Plains Rally

A superb day and a close battle at the top saw the 2013 Plains Rally go the way of Euan Thorburn & Paul Beaton (Focus WRC). The winning margin was only 3 seconds from Connor McCloskey & Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) with Charlie Payne & Paul Spooner (Focus WRC) a further 10 seconds back. McCloskey was the fastest out of the blocks and took the opening stage by 7 seconds from Payne. He then backed this up on stage 2 before Payne went fastest time on SS3 to maintain the gap. Thorburn then took his first stage win after service to close in but it was on Gartheiniog where he took a staggering 16 seconds out of McCloskey to take the lead by 7 seconds. On the final stage Stephen Petch & Ian Windress (Focus WRC) were fastest with McCloskey taking 4 seconds out of Thorburn to make it a close finish.

Manx National Rally

The 2013 Manx National started in windy but dry conditions and with just 23 miles on the opening night, the first 8 stages would not see anyone win the rally but they could lose it. Melvyn Evans & Mark Glennerster (Impreza WRC) seized the initiative over the first pair of stages before Damian Cole & Darren Garrod (Focus WRC) took three fastest stage times through the 2 special stages in Ramsey and the following stage out of Ramsey through the Gooseneck. Paul Bird & Aled Davies (Focus WRC) was second overall however as he was 2nd fastest through the first 4 stages and then 3rd fastest on the fifth stage. Evans led Bird by 1.8s with Cole a further 6.1s back in 3rd overall. Trouble then struck Evans through the 2nd Glen Roy stage as Bird snatched the lead with his 1st fastest stage time. Evans went fastest through stage 7 to close the gap to 1 second and that is where the crews finished the opening leg after stage 8 was scrubbed.

Pirelli Richard Burns Foundation Rally

A subtle change in format along with a new event co-sponsor, in the shape of the Richard Burns Foundation, saw the BRC finally get its season up and running. In the BRC Jukka Korhonen & Marko Salminen (DS3 R3T) took the lead over the slightly longer first day and held on through the second day. Thankfully for them they had enough of a cushion whilst Alastair Fisher & Gordon Noble (DS3 R3T) came from third overnight to pass Tom Cave & Ieuan Thomas (DS3 R3T) for the 2nd spot. In the BRC classes Steve Rokland & Jame Aldridge (Fiesta R2) dominated the R2 category whilst Harry Threlfall & Andy Bull (Twingo) were the only finishers in R1.