KIRKBY Lonsdale Motor Club crews were in action at opposite ends of the country when Dougi Hall and Steve Egglestone of Appleby tackled the Pirelli International and Ian Joel and Graeme Wood, Carnforth, took their Escort Cosworth to the Somerset Stages for the third round on the British Trials and Rally Drivers Association series.

Joel and Wood were hoping to collect valuable points for the national series as they failed to finish on the

Malcolm Wilson Rally after experiencing gearbox problems in Grizedale in March.

After a seven-and-a-half-hour journey to Somerset, they found that the new gearbox was working well, but the front differential which let them down half way through the third stage.

The Chris Allen Garages/ Silkolene team have now lost any realistic chance of this year's championship, although finishing on four of the remaining rounds would leave them in a good position to pick up minor honours.

Hall and Egglestone had no such problems in their

WA Developments-supported Mitsubishi Evolution 6.

Even the thick fog and rain on the third stage failed to hold them back and they finished Friday night in tenth place, five minutes behind event leader Guy Wilks in a Ford Puma.

The sunshine on Saturday morning allowed competitors to find something like their usual form and the remaining six stages saw Tapio Laukkanen in the Subaru Impreza and Jonny Milner in the Corolla WRC finish with less than ten seconds between them.

After picking up ninth place, Hall and Egglestone charged to within 14 seconds of eighth, but could not find those valuable seconds after turbo problems in the afternoon. The next round for the Appleby-based pair is the Scottish Rally on June 13-15 at Dumfries.

May 9, 2003 13:00