Harry Flatters Rally

A mixed day of weather conditions, up on the ranges, made it a tyre selection lottery and one which provided a surprising result. If anything you would have expected a WRC or 4WD rally car at least to have dominated this event but against all odds Mark Straker & Neil Harrison took their Darrian T90 GTR to a fine 13 second win overall. After going fastest on the opening pair of stages Damian Cole & Jonathan Griffiths (Focus WRC) were leading by over 6 seconds but the longest stage of the loop saw Straker go fastest by almost 10 seconds. Straker then went fastest on all the stages of the 2nd loop, beating the bogey on the 3rd stage of that loop. Cole took stage 7, Straker stage 8 by a bigger margin and on the final stage lost almost 12 seconds of his lead to flatter Cole’s 2nd place. Peter Lloyd & Neil James (Impreza WRC) completed the podium over a minute further back, having not quite been on the pace all day.

Coracle Stages

Phew what a scorcher! That could be said for last weekend too but today Sweet Lamb was bathed and when Tom Cave & Stephanie Key (DS3) stopped on stage 1 it looked game on for a close rally. It proved to be that with the final top two finishing dead level on time, so it went to a tie breaker and so it was Martyn & Dawn England (Evo) who won thanks to a 1st stage time 3 seconds faster than Dan Humphreys & Will Rogers (Evo). Completing the podium were Sara Williams & Dai Roberts (Impreza) were 3rd a further 6 seconds back and 4th and top 2WD crew were Matthew Robinson & Kim Baker (Escort MkII).

Nicky Grist Stages

On a truly scorching weekend the record books will show a comfortable victory for Euan Thorburn & Paul Beaton (Focus WRC) on the Nicky Grist Stages. Coming in to stage 4 of 7 Elfyn Evans & Daniel Barritt (Fiesta R5) held a comfortable lead  before they pulled the car over with an alternator fault, towards the end of the stage. On the same stage Connor McCloskey & Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) rolled out of the event but Thorburn had moved ahead and into 2nd overall on the previous stage. Charlie Payne & Carl Williamson (Focus WRC) finished 2nd overall after being off the pace of Thorburn mid event and completing the podium with a superb drive were Sebastian Ling & Aled Rees (Evo IX) who just held off Alex Allingham & Chris Williams (Impreza) in the battle for group N honours too.

ALMC Stages Rally

Another trip to the Emerald Isle and glorious weather for the 2013 ALMC Stages Rally. With Asphalt championship regulars making up most of the top ten it looked like English and Welsh crews would be dominating the overall results. Damien Cole & James Morgan (Focus WRC) led after loop 1 by just 2 seconds from Steve Simpson & Patrick Walsh (Impreza WRC) with Paul Bird & Aled Davies (Focus WRC) a second further back. With the stages repeated Bird took the lead after SS6 by 1 second from Cole with Simpson 5 seconds further back. Then going in to the final stage the gap remained the same between the top two with Simpson slipping back and it took a stellar final stage from Bird to secure a maiden Irish victory by 6 seconds from Cole. Simpson was a further 15 seconds back by the end of the event.