DOUGI Hall from Crackenthorpe, near Appleby, mixes it with the world's best when he tackles the Wales Rally GB which starts in Cardiff next Thursday evening.

Amateurs take on the professionals when on the four-day, 806-mile World Rally Championship event being staged two months earlier than in recent years.

Frenchman Sbastian Loeb (Citron) starts the 19-stage annual event leading the FIA World Rally Championship from Markko Mrtin (Ford), of Estonia - partnered by Herefordshire's Michael Park - with four events remaining after the Cardiff-based rally which finishes on Sunday.

But while Loeb and Mrtin plus drivers from five "factory" manufacturer teams fight for victory - and vital WRC points - 35 amateur crews from throughout Britain will challenge the world's best including 1990 & 92 rally winner Carlos Sainz (Citron), 2002 and 03 Wales Rally GB winner and reigning world champion Petter Solberg (Subaru) - co-driven by Welshman Phil Mills - and 2001 Rally GB winner Marcus Grnholm (Peugeot).

In the absence of Britain's former world rally champions, Colin McRae and Richard Burns, British supporters look to Mark Higgins (Isle of Man), making a one-off WRC appearance, to uphold home honours while rising stars Guy Wilks (Co Durham) and Kris Meeke (N Ireland) contest the Junior World Rally Championship.

McRae's father, Jimmy, and younger brother, Alister, also compete.

A purpose-built 1.52-mile "SuperSpecial" stage gets the rally underway in Cardiff Bay on Thursday evening (1905), the Welsh capital city chosen as rally headquarters for a fifth consecutive year.

The route features 244-miles of "competitive" time trials, 19 special stages where competitors are timed to a tenth of a second using pioneering satellite equipment.

The purpose-built "Super Special" in Cardiff Bay is used three times with the remainder of the 16 timed tests at eight different Forestry Commission owned locations in mid, west and south Wales.

l The Spectator Stage at Lowther Wildlife Park on the WA Developments Pendragon Rally was certainly action-packed.. After completing two stages on Warcop, the 90-car entry was headed by Appleby's Dougi Hall. But the Spectator Stage proved very testing as overhanging trees interrupted the sunlight and obscured the mud on the tracks.

Dougi was going fine until the last corner over a crest and round a tree. When he topped the rise, he swerved to avoid the tree and collided with the stone wall behind. Such was the impact that the Mk 2 rolled several times!

Willie Stobart drove in giant-killing style and took the event overall in the Focus WRC by over a minute from Neil Buckley, who was closely followed by Kevin Proctor in his Puma. Penrith's Steve Egglestone decided to use the event to end a 13-year lay-off from driving and took Marcus Noble's Escort Mk 2 into ninth place overall and first in class.