Red Dragon IT Stages

After a titanic battle in beautiful sunshine that swung one way then the other, Harry Gardner & Ed Graham emerged victorious by just 12 seconds from Simon Mansell & Melo La  Rosa in the awesome MK 4 Escort at Down Ampney.

By the end of stage 3 the Subaru driver held a comfortable 34 second lead, but then rising water temperature and throttle cable issues had by stage 6 become a 5 second deficit to the flying West Walian Mansell , but despite his problems Gardner was not going to be beaten, and gradually eased away over the last 4 tests, to claim a hard fought victory.

Leaving Mansell 2nd and class D victory

Richard Poole /Jim Clarke BMW E36 held 3rd from the off, but was chased down over the final stages by Michael Walton /Jamie Vaughan in theMillington Diamond Escort RS  to finish 4th, who put in a superb drive on his first visit to the airfield, after a broken manifold on stage one cost them a minute.

 Just 10 seconds behind were Dean Davies /Cameron Wheatley finishing a strong 5th and class C victory in the 2 litre Escort after a trouble free event

Nigel Mee /John Fellows Subaru Impreza took 6th and class E despite loosing a chunk of time with wrong tyres on the opening test.

7th were Gethin & Tom Williams in the Motorcraft liveried Escort RS, despite some cosmetic panel damage down the drivers side

The impressive Mazda MX5 of Ben Short /John Lawes topped class B and 8th overall

Rob Dennis was back at a familiar venue with Andy Boswell in the 2.5 Escort, and was taking a while to get into the swing, but fought back to take 9th

But the undoubted drive of the day came from Ludlow duo Steve Pritchard/Chris Ridge in the 1400 Nova seeded at 40, they took a superb 10th overall and class A.

 Paul Willetts