Stage 2, named after the event sponsors, Todd’s Leap, has a sequence of notorious bumps half way along. You can take these flat if your car is set up perfectly. But young star of the season James Wozencroft discovered that they can not be taken flat if you have a puncture, with a massive 100+ mph roll as the result. This was poor reward for the former Super 1600 champion, whose appearance on the rally had been rescued at the last minute by insurance company Competition Car Insurance. Talk about cruel irony! Although both James and co-driver Chris Ridge were given the all clear, their Subaru Impreza was destroyed. The accident also caused the stage to be cancelled.
Another fastest time for Wilks through the third stage saw the Mitsubishi pilot return to first service with an 8 second cushion over Higgins as night fell on the crews. On the second run through Ivy Hill, Higgins set an identical time to his first run, but more importantly, was 2 seconds faster than Wilks. Guy then suffered differential problems on the re-run of Todd’s Leap, dropping nearly 30 seconds to the Subaru pilot. More time was lost on the final stage of the evening and as the cars entered Parc Ferme for the overnight halt it was Higgins with a 40 second advantage. Third was an impressive Evans with young Darren Gass, the reigning Pirelli star driver, next.
Saturday morning dawned bright but with the promise of rain later on. Guy Wilks flew through the opening stage, a whole 8 seconds faster than Mark Higgins, but then had an off road excursion in the second stage of the day and dropped a further 34 seconds to Higgins. This stage also saw young Stuart Jones rally hopes dashed as the engine in his MG Super 2000 cried enough. A good time for Morrow, who was adjusting to a Subaru for the first time in his life, was a sign that there were better things still to come.
