Making it four different winners in the opening four rounds, Herefordshire driver Andy Burton claimed maximum points in the 2008 Pirelli MSA Gravel Rally Championship as he won Saturday's Severn Valley National Rally.
Driving the Peugeot Cosworth, Burton, and co-driver Shelley Rogerson, finished nearly 25 seconds ahead of series leaders Jon Ingram and Ian Allsop after taking charge at the top of the leaderboard from the outset and never looking back despite concerns about their new engine making the distance.
Ingram and Allsop (Subaru Impreza WRC) came home ahead of defending champions Marcus Dodd and Andrew Bargery (Hyundai Accent WRC) after Dodd had earlier been hampered by a problem with the boost control pipe, which the HPM Motorsport team managed to fix at second service.
"It's good and it keeps the championship all open," said Burton, who was back in action in the championship after missing the previous round on the Isle of Man earlier this month. "I'm delighted with the result. I honestly didn't think we'd make it to the finish with the way the engine's been so I'm really pleased. It's been a great event with good stages."
Julian Reynolds and Patrick Walsh were fourth in their Subaru Impreza WRC. They had a relatively trouble-free run with the exception of a slight off in stage six and were followed by round three winners, Roger Duckworth and Mark Broomfield. Duckworth was not feeling well throughout the event and a problem with the diff controllers on stage five on his Subaru Impreza WRC did not help their push.
Scottish crew David Bogie and Kevin Rae were sixth in their Mitsubishi Evo 9 and took the honours in both Group N and the Mitsubishi Evo Challenge as they finished ahead of the same machine of Irish pairing Richard Cathcart and Martin Brady. Cathcart had an intercooler problem earlier in the day before their intercom went faulty on the final three stages.
![Andy Burton and Shelley Rogerson. Severn Valley National Rally winners. May 31 2008. [Pic credit: www.cmwi.net]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/447537.jpg)
