Edwards, who has already gained the Millers Oils Rising Star Scholarship for 2011, finished an impressive 2nd Overall on the Newtown based event in a Geoff Jones Motorsport N12 Subaru on his first outing since Octobers Cambrian Rally, but following good local media coverage and having seen Edwards in action first hand, Evans made contact though his merallysport.com website to see how he could help.

“I have been a rally enthusiast for many years and have followed Matt’s progress from a distance due to his regular press coverage in North Wales and in the National Motorsport press. However, having viewed his website I decided to get in touch, as it is obvious there is a great deal of work going on behind the scenes by Matt himself to further his career which is an admirable quality. Furthermore, it is quite conceivable that with such a level of visibility in local media, a small investment in this direction could pay dividends for my engineering business, as it’s a far more cost effective means than paying for TV or magazine advertising, plus you get the enjoyment of being involved in a hard- working and successful team which I am looking forward to!” explained Evans.

Matt, of Craig y Don, Llandudno, has secured the support of various companies towards his 2011 goals, but explains that this is key to his longer term aspirations; We are aiming to be ready for the full British Rally Championship in 2012 when the series focuses on two-wheel-drive cars rather than four wheel drive machinery as is the case now. This makes it more cost effective for people on smaller budgets like myself, but we still have to work all year round to get the necessary funding in place to enable progression up to that level as its normally finances that are the barrier to success, hence all of the work is carried out by myself and my father rather than paid professional media experts which bigger teams can afford. Involvement need not be thousands of pounds from one person, but several people contributing and reaping the benefits is better for all concerned, and the kind support of John and EWP is testament that we have something to offer people who want to get involved. Every input we receive enables us to improve what we do in a year, be it changing tyres 10 miles sooner than we would normally, going testing prior to events, or doing more events in the year to increase exposure and valuable time in the car.