There was a real sting in the tail of this Pirelli International Rally with several top drivers including Gwyndaf Evans and Robert Swann falling at the final hurdle when their cars gave mechanical troubles. There was no such problem however for Guy Wilks and his co driver Phil Pugh who scored a very impressive victory with their Mitsubishi Lancer to take maximum points on this opening round of the Tesco 99 Octane British Rally Championship.

Mark Higgins and Rory Kennedy made a shaky start to the rally when their Impreza clouted a rock on the first stage. Rally champion that he is Mark stuck gamely to the task and brought his Subaru safely into 2nd with last year’s winner Ryan Champion and his co driver Craig Thorley taking a gritty 3rd place. Wyn Humphreys put in an impressive display to take 4th in his Subaru while Conrad Rautenbach scored a clear cut class victory in his Citroen C2 as well as taking 5th overall. Nick Kenny and his co driver George Gwynn, the youngest crew on the rally, rounded off the top 6 in their Subaru.

Further points of interest on the final leaderboard were Lorna Smith/Joanne Oakey scoring a good class victory in their Suzuki Swift Sport. This is all the more credit to Lorna as it was her inaugural drive in the works Suzuki. Vesa Mikkola had led the class coming into the previous service but his Honda suffered a broken drive shaft and he had no spare.

David Higgins showed great fortitude to bring the new Toyota S2000 into 16th overall. The team suffered many mechanical problems with the brand new car on day 1 but David really got his act together and the car performed beautifully today to set some brilliant stage times which augurs well for the next round of the championship, the Jim Clark Memorial. It did  appear that David was 10th but then SupeRally penalties were applied after the finish, although it was Friday night when he had his problems. Through the Saturday stages David had the new car very much on the pace of the leaders and was delighted with the performance of the Proflex suspension. Just 14 cars were still running at the end. However, under SupeRally rules 21 were classified. Gwyndaf Evans’ retirement was down to a broken gearbox while Robert Swann who had been lying 6th o/a in his Impreza, also went out with mechanical troubles, as did Darren Gass in his Fiesta S1600. Under the new rules Gwyndaf was classified 11th.

In the National Rally David Hughes overcame his brake problems to bring his Mitsubishi WRC into 1st, 17s up on Paul Griffiths in his GpN Impreza. Fraser Jones turned in a stunning drive to take 3rd o/a and to win the Fiesta Sporting Trophy. Tom Walster was 4th o/a and 2nd best Fiesta. Toms' co-driver Tim Sturla made a fast getaway from the rally to the aiport, to catch a plane to London. He is running in the marathon dressed as a gorilla to raise funds for the Crimestoppers Charity. (Yes, Crimestoppers is a charity!) This is Tim's 6th London Marathon and we wish him every success. Tom Curtis was 3rd in the Fiestas, Alastair Fisher 4th and Jonathan Greer 5th despite a last stage puncture. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net