HEREFORD rally driver Dan Evans is looking forward to his second rally of the year, the third round of the BTRDA 1400 Rally Championship, based at the Butlins Holiday Resort in Minehead.

The event consists of 10 stages on gravel roads on the edge of the Exmoor National Park, with two stages on sealed surfaces up the Porlock Hill Toll Road.

Evans and co-driver Chris Ridge, from Ludlow, will be the seventh car into the action which gets under way on Saturday morning and aim to repeat the impressive pace they showed on the Wyedean Stages, where they ran in the top five 1400s for most of the day.

Evans, Ridge and their Ian Evans Motorsport prepared Vauxhall Nova have again received support from local businesses to compete, and are grateful to MC Construction Ltd, R J Matthews Transport, Herefordshire Raceway, Bowyer Developments, AJP Process Pipework, Bernie Jones Tyres and Maxsport Competition Tyres.

l HEREFORDSHIRE Motor Club’s Peter Lewis and co-driver Alan Jones just missed out on a win in the historic section when crews tackled the Get it Sideways Rally at Down Ampney Airfield.

Lewis and Jones had a close battle all day in their 1961 Ford Anglia with the Healey 3000 of Graham Goodhall and Peter Gilbert with fastest times being swapped all day.

Adrian Griffiths and Karolina Kuigskyte brought their Peugeot home fourth in class and 12th overall, followed by Robert Davies and Fiona Scarret who were fourth in class and 13th overall in their Escort. Dean Davies and Lewis Mason’s Ford Escort RS 2000 finished in 20th place overall.

Herefordshire pairing Brian Davies and Ian Davies were forced to retire after five stages due to suspension damage.

l RICHARD Pinkney from Co Durham opened up a eight-second lead on the first loop of four tests at Herefordshire Motor Club’s Foxley Autotests and never looked backed.

Despite an initial challenge from Dave Evans (Blitz Special), Malcolm Livingston (Lindsay Special) and Chris Chapman (RAW Striker), Pinkney drove his Caterham 7 to take his maiden Foxley win by an impressive 56.3 seconds.

The rural setting of Mansel Lacy played host to this event, which was included in five National championships with a countrywide entry of 28 competitors.

Anthony Preston, Lee Valentine, Toby Cook, Chris Chapman, Dave Evans and Duncan Stephens were the other class winners.

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