THE local rally team of Mike Perkin and Chris Crocker took their Group A Vauxhall Nova 1600cc GSI to Mid Wales for the Mewla National Rally to compete in the sixth round of the Safety Devices Tarmac Championship.

Currently leading the 1600cc and front wheel drive Formula 2 categories by a narrow margin, Mike and Chris were looking to consolidate their championship positions with a steady run.

Run over two days, the rally started well with Mike setting the fifth fastest time overall from 120 rally cars over the opening three-mile stage. Considering that from the 120 cars competing there were 80 cars over 2000cc of which 37 were four-wheel drive, an excellent start to the weekend's racing.

Disaster was to strike on the sixth and final stage of the Saturday, when the Alarmtech Nova lost a wheel due to four broken wheel studs early in the stage. Such was the damage that Mike was forced to change a complete steering hub on the side of the stage, costing the crew more than five minutes, leaving them in 88th place after the first day.

Competition restarted early next day with Mike knowing he needed to regain some of the lost time over the next 15 stages totalling almost 100 miles of competitive driving.

With Chris reading the pace notes, and Mike driving as fast as he dare, the team were making up almost five positions per stage during the morning, and were often held up by slower cars. As the day went on Mike managed to regain the class position shortly after mid-day and was then targeting the leading front wheel drive contender, although it was clear that due to the problems of the Saturday it would be a mammoth task to catch the leader.

By the end of the day Mike and Chris had managed to climb to 28th overall, first group A 1600cc and second in the F2 front wheel drive category.

With one round to go the team have now secured the overall championship in the 1600cc Group A class and are five points clear in the national formula 2 front-wheel drive category.

With four other drives still able to win in Ireland, the F2 championship will go all the way to the final round. This should however place the team well for an overall F2 win on the next event in Southern Ireland during mid-September, enabling them to bring home two national championship titles to Tavistock.