Phillip Morrow had lost fourth and fifth gears for two stages, and very nearly lost fourth overall to Flodin, had a quiet and relatively drama free rally, but admitted that he was surprised at the pace of the leaders.
Further back Wozencroft had continued his strong run and would easily have been near the top eight had he not hit an obstacle, placed in the road, and punctured two tyres. Testimony to his title sponsor, Revolution Wheels, was the fact James continued through the stage with remarkably little damage to his Subaru Impreza and was able to claw his way back to tenth overall by the end of the rally.
In the smaller classes O’Mahony and Jean Joseph both disappeared off the leaderboard, leaving Swedish driver Joakim Nyman to take two-wheel drive honours in his Ford Fiesta.
Andrew Hockridge, in his first ever International Rally, kept out of trouble to take the C2R2 Cup honours, with Martin Roberts second and a recovering Martin McCormack third.
The little Suzuki Swifts struggled on this rough event but Gordon Nichol, the only Scottish contestant in the series, overcame a series of suspension problems and having to stop mid-stage to change yet another puncture, to take victory in R1.
After the car breaking gravel of Kielder the teams and drivers now have three weeks to prepare before they head further north to the quiet Scottish town of Kelso for round two, the
Jim Clark International Rally, the first tarmac rally of 2008.
Wilks was nearly a minute clear of the chasing pack when he made a silly mistake and slid off on last year’s event.
Will he be as dominant this time around, or will someone else step up to the plate to challenge the might of the 'works' Mitsubishis?
Join us in three weeks time to find out...
