Clark was feeling a lot more comfortable with his car and was now setting times comparable to Wilks, but was still a long way behind him in the overall standings.
Stage 8, Kershope 1, saw Wilks go sixth quickest in his S1600, cementing his position inside the top ten overall. The strain of not having a clutch was beginning to tell on Champions car as he had now lost 5th gear as well! Despite this he was still setting top three times and was less than 10 seconds behind Evans.
Stage 9 was another Higgins family 1-2, in favour of David once more! All that was left of day one was a quick blast around the P zero stage before the cars headed back to final service and parc ferme.
With a 28 second lead over Evans, Mark Higgins was reasonably happy with the day, but admitted that the lead was not great enough to relax, whilst Champion, hoping for a new gearbox and clutch in final service, was only 10 seconds further back. Fourth was Stuart Jones, followed by Martin Rowe and David Higgins.
Wilks was still comfortably leading the S1600 class and was lying ninth overall at the end of day 1.
The opening stage of day 2, Ash Park 2, showed that no one was relaxing as the top ten were separated by a mere 6 seconds! However the drama had begun before that when Evans incurred penalties for leaving service late after a clutch change. This meant that Champion was now elevated to second, and with a new gearbox and clutch he was hoping to mount a bit of a challenge.
Kershope 2 saw the rally turned on its head. Evans managed his second stage win of the day, eager to make up lost time. However Mark Higgins suffered a double heart break when he suffered two front punctures, costing him an enormous amount of time. 4th quickest through the stage was good enough to elevate Champion into the lead, now 8.4 seconds clear of Mark, whilst Evans was only a further 10 seconds further back!
