1^st (11) Mark Higgins/Mike Gibson (Focus) 1.51.09.1

2^nd (15) Jonny Milner/Nicky Beech (Corolla WRC) 1.51.53.0

3^rd (17) Tapio Laukkanen/Ilka Riipinen (Impreza N) 1.52.26.3

4^th (25) Johan Kressner/Cato Menkerud (Impreza WRC) 1.54.48.8

5^th (18) Steve Petch/John Richardson (Hyundai WRC) 1.54.53.2

6^th (31) Nik Elsmore/Huw Lewis (Lancer N) 1.57.13.8

7^th (39) Oscar Svedlund/Bjorn Nilsson (Lancer N) 1.57.18.6

8^th (28) Leon Pesticcio/Howard Davies (Lancer N) 1.57.19.3

9^th (29) Gavin Cox/Tim Hobbs (Lancer N) 1.57.50.9

10^th (38) Andreas Eriksson/Patrick Henriksson (Puma) 1.58.30.3

11^th (1) Gwyndaf Evans/Chris Patterson (MG ZR) 1.59.07.9

12^th (30) Bob Ceen/Alistair Douglas (Impreza) 1.59.09.6

This Pirelli International Rally may be drawing to a close, with just 1 special stage, Harwood, remaining, but there was still plenty of action on the pneultimate test, Chirdonhead. Rally leader Mark Higgins was fortunate to get away with no real time loss, despite his Focus WRC sustaining a puncture. Super 1600 leader Gwyndaf Evans did well to stay within his time limit when he had to fix his MG’s gear linkage, and still retained the lead of the S1600 category. Not so lucky was young Kris Meeke, he put his Puma off the road when battling Guy Wilks for S1600 runner up position, and although we hear Kris is still running, he is now virtually last on the rally.

The race at the front looked fairly settled going into stage 10, Chirdonhead, but Mark Higgins’ puncture could so easily have changed that. He hurled his Focus down the last 6 miles of the stage to only drop a fraction of a second to Jonny Milner, so that the positions remained unchanged at the front. Third placed Tapio Laukkanen is content now just to hold position, and the Finnish driver’s comment "I just drive to finish now". Swedish driver Johan Kressner was in 5^th place going into Chirdonhead and despite smashing a side window of his Subaru against a rock he still managed to get ahead of Steve Petch in the Hyundai to take 4^th position. The top 6 is rounded off by Nik Elsmore, Nik driving extremely well to lie 2^nd in gpN, although looking over his shoulder all the time at the hard charging Oscar Svedlund, and Leon Pesticcio in similar Mitsubishis.