Top motoring award for Neil
Born in Corwen and schooled in Bala, he had a very special
kind of substance in his blood - -rallying!
Neil Wilson is well known in Chester as being the owner of TC Adams Estate Agents. Ever since he was born in Corwen and schooled in Bala, he had a very special kind of substance in his blood - rallying! The North Wales forests and roads have always been the heart of car rallying in the British Isles, and Neil knows most of them inside out, just as well as he knows rally stages all over the world.
He started his career as a co-driver in the late ‘sixties, but a foretaste of future fame came in 1972, when he co-drove Bob Jeffs in their Ford Escort RS in the Welsh International Rally of that year sponsored by no less than Chester Telecom! ‘Big deal’ you might say, but it was a big deal in those days and Telephone Manager AD Locke was hauled before his bosses to explain after a question had been asked in the House of Commons how public money could be used for such advertising! Mr Locke was a strong character, and stood his ground in the face of such criticism, telling in no uncertain terms what an absolute bargain his sponsorship turned out to be - the first ever by a nationalised Company - and how pictures of Neil and Bob’s Ford Escort were on the front pages of Motorsport magazines and newspapers the world over.
Over the ensuing years, Neil has co-driven most of the big names in rallying - Roger Clark, Ari Vatanen, Russell Brooks, Brian Culcheth, John Buffam, Harri Toivonen - to name but a few, but his biggest success was to win the 1985 Lombard RAC Rally of Great Britain with Henri Toivonen in the Lancia S4. Henri, alas, was killed in the following year!
During his long career Neil has won 13 International Rallies as a co-driver, and he’s still at it! For the last six years he has competed in mainly Historic Rallies in Europe but last year he co-drove John Buffam in the World Championship Rally in Portugal in the Mitsubishi Evo V - and that brought him up to date with a bump! It is because of his long service to rallying that the Welsh Motoring Writers presented him with their prestigious Tom Pryce Trophy 2000 at a recent ceremony at Pale Hall, near Bala, where Neil often used to visit as a boy. The crystal trophy - named after Wales ’ greatest racing driver who was killed in the seventies driving his UOP Shadow F! car in the South African Grand Prix - is inscribed ‘Ralio yn ei waed’ which translates into ‘Rallying in his blood’. When Neil spoke to journalists after the presentation, he revealed that his first rally success was in 1966 when he was awarded a silver cup for finishing first in his mother’s mini, and the award ceremony was held at the Bryntirion Inn near Llandderfel. just a few hundred yards away from Pale Flail! Full circle indeed and just to prove it he produced the very same cup for all to see. Well done, Neil!
Neil and Jane Wilson, pictured at the Tom Pryce Award ceremony at Pale Hall, near Bala