Grizedale Stages

Another glorious day up in the Lake District saw Matthew Wilson & Chris Patterson (Fiesta R5) take a well fought win after 2012 winners Alex Allingham & Chris Williams (Impreza) took the initial lead following the two tests through Dunnerdale. With the longer stages that followed Wilson took control and eventually won 46 seconds from Allingham. Paul Bird & Aled Davies (Focus WRC) were close behind in 3rd but a mechanical failure on stage 4 saw them retire allowing Derek McGeehan & Darragh Mullen (Mini WRC) to complete the podium.

Premier Rally

A mostly pleasant but overcast day saw a good days motorsport in Clipstone Forest as Robert Swann & Aled Edwards (Impreza WRC) took a convincing victory on the Premier Rally. Fastest on every stage said it all as they won by over a minute from Arron Newby & Rob Fagg (Impreza). Breaking up the Subaru domination were Jason Morgan & Jack Walby (Evo VI) over a minute further back in 3rd overall. In the historic section of the rally Jason Lepley & Howard Pridmore (Escort MkII) dominated and finished up 6th overall, when combined with the modern field.

Wales Rally GB

We took in the final round of the WRC at Hafren and Dyfnant an were provided with plenty of entertainment. With the tops posts in the championship decided it was all about who would clinch 2nd place in the drivers championship. Jari-Matti Latvala & Miikka Anttila (Polo WRC) were looking at completing a hat trick of Wales Rally GB wins but they could not catch Sébastien Ogier & Julien Ingrassia completed a 9th win of the season, in the sister Polo WRC, to make their 1st championship truly memorable. Latvala took 2nd place and with that he ended up 3rd in the championship as 3rd on the rally was enough for Thierry Neuville & Nicolas Gilsoul (Fiesta WRC) to sew up 2nd in the championship.

RAC Rally

The 10th installment of the Roger Albert Clark saw Steve Bannister & Kevin Rae take a resounding 2nd overall victory, in their Escort MkII. After losing out in a tight battle on the penultimate stage in 2012 this year couldn’t have been more different as they started the final day with best part of 4 minutes lead. After the opening loop on Friday night Matthew Robinson & Sam Collis (Escort MkII) along with Jason Pritchard & John Millington (Escort MkII) kept Bannister within sight and through Saturday were closing before Pundershaw 1 saw Pritchard roll out in the 2nd half of the stage. On the 2nd pass through the same stage Robinson crashed at almost exactly the same point, so Bannister just had to bring it home on Sunday, (easier said than done with 70 stage miles to go).

Tempest Rally

Amidst the stormy weather we got a largely dry day down on the Tempest. As always it is split into two events and on the Tempest 4 rally Robert Swann & Aled Edwards (Impreza WRC) took victory from a flying Jamie Anderson & Chris Brooks (Evo IX) by just 7 seconds. Anderson was on it from the start and initially led in his group N Evo but Swann took the lead after stage 4 and steadily built it up to 28 seconds by the final stage but it almost went all wrong on the final stage as he dropped 21 seconds to Anderson on the final stage, but held on to take victory.