APPLEBY'S Dougi Hall and Steve Egglestone raced their Mitsubishi Evo 6 to third place in the prestigious Grizedale Stages Rally at the weekend.

At the end of six gruelling stages in Grizedale and Dunnerdale forests they finished just over a minute behind winners Steve Petch and John Richardson in their Hyundai Accent World Rally Car with Steve and David Head, in their Subaru Impreza, just 21 seconds ahead in second place.

The few days prior to the rally had been unusually fine, and this held for the day of the rally and the 114 cars found muddy patches, but sunshine and light wind producing a rapidly drying track, particularly noticeable on the second running of the stages.

The sole Land Rover entered this year went well, was only upside down once, and completed the full course as the last finisher, compared to 35 cars that retired.

Stage One, (Grizedale North) produced eight retirements, while stage Two (Grizedale South), which had been expected to be the tougher section due to the mud and logging activities, only resulted in two retirements.

Stages Three and Four through Dunnerdale produced a further three retirements, and the last two stages through Grizedale again, showed the attrition which can occur when cars have already put in some 30 stage miles, as they claimed a further 14 retirements.

From the fancied front runners, the leaders after the first two stages were Steve Petch and John Richardson, four seconds up on Barry Johnson and Stewart Merry (Subaru Impreza) with Steve and David Head a further 11 seconds behind.

At the end of stage four, the order at the front remained the same, with Petch leading Johnson by six seconds, and Head 25 seconds down.

In the finale two Grizedale stages Johnson lost a full minute with a broken half shaft allowing Hall and Egglestone to move up from fourth to a podium place Dave Head won Spirit of the Rally trophy, for surviving a full rally with his son Steve in an impreza, when the fastest thing he'd been in previously was a 1300 Skoda.