Mewla Rally

The record books will show another win for Damian Cole & James Morgan (Focus WRC) over Epynt, securing the 3rd straight National Asphalt title for Cole. It looked as though he was not pushed at all but Cole had his issues through the day even if he lost one rival before the start of the event, Steve Simpson, and then the no.1 seeded car of Peter Lloyd & Gwynfor Jones (Impreza WRC) after the 2nd stage and hitting multiple sheep at the stage end. Congratulations to Cole & Morgan and behind him Ashley Field & Bridie Hall (Darrian T90) ended up only just over half a minute back. Completing the podium were Ray Horton & Paul Wakely (Darrian T90 GTR) almost two minutes behind Cole.

Tyneside Stages Rally

Our first foray on this event but by no means our first trip to Otterburn and with a late entry from Melvyn Evans & Aled Davies (Impreza WRC) it promised to be a cracker. After the first stage it looked otherwise as Damian Cole & Craig Drew (Focus WRC) left the road, dropping the best part of a minute but still in the event. John Stone & Janice Moore (Fabia WRC) retired at the first junction so Evans held a convincing lead from Andy Davison & Mike Curry (BMW M3). Davison retired at the start of stage 2 and controversially Evans was excluded after stage 2 for failing noise, by which time Cole had passed all the other crews to now inherit the lead.

Neath Valley Stages

After missing out in 2011 we were back out on the Neath Valley Stages which had two entries to raise the eyebrows, Juha Kankkunen co-driven by Nicky Grist and David Llewellin re-united with Phil Short. Both driving Ford Escort MkII’s they headed the field in the Historic event. Ultimately Llewellin came out on top after claiming this would just be a fun outing. Before he reached junction 1 of the first stage Short knew he was on it once again. Kankkunen came in 2nd almost a minute down with James Potter & Bob Duck (Escort MkII) the best of the rest, over a minute further back.

Olympic Mens & Womens Time Trial

Only a few days after my first Olympic experience and then I got my 2nd, this time at Hampton Court Palace for the Olympic Time Trial. I really cannot over emphasise how fantastic the atmosphere was and the result, well fantastic. As avid Tour de France fans 2012 has been an epic year and this was the cherry on the icing on the top of the cake. Bradley Wiggins destroyed the field as he built his pace steadily through the 44km route beating reigning world champion Tony Martin. The German was still happy with Olympic Silver but in Bronze Chris Froome was overwhelmed, especially as before the Tour de France he was primarily known as a mountain stage rider and not a time trialist.