Trackrod Forest Stages

Glorious conditions once again bathed the North Yorkshire Moors for the Trackrod Forest Stages. With two separate events there was plenty of action to catch and in the BTRDA championship Charlie Payne & Carl Williamson (Fiesta) took a comfortable victory of almost two minutes from Damian Cole & Jack Morton (Fiesta WRC). By no means was that the whole story as Stephen Petch & Ian Windress (Fiesta R5+) had gone fastest on the opening stage and the fourth stage to lie half a minute behind Payne, before the final pair of stages. Sadly Staindale would prove the undoing as a throttle stuck wide open forcing Petch in to retirement. With Cole up to a comfortable 2nd overall, the final stage saw a shoot out for 3rd overall. Phil & Simon Pickard (Impreza) held it by just a single second from Pat Naylor & Ian Lawrence (Evo IX) but it was Naylor who came out in 3rd overall as Pickard lost 15 seconds, dropping to 6th overall.

Rally Isle of Man

After many years of doing the Manx National we finally got round to the big brother, Rally Isle of Man, and it proved to be a worthy epic. The overall top 3 took their positions after stage 7 and did not change thereafter, but by no means was this a boring rally as there was plenty going on and battles throughout. The opening two tests saw the German crew of Ron Schumann & Stefan Weigel (Evo VII) break the previous all-time stage records to lie an impressive 1st overall but it all came to nothing on the tricky Rhenab stage when the crew left the stage and retired from the event. Steve & Andrew Colley (Evo IX) took over the lead with a total of 11 fastest stage times on their way to victory by a minute and three quarters.

Woodpecker Rally

A murky start made way to a pleasant afternoon and the Woodpecker provided a tight finish between the top 3. Luke Francis & John Roberts (Evo IX) took first blood and a 4 second lead on stage 1 before a fastest time for Stephen Petch & Ian Windress (Fiesta R5+) on stage 2 saw them take over the lead into first service. Jamie Anderson & Jon Scott (Lancer WRC) set a stunning time on stage 3, 12 seconds faster than anyone else to climb up to joint 3rd with Francis behind Petch and Charlie Payne & Carl Williamson (Fiesta) before Francis was fastest on stage 4 to regain the lead by just 2 seconds from Anderson and a further 1 ahead of Petch. After 2nd service stage 5 saw Petch go fastest and move ahead of Anderson in to 2nd place.