As the crews headed for Hexham and a very necessary “Refettling” session at the towns Auction Mart, Welsh based Manxman David Higgins continued to his domination of the Pirelli International Rally, having been quickest on six of the eight stages run so far and, with two stages to go, the double American Champion enjoys a comfortable two minute lead, despite a slight off at the end of stage eight which he put down to the soft compound tyres going off. Yorkshires Alistair Ginley lies second, just over a minute ahead of Penrith based Paul Bird, who is enjoying a successful rally with new co-driver Andrew Bargery, Steve Perez and Barry Johnson are next up followed by young Mathew Wilson, the 17 year old showing a remarkable turn of speed on his first International event.

Sebastian Ling holds on to his lead in the Production class despite losing third gear on Stage eight, he is seventh overall and over a minute ahead of Dorian Rees, who in turn is less than a second in front of Neil Buckley. Rob Swann dropped back, finding the stages “very loose” and Jennie Lee Hermansson had a massive slide but survived with the car intact.

Long time leader of the Fiat Stilo Cup series, Jean Roca disappeared in bizarre circumstances, the Spanish driver spent some time investigating under the bonnet and was rushing to the start of stage seven when he slid off the road into a deep ditch. A grateful Willie Bonniwell inherited the lead ahead of Chris Davies who was limping into service with damaged front suspension.

The ongoing battle for Super 1600 honours looks like going to a photo finish with Barry Clark closing to just 9 seconds behind Alessandro Broccoli, the man from San Marino losing time with brake problems. Aki Teiskonen was really starting to fly, the young Finn getting to grips with Kielders treacherous tracks, he set a couple of top ten times and was closing on the leading duo.