Woodpecker Rally

Every now and again the Woodpecker is not blighted by dust and 2014 was one of those occasions as a damp evening ensured the dust would not be an issue. The rally would see a tustle between Steve Perez & Paul Spooner (Focus WRC) against Paul Bird & Aled Davies (Focus WRC). Early on Perez had issues with his Focus and safe in the knowledge he already had 2 victories this season he played it safe to take 2nd behind Bird rather than push and lose any championship points. With 2 rounds to go it is all still to play for between the rivals and friends. Luke Francis & John Roberts (Evo IX) were almost a minute off the pace of Bird to complete the podium in what was another great display in a former group N car.

Mewla Rally

A dry but overcast day greeted the crews for an interesting stage route across the Epynt ranges. Stephen Simpson & Patrick Walsh (Impreza WRC) set the fastest time through the first loop of 3 stages and the 1st stage of the 2nd loop to hold a lead of 13 seconds before losing 11 seconds on the 5th of 14 stages. Damian Cole & Elliott Edmondson (Focus WRC) struck back on the 5th stage with fastest time over the next 4 stages, taking the lead on the 7th stage. Simpson pushed hard but a few indiscretions at Copse meant he ended up 2nd to Cole who won by 14 seconds, with Cole setting 8 fastest stage times on his way to victory. Completing the podium in 3rd were John Indri & Peter James (Darrian GTR) a further 20 seconds back with 2 fastest times during the event.

Neath Valley Stages

A few showers peppered what was otherwise a sunny and blustery day down in the Vale of Neath. In the Historic rally Nick Elliott & Dave Price (Escort MkII) made up for a narrow defeat in 2013 to take victory by just under 20 seconds. A string of fastest times were enough to keep a hard charging Richard Hill & Steffan Evans (Escort MkII) at bay. Completing the podium were Meirion Evans & Iwan Jones (Escort MkII) just under 15 seconds further back. Tomas & Eurig Davies (Escort MkII) took the FIA class with David Stokes & Guy Weaver (Escort MkI) taking category 2 and category 1 went to Graham Waite & Gill Cotton (Amazon).

Tyneside Stages

Potentially turbulent weather look set to play havoc with the Tyneside Stages, which was round 5 of the asphalt championship. As it turned out there were only a few short sharp showers and it made little difference to the outcome. Damian Cole & Elliott Edmondson (Focus WRC) went fastest on the first stage which saw Steve Simpson & Pat Walsh (Impreza WRC) retire with clutch issues just after our vantage point. Peter Taylor & Andrew Roughead (Fiesta S2400) equalled Cole on stage 2 and then went a second faster on stage 3 to lie a second behind. The 2nd loop saw Cole drop time on stages 5 & 6 and taylor took the lead, which only grew as the event progressed. Taylor took victory by 17 seconds with six fastest stage times and four joint fastest times with Cole.