A host of local crews made the relatively short journey to the small village of Resolven for the Zutec Neath Valley Stages. A qualifying round of the WWRS RAC Championship and Mintex Welsh National serie, the Three Counties Car Club event had attracted a very high quality entry for the dual status event, with six stages making up the 44 competitive miles in the forests of Margam and Rheola, formerly used on Wales Rally GB. Zutec Neath Valley Historic Stages – And it was Roger Chilman, together with Bryan Thomas, who came away with top local honours in the historic event, with an excellent 4th overall, 3rd in class on only his second event in the Melvyn Evans Motorsport/Kuhmo Tyres Escort RS1800, after a trouble free run. "It was a great event, fantastic stages,well organised, this is only my second event in the car, but I need to find another second a mile to push the boys at the front."Said a delighted Chilman Ross-on-Wye duo Roger Matthews, who had Tom Marrott alongside for the first time, in the RJ Matthews Transport RS1600. These two got off to a good start swapping seconds with championship veteran Chris Browne for second in the category on the opening three tests as category leader David Stokes was well out in front. But a puncture on stage 4, followed by brake problems on the following test, saw them drop 30 seconds to the Kent based builder, so they settled for 10th overall, 3rd in category two and 3rd in class on his best drive of the year so far. Simon Pickering and Colin Jenkins were looking for more Welsh championship points in the pinto engined mk1 Escort, but a wrong tyre choice on the opening two tests didn't help their cause, followed by a time consuming misfire on stage four which saw them settle for 24th overall and 5th in class One of the drives of the day came from Graham Waite and Gill Cotton in the wonderful category one Volvo Amazon. Waite, running first on the road, was just sweeping away the marbles leaving a clean line for the following crews on the opening loop, and at first service trailed Category one leader Ray Cunningham in his flying Mini by 26 seconds, lying fourth in the categor. With cleaner roads for the second loop of stages Waite started his attack and with Cunningham struggling with gearbox issues in the Mini, he was soon putting the pressure on Gwilym Roberts in the Cortina GT, although he did ease off over the last two tests with a noisy rear axle. Waite took category one victory by 16 seconds in the end after a sterling drive. Dave Edwards and Ade McNally, in the Woodman Inn Parkend/MacBro Holdings backed Escort RS2000, had a trouble free run to net 31st overall, 5th in class. Zutec Neath Valley Stages – Bob Morgan and Ade Williams had their best run of the season so far to net an excellent 5th overall, 1st in class in the Winner Garage Skoda Fabia S2000 Evo, despite suffering from boiling brakes on the ultra fast stages, and a trip up an escape road, after they broke the handbrake lever, both were well pleased with the result after a day long battle with Martin/Dawn England in their Lancer Evo 10. Just behind that duelling duo in 7th place was Jason Morgan, returning to the stages for the first time since his heavy shunt on the Wyedean, he had the experienced Graham Cox alongside in the Winner Garage Lancer Evo 6. After making a steady start easing his way through the morning loop to lie 12th at service, as the confidence grew the times improved seeing the Cinderford youngster move up to 7th at the end of the day. Mike Truman, with son Lee alongside in the ME Damsell Subaru Impreza, continued to gain valuable experience, with yet another strong finish in 25th overall, 3rd in class, on only his fourth event. Those not so lucky to see the finish were husband & wife team of Nigel/Karen Jenkins whose engine let go on stage 2, in the NJ Autos Vauxhall Nova, and Adrian Allen with Ross based Russ Joseph in the Fiesta ST, also retiring. It had been an excellent, well organised event, under the guise of Den Golding and his team, on fast smooth stages, and well worthy of its RAC and Welsh championship status. Ross-on-Wye co-driver Paul Morris makes the trip to Belgium this weekend for the RV Staden Rallye to co-drive Martyn Jones in his Escort RS1800 in the historic section of the event.