But as so often happens - especially in this unpredictable sport we all love - the end wasn’t quite as the script intended: a real battle right up the final stage. As Milner stamped his authority on the event form the start, poor Justin Dale and Andrew Bargery experienced a terminal engine failure in their works Peugeot 206 Super 1600 half-way through the second timed stage.
''We were on the rev-limiter in 6th gear when the car suddenly started losing power and pulling to the right,'' said a desperately unhappy Dale. ''I changed down to 5th, then oil began to pour out of the engine and onto the windscreen. This was followed by clouds of thick smoke and then flames, so we quickly stopped, baled out and put the fire out. Clearly the engine had suffered a catastrophic failure, so any chance of challenging Jonny evaporated on the spot.'' (The incident was clearly captured by Dale’s Greenlight Television in-car camera, as the windscreen mists up and he punches the dashboard in terrible frustration).
Back at Pickering, the news was received with stunned surprise, and inevitably some of the excitement went out of the event. To his credit, the always polite and sportsmanlike Dale was waiting for Milner as he arrived back at the first service, and he congratulated Jonny on becoming the 2002 British Rally Champion (even if Milner had failed to finish, he would still have been Champion). At least Dale and Peugeot had the consolation of their own respective titles to give them some cheer, but as you might expect, there were some very depressed faces in the Peugeot camp.
