Apart from a quick blast around the showground stage in Pickering, the afternoon consisted of a repeat of the morning stages. Wilks continued his domination, extending his lead over Higgins by a further 9 seconds to return to Pickering with a massive advantage of over one and a half minutes from Higgins. Cronin shocked a number of the BRC regulars with his podium finish.
Third amongst the registered crews was in doubt as Gass, who had been lying in P3 exiting the last stage was nursing an ailing car and would eventually incur time penalties dropping the young Irishman outside the top ten. As a result David Higgins, having cured his driveshaft issues from the morning, had now moved into third, with Evans, in the second works Mitsubishi, just piping young James Wozencroft for fourth (which would later become third) by a mere five seconds.
Behind James his team-mate, Rob Swann, enjoyed his first taste of the N14 Subaru on gravel, and finished just three seconds behind Johnnie Greer. Ninth overall and seventh in the BRC was Super 1600 driver Brian O’Mahony, who was pleased to have finished at all after struggling with intermittent engine problems all day
Just behind him, and again underlying his raw pace, was Adam Gould in the R2 Renault Clio. Next up was the Pirelli Star Driver of the rally, young Luke Pinder, who enjoyed a strong run in his Ford Puma S1400, whilst third in R2 went to the winning Citroen C2R2.
Jason Pritchard took a dominant victory in the C2R2 Cup, winning by over a minute and moving him right into the thick of the championship battle. Second in the Cup was Matt Cotton whilst third meant that Andrew Hockridge took his fourth podium of the year and heads to the final round with a slim lead in the Citroen series.
The Suzuki Swift Cup was all about Mark Gamble and his amazing fight back. Nothing new there really, except this time lady luck was a major factor in his success.
