After a wet Winter and windy week which saw many trees fall in the Forest of Dean, it was a minor miracle that the event ran all 7 stages as planned. One thing was for certain, with no previous winners of the rally starting the event there would be a new name on the winners list. With a dominant 7 fastest stage times from a possible 7, David Bogie & Kevin Rae (Focus WRC) won by just over a minute from Paul Bird & Aled Davies (Focus WRC). Making a fine start in the B13 class and taking 3rd overall were Luke Francis & John Roberts (Evo IX) two a half minutes behind Bogie.
Taking group N in 5th overall were Russ Thopson & Andy Murphy (Evo IX) making a great start to their BTRDA campaign after changing from BRC Challenge. Matthew Robinson & Sam Collis (Escort MkII) were dominant on their way to 2WD victory, beating Theo Bengry & Les Forsbrook (Escort MkII) by just over a minute and a half. 30 seconds back were Rob Dennis & Simon Rogers completing an Escort MkII podium.
In the post Julian Wilkes 1400 era it was Matt Smith & Giles Dykes (Ka) who were fastest on 3 of the 7 stages to take victory by 14 seconds. David Bennett & Alastair McNeil (Corsa) were fastest on all 4 of the other stages but dropped more time when Smith went fastest. A distant 3rd were Darren Pinchin & Karen Jenkins (Satria) whilst in Rally First Neil Andrew & Dom Adams took victory after some very sideways driving.
90right UK Rallying 