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Good old days when David Llewellin was king of the road
It is 20 years ago that David Llewellin won back-to-back British rally championships when he was king of the road.
He is the last Welsh rally driver to win the rally of Great Britain, and also the last Welsh driver to win on home soil the Wales Rally GB.
Pembrokeshireshiresport.co.uk caught up for a chat with Dai at his home on the farm at Rudbaxton, situated on the northern outskirts of Haverfordwest, to reflect on his successful professional driving career.
As a teenager, like many of today’s top rally drivers, he started out on a successful karting career, where he was crowned Welsh junior champion and also represented Great Britain out in South Africa in 1977.
Those early years gave him the appetite and desire to pursue his dream and aim to follow the route of thrills, spills and high-speed action to become a professional rally driver.
In 1979 David started his superb rally-driving career. Back in those early days he showed plenty of skill and potential and relished the adrenalin rush that led him onto bigger and better things.
Dai & Metro’s first international success
In his amateur days he went on to win the National Championship in 1984. The next stepping stone was signing professional forms with Audi, who were looking for a British driver to join world-renowned driver Michele Mouton in the same team.
He had a fantastic first season driving a Metro and was highly delighted to win his first Circuit of Ireland rally, which was also Metro’s first international rally success and really was a big occasion.
The next stage was the Wales rally where he had a terrifying accident and was extremely lucky to get out of his Metro unscathed.
Dai describes his dilemma: “I had a bit of a whoopsy on the Welsh. Some spectators came running down and quite literally ripped the doors open. Neither of us was hurt and that was good. I said to the spectators, ‘C’mon let’s get going,’ they replied. ‘Dai you haven’t got any wheels. You won’t be going anywhere.’ So that was that.”
David demonstrates the Quatro (above)
Group B cars withdrawn from competitions
Later that year, following several spectator fatalities and the death of driver Henri Toivonen, the rally driving authorities decided to withdraw Group B cars from competitions.
David had a three-year contract with Austin Rover, but now they didn’t have a car for him to drive and his stepping-stone to the world championship was taken away. “That was a big knock,” admitted Dai.
But luckily he had a good relationship with Audi and they had a Coupe Quattro, which was suitable to win rallies, so he returned to Audi and campaigned the British championship with them.
Back-to-back British rally titles
Then in 1989 things changed when he was given an opportunity to drive for Toyota, who had a turbo-charged four-wheel drive Celica.
“I had two very good seasons with them and I finally won the Welsh rally, which was a very big thing. The car and I clicked. You get this in sport don’t you? Like horses and riders and cars and drivers it worked really well and we had two very good seasons and won the British championship back-to-back with Toyota in 1989 and 90.”
Dai won all the gravel rallies and also got the car working very well on tarmac, dominating with co-driver Phil Short.
A few lean years then followed for David before Vauxhall picked him and he enjoyed great success before he decided that enough was enough.
What finally persuaded him to give up was that he felt he came close to having a serious accident, but he now had a young family to consider and at the time that certainly had a bearing on his ultimate decision to quit.
Also in 1989 he won the prestigious Welsh Sports Personality of the Year award, and looking back this was probably the biggest recognition of his immense driving ability.
Close shave frightened David
Driving at 100 mph hour the car got out of phase on an bumpy Irish lane, hedges either side, a little bit of verge, over a bump - the car was now travelling sideways, and flying, but all Dai could see was a telegraph pole coming straight for his door.
“I thought this was it, as we came towards the telegraph pole, the car just straightened through no skill, just grip, and it felt that as if the telegraph pole just flew past my ear. It really frightened and me.
“I’ve had close shaves before, but never really thought about it, but that was the time. End of that season I hung up my helmet and the competitions stopped.”
And finally ...
Born into a farming family, Dai decided to return to his roots, but although he is no longer involved with rallying he certainly remembers his driving days with fondness.
“I haven’t driven the latest rally cars, but certainly, I was of the old style that liked to throw the car round and feel the car through the seat of my pants and drive it like that. I think it was more fun in the olden days than what it is now.”
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