Lloyd Bettinson Age 28 lives in a small village of Rhydlewis in Ceredigion near Llandysul . I went to a local primary school and Ysgol Dyffryn Teifi Secondary. I speak Welsh and English neither very well but I get along. From an early age of eight I was a keen horse rider. Throughout the years I became a very accomplished rider, having ridden for Wales in the junior team on many occasions. At eighteen I had a fall and broke my collarbone causing me to lose a few good horses I was riding for people. After it healed I found they had been moved on to other people, so the choice had to be made.
I had always had a keen interest in cars and motorsport mainly through going to watch rallies with my elder brother and helping him in the workshop at home when I wasn’t riding. I decided to go into the motor trade. Being unable to find a mechanic’s apprenticeship straight away I did my first year in full time college alongside a motorsport course at Pembrokeshire college. I finally found an apprenticeship at FRF Toyota. Great now I can afford to do some motorsport I thought, so I went to a local scrap yard and got my hands on my first 106. I think I should have left it there. However after doing a few road rallies in it I had the bug, even if I did only do a few miles each time before either crashing or breaking down. Then I saw the 106 I still have today, for sale on eBay. An ex WAMC road rally championship car, winning the up to 1400cc class two years on the trot. So I went to Cardiff picked it up and home she came. I thought I was the next Colin McRae so entered another road rally thinking ‘I have a good car under me I’m a good driver I’ll get a good result’. Well two miles into the rally I crashed. This was the last road rally I did as a driver. I came to the conclusion that I can’t see in the dark.
I had to find something new to do after repairing the car so put a MSA log book on the car and did some stage rallies and hillclimbs. In 2012 I won the WAMC Sprint and Hillclimb rally car class and the Teifi Valley Motor Club tarmac championship. Since then I’ve chopped and changed the car along the way but always seem to get the 106 back out there. I’ve done a bit of navigating on road rallies, targa events and stage rallies. My most memorable driving experience was getting 10th o/a on the Jaffa Xmas Stage Rally at Pembrey in the 106. I now compete in the Club Challenge Championship doing selected events.
