With the weather getting progressively worse Middleton took a conservative approach to the reverse run through the 14 miles of Gatheiniog, dropping almost 6 seconds to his championship rival. Once again Perez was closest to Mikkelsen's similar car, but still 6 seconds slower than the 17 year old Norwegian. Further back Reynolds had powered ahead of his class rivals and now held a 12 second lead over Stephen Wetford who had also moved past Humphries.

After Perez had come to within 6 seconds of Mikkelsen's time on the previous stage he was put firmly in place when Andreas took a further 15 seconds out of everyone on the penultimate stage, the 14 mile run through Dyfi. This stage also saw the demise of Burton when gearbox problems sidelined the previous winner. Burton's problems elevated Group N leader Julian Reynolds into sixth overall.

With only the 8 mile run through Dyfnant left, Mikkelsen led by over a minute from Middleton with Perez third and Duckworth fourth, some 43 seconds behind his championship rival. With young Welshman Craig Middleton only needing to finish ahead of Duckworth to be assured of the title he took a cautious approach to the final stage, which had been subjected to heavy rain since the morning run, making the going very slippery. A strong push from Perez saw him break Mikkelsen's run of fastest times with a time 7 seconds quicker than anyone else whilst a final push from Roger Duckworth saw him go third quickest, but was still 1.7 seconds slower than Middleton through the stage. A couple of moments for Mikkelsen saw him drop a bit of time but even so his final victory margin of 53 seconds was nothing short of brilliance. That final stage push for Steve Perez saw the Ford Focus driver move past Middleton to take the runner up spot on his first event in the car in nearly 4 months. Meanwhile the final podium position was more than enough to give Craig the title.

"This is incredible. After all the problems we had earlier in the year I really thought the title was lost. The conditions were really tricky today and it was difficult not to overdrive but full credit to the organisers for putting on a brilliant final round to the championship! Matching my fathers 1989 championship victory makes me especially proud," said Middleton.

Sixth overall and first in the 'showroom special' Production class was BRC regular Julian Reynolds who, despite not being registered for points, still took two class wins this year: "Brilliant. I loved it. We were really lucky today, we had four punctures and lost virtually no time at all! The stages were slippery, but at least they were in good condition." Second in class was Stephen Whitford in a Mitsubishi Evo IX with Wyn Humphries third in class.

After six rounds and four different winners the 2006 ANCRO Rally Championship has finally drawn to a close but rest assured 2007 will be just as entertaining.



Picture credits: Geoff Mayes - www.geoffmayesimages.com