The drizzle
that affected the two mini stages round Gateshead’s Baltic
Park on the Pirelli International Rally, the opening round of
the 2003 Pirelli British rally Championship, turned in to pea
soup fog as the cars reached the night stages in Kielder Forest
last night with local driver Darlington driver Guy Wilks &
Phil Pugh in a 1600 Ford Puma well out in front. Guy is nearly
a minute ahead of last year’s winner, Manxman Mark Higgins
& Bryan Thomas in a 1600 Renault Clio with third place going
to Welsh Wizard, Gwyndaf Evans in a 1600cc MG ZR.
With the conditions
favouring the two-wheel drive 1600cc cars rather than the much
more powerful four-wheel drive World Rally Cars (WRC) as Guy is
over two and half minutes ahead of 1999 winner, Tapio Laukkanen
in a powerful Subaru Impreza WRC and even further ahead of reigning
British rally Champion, Jonny Milner in a Toyota Corolla WRC.