RALLY driver, Mike White from Plymouth and his Tavistock-based navigator Paul Tresise, romped home in second place on last weekend's Vauxhall Rally of Wales. Covering 170 miles on Forestry Commission land around mid-Wales, the Vauxhall Rally of Wales was the first round of the year 2000 British Rally Championship.

Over the two-day event Mike, and Paul, pushed the Ivybridge Motors Felicia through some of the most famous loose stages in the world.

On the first leg the team were hounded by brake problems making the car unstable into some of the high speed corners. This was costing them around about half a second per mile on every stage. The team's mechanics worked hard and the problem was finally fixed at the overnight service and traced to a tiny fluid leak in a rear brake cylinder.

Mike and Paul had lost around 30 seconds to the class leader Jamie Cook, also in a similar Felicia, but they were comfortably in second place.

The second leg moved further south to Aberystwyth, and took in the Network Q rally stages of Sweetlamb, Hafren and Myherin. The Rally of Wales is a tiring event, with the team restarting at 5am to pack as much rallying action into the day as possible.

A puncture on the first stage of the day, Hafren, caused them to drop a further minute to Cook. The rest of the day, however, went without drama and they set fastest times on all of the remaining four stages, clawing back over 70 seconds. The team finished a deserved second with only 20 seconds separating them from Cook.

'This has given us a great start to the season,' said Paul. 'We haven't been in the forests for over eight months, Jamie has already done one loose event this year and had the advantage on us from the start of leg one.

'It's going to be a close battle, but we are definitely in a commanding position. Forest rallies are not usually our strength, so picking up championship points before the tarmac rounds later in the season is a big benefit.'

The next round of the Mobil 1 British Rally Championship is the Pirelli International Rally in May. Centred around the massive Keilder forest, it is one of the most daunting rallies in the whole series. Mike and Paul will be looking to consolidate their position in the championship and hope that mechanical gremlins will not dampen their chances of success.