Our 2nd visit to the Brands Hatch Stages saw near arctic temperatures but thankfully a largely dry day. The battle on the track though was hot all day. Paul King & Alicia Miles (Escort MkII) set the initial pace and led after setting fastest time on the opening pair of stages. But by stage 6 they had been reeled in by Dean Thomas & Mark Burt in their Darrian Dev-tec Mk8. Thomas held on but was under pressure from Jeremy Straker & Simon May (Darrian T90) who went fastest on stage 7 to leave just 10 seconds separating he top 3, going into the final stage. Thomas went off at Graham Hill bend but kept his cool to eventually win by just 8 seconds.
King, who had been 2nd, payed dearly for a spin at the start of the final stage dropping a quarter of a minute to his rivals and slipped back into 4th overall. It was Straker who took 2nd place after picking up his pace through the day but perhaps not getting out of the blocks early enough, in hindsight. Completing the podium, setting 3 fastest stage times on the way, were Royston & Bridge Carey (Clio) who were the first front wheel drive crew home also.
90right UK Rallying 