Mewla Rally

Another mixed day up on Epynt caused chaos in the morning with the changing conditions. Peter Lloyd & Graham Handley (Impreza S14 WRC) set the inital pace with Damian Cole & Craig Drew (Focus WRC) keeping them honest with a couple of fastest stage times. Lloyd led by 33 seconds at the break with Eian Pritchard & Steve McPhee (Impreza S11 WRC) almost a minute back on Lloyd in third. In the first afternoon loop Cole halved the deficit on stages 5 & 6 and it was game on. Stage 7 saw disaster though as an excursion cost him over a minute, but he was lucky to have got away with nothing worse! Lloyd now had it in the bag with a 1 minute lead over Pritchard but on the final stage he had an excursion into a bog and it was rally over as the car was stuck. Pritchard took a fine win with Cole closing in to just 10 seconds behind. 2nd place saw Cole take maximum points and the National Asphalt title. His only title rival , Simon Mauger, took 3rd overall in his Escort MkII co-driven by Tracy Giddings.

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Neath Valley Stages

Glorious skies and warm afternoon sunshine bathed the Neath Valley Stages for its 4th running. Split into two events, Modern and Historic, the rally provided the only chance in 2010 to sample Rally GB stages like Resolven and Rheola. In the modern field Jamie Anderson & Jon Scott (Evo VIII) took the lead from the start and with the demise of Tom Cave (Impreza) and Sara Williams (Impreza) on stage 2 their nearest rivals were Dylan Davies & Dale Furniss (Escort MkI). Davies had a storming run through the penultimate stage to lead only for Anderson to snatch back the lead and victory on the final stage. Completing the podium were Neville Jones & Ian Capewell (Impreza) just pipping Julian Jones and Paul Wakely (Impreza) on the final stage.

Rallycross Mallory Park

We sampled the world of rallycross for the first time, visiting our local circuit Mallory Park for round 5 of the British Championship. Championship leader Andy Grant (Focus) was looking to take his first overall win of the series but he came up against an in-form Pat Doran (Fiesta), looking to make it back-to-back British Championships. In the Superfinal Doran carried through his form from the whole day and took a dominant win by over two seconds from Andy Scott (306), with Grant 3rd but still leading the championship. There was no Mad Mark Watson (Xsara) though as he was denied the chance to race in the Superfinal after being adjudged to have pushed Grant unfairly in the A-Final.

Harry Flatters Rally

A mixed day made the first two loops of stages a tyre lottery over the Epynt military ranges on this years Harry Flatters rally. Damien Cole & Craig Drew (Focus WRC) were fastest out of the blocks and were fastest on the first six stages to lead by 14.5 seconds from a hard charging Peter Lloyd & Graham Handley (Impreza WRC S14). On stage 7, the final stage of loop 3, Lloyd set the fastest time shaving almost 3 seconds off Cole’s lead meaning it was game on for the final two stages. Meanwhile back in 3rd were John Indri & Dave Engwell (Darrian T90 GTR) just holding at bay Eian Pritchard & Martin Jones who were getting used to their newly acquired Impreza WRC S11.