Sunday June 25th was the RallyMarketing Mid Wales Stages rally based in Newtown, Wales. The Hankook BMW and Peugeot 205 Challenge cars took up 78 of the 120 entries on the rally. The rally consisted of 6 stages covering 45 miles of gravel forest stages. There were also 83 road miles to be covered between the forest stages. It was an important rally for Steve and Wendy as they needed to take a win in the BMW beginners class to take the lead in the championship. The first stage didn't go to plan as the pair caught a car in front about 2 miles into the 6 mile stage and as the conditions were very dry and dusty with no wind to disperse the dust, the pair were hampered by poor visibility and dropped 15 seconds to Jim Dowle's BMW. Stage 2 (6.3 miles) went well for the pair and saw their nearest championship rival crash out. Stage 3 (4.45 miles) also went well but at first service Steve and Wendy were trailing Jim Dowle by 28 seconds.

Steve and Wendy went out to stage 4 all fired up and determined to claw back some of the 28 seconds on the long 12.2 mile stage. Unfortunately, due a huge accident involving a BMW, the stage was cancelled which really didn't help the pair's hope of clawing back the time. Despite this they went for it on stage 5 (9 miles) almost trying too hard as evidenced by some of the photographers by a jump - Steve came flat out over the large jump, apparently getting more height than any other car all day, but got so much distance that he had no time to line himself up for a water splash, hitting the water splash at an angle and heading straight for the group of photographers at the side of the splash. "I've never seen anyone move as fast as those photographers" joked Steve at the end of the stage when asked about the incident. "We were really on it and I had done this stage in reverse the previous year and thought I could take it flat out but as soon as we took off I realised we were going to struggle to make the water splash. It all happened so quick that I don't really know how we managed to get through it without a big accident". This type of commitment allowed Steve and Wendy to take 15 seconds back from Dowle. This left just 13 seconds to make up over the last 5.1 mile stage. Unfortunately, the pair couldn't make it up and dropped 11 seconds to Dowle so had to be satisfied with finishing second in class and 57th overall.

The second place earned the pair 95 points for the championship and left them joint leaders of the championship after 3 rounds with 4 rounds left to go. "It was a good day for us - no major mistakes, the car was great, the Hankook tyres great and Wendy was brilliant on the pace notes all day. We're looking forward to the next rally where we know we are going to have to push harder and find couple of seconds a mile to keep up with Dowle who has turned out to be a strong contender in the beginners class" said Steve.

The next rally is the Swansea Bay rally on July 23rd, another gravel forest rally. Steve is off to Mid Wales for a test day the weekend before to try to find a way to gain a few seconds a mile and defend his lead in the championship.

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