After 300 competitive stage miles in some of Britain’s toughest forests, 30 special stages over four days, with Roger Chilman, and co-driver, Brian Thomas, a veteran of the old Lombard RAC rallies, arrived back at the finish in Kielder Water on Monday afternoon in a superb third overall. They had a fantastic drive in the Securcom Systems Morspan Construction Pirelli backed Escort RS1800.

This year’s event included a Welsh leg for the first time and was based at the excellent facilities of Brightwell’s Auction Centre in Leominster. In fact the whole town welcomed the 100 crews and totally embraced the rally.

The opening leg on Friday saw two tests on the slippery tarmac of Shelsey Walsh hill climb circuit, before the real action got underway with 14 miles in the superb Radnor Forest. After a steady run through Shelsey, Chilman blasted through Radnor to set fastest time and take the rally lead, sadly the second planned visit to Radnor in darkness was cancelled as the event was running late.

From there the event moved on to the Epynt Ranges area for two tests; one of which was mixed surfaces, before crews returned to Leominster for service. Then there was the long trek north to Carlisle.

Chilman and Historic Champion Jason Pritchard RS1800 swapped seconds and Chilman settled into second overnight, with Ross-on-Wye’s, Steve Bennett in fourth, despite an overshoot in Radnor

Day two was a long one with nearly 100 competitive miles all in the famous Kielder Forestry complex. Sadly for Ross garage owner Steve Bennett, stage 8 witnessed the end of the road as he rolled out from fifth place. Although the damage to the RS1800 was light, too much time had been lost, bringing to an end an excellent start.

As darkness fell so did the temperatures making conditions difficult but the Withington farmer returned to Carlisle in fourth place

Ludlow duo Henri Grehan/Chris Ridge in the Plaslime Escort RS1800, were having a difficult time with engine issues on Friday. They rolled on Saturday but rejoined using the super rally rule and set some impressive times, but any hope of a result was gone.

Sunday’s offering moved across the Scottish border for another long day, it was here that Chilman attacked, setting three fastest times to take a minute from third placed Matt Robinson, to close the gap to just 14 seconds. For Chilman, it was a very impressive drive on his first attempt at the Northern and Scottish Forests.

Chilman thanked his sponsors, Securcom, Morspan and Pirelli, Meirion Evans at Wales Motorsport for a fantastic car, his parents for doing the support job, event officials and marshals, and Brightwell’s Auction Centre and Leominster Town council, for having the vision to accept the event.