Despite rally long gear selection problems, Marcus Dodd/Andrew Bargery (Hyundai Accent) won a day long battle with Paul Bird/Ian Windress (Ford Focus) by a mere 4.6 seconds.

 

The Rally, which lost one stage due to a car catching fire on the preceding International event, was run in unusually warm and sunny conditions with dust posing a major problem for the crews.  Bird got off to a flying start being quickest on the opening 3 stages despite a problem with launch control, but Dodd stuck close to him as did Steve Perez/Paul Spooner (Ford Focus) despite the latter clouting a chicane. Alan Cookson/Julian Wilkinson (Subaru) spent over half an hour in a ditch were grateful for a tow out from one of the armed forces Land Rovers.  Murphy/Roberts (Mitsubishi) and Bannister/Sutherland (Escort) also visited the many ditches but managed to keep going.

 

Dodd moved into the lead on the first run through Chirdonhead with Bird dropping to third behind Perez.  These three were a comfortable minute ahead of fourth placed Simon Hughes/Craig Parry (Mitsubishi Group N)

 

The second run through the Kielder loop saw Bird squeeze past Perez into second place but he couldn’t quite overhaul Dodd.  Cooper/Riley (Subaru) were reduced to cruising at 50 mph due to the cars fuel pump cutting out.  Phillips/Cammack (Honda Civic) backed off when they lost the sump guard while Robinson/Rumney (Escort) came out of the final stage with a front tyre deflated.  Simon Hughes won the battle of the Mitsubishi Evo Challenge boys from Daniel Barry and Nik Elsmore.