughout the day, not a good feeling but at least we won the two city stages [this evening] and got closer to [Chorbiński], hopefully,” Kohn said prior to Saturday’s end-of-leg service in Aberystwyth. “From the onboards when it’s a blind bend I’m just thinking there will be mud and some danger and I back right off. With these cars, without the power, you need to bring so much speed into the corner. Otherwise you lose so much. In the open spaces it’s much better but when it’s blind, like 80 per cent of the rally, I brake too much and it doesn’t work.”
While Kohn endured a tough day in Wales, Kelly was on a high at the overnight halt after he moved into the lead on SS5.
“It’s been good,” said Kelly, an event winner in the FIA Junior WRC Championship. “We extended our lead during the second loop although we probably chose the wrong tyre for the last loop, we should have gone with the hard and on the long stage we lost out and dropped maybe six or seven seconds. We were still pushing really hard but I felt like it could have been much better with the hard tyre. But it is what it is, we’re still leading and we’ll keep it lit.”
With his Fiesta nursing the scars resulting from his roll in shakedown on Friday morning, Matulka won SS3 to demote Kohn – fastest on SS1 and SS2 – for top spot. But he couldn’t keep Kelly behind on SS5. “We had some good stages, some not so good. We went with a hard and medium cross [tyre package for SS8] but the end of the stage was really [slippery] and I didn’t feel comfortable. But the car is working really well, the guys did a great work.”
Sunday’s deciding leg of JDS Machinery Rali Ceredigion begins with the 10.74km DC Autos Bethania test from 08:33 local time. The Spencer Quantum Hafod Power Stage is scheduled to start at 14:05.
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