Monday, 7th July 2008

Steve Perez wins the Quinton Stages Rally in his Ford.

Steve Perez and co-driver Stephen McAuley won the Quinton Stages Rally at the weekend in his Ford Focus WRC.

Perez led the event from the third of the seven stages and set about building up an eventual winning margin of 39 seconds over the Hyundai Accent WRC of Damian Cole and Paul Morris.

The battle for the runners-up spot – and maximum points in the Silverstone Tyres BTRDA Gold Star Rally Championship - was particularly intense with Cole/Morris arriving back at the Llandovery finish on exactly the same penalties as the Ford Focus WRC of Hugh Hunter and Andy Marchbank. The tie-break was decided in Cole's favour by dint of his faster time on the opening stage of the day.

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Hunter/Marchbank move into the lead of the BTRDA Gold Star Rally Championship, at the expense of defending champions Will Nicholls and Nick Broom, whose Subaru Impreza WRC recorded its first retirement of the season after suffering gearbox and fuel problems.

Fourth place went to the Subaru Impreza of Nigel Griffiths, who was co-driven by Josh Burton, the teenage son of five-times Quinton Stages winner Andy who had hoped to be present to defend his win, only to be forced to assume the role of spectator when it became clear that his hybrid Peugeot Cosworth could not be readied in time.

Danny Barry and Mark Bowens brought their Mitsubishi Lancer EVO9 home in 5th to take the Group N ‘production' category, ahead of the Subaru Impreza of Dave Weston and Neil Shanks. However, it wasn't a good day for Group N cars in general as five of the other Top 30 starters all retired. These included Melis Charalambous whose Subaru Impreza suffered an under-bonnet fire.

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