After retirements on their last four rallies, Ben Friend, with Cliffy Simmons on the notes, finally got a finish under their belts with 19th overall and 5th Historic car home in the Allglass Escort RS1800 on last weekend’s Nicky Grist Stages.

This year’s event had moved from its former base at the Royal Welsh Showground into the town centre itself, and this move proved very popular with everyone.

The highly competitive Historic class saw Friend up against reigning Historic champion, Jason Pritchard, RAC winner Martyn McCormack, and Welsh youngster, Tom Llewellin, and the very impressive George Lepley in the Avenger.

Sadly, a puncture on the second loop and tyres down to the canvas saw them drop time to their rivals and slip to 5th Historic in this highly competitive class.  

Cliffy said: “The most important thing today was mileage, we’ve had a bad run of results, so although the afternoon didn’t go our way, it was good to see the finish.”

Simon Dalton and Jamie Vaughan took 27th overall and 4th in class, in their Subaru Impreza, despite attacking a log pile on stage three causing cosmetic front end damage. Also having no brakes, they recovered well to pull back some time in the afternoon. 

Ross-on-Wye  duo Gary Bollards and Russ Joseph had an excellent run to 38th and 7th in class in the GB Motorservices Impreza Station Wagon.

Steve Black, together with Paul Morris, had an excellent run in the SBG Suzuki Swift to 2nd overall 1400 car and 42nd, despite an off stage four, the result keeps alive the battle for the 1400 series crown. 

Sadly for Alan Walker and Will Rogers it was another retirement when the stub axle broke at the end of stage two in the Escort RS1800.See the full story in this week’s edition of the Ross Gazette, or subscribe to our online edition here