Carnforth resident Wayne Sisson was left frustrated after a self inflicted puncture hampered his progress on last weekends Severn Valley Rally and dropped the Mitsubishi Evo 9 driver down the order.

A spirited fight back saw the AMS (Arnside Motorsport) run crew eventually finish seventh in the Evo Challenge.

Wayne, who recently scored a podium position on the Manx International Rally, had been hoping for a repeat performance last weekend. A good start to the opening run through a dusty Crychan forest was hampered when he caught a slowing car. Despite this he was still the fifth quickest Evo.

Stage 2 went well for the D-Tec International.com backed driver and as Wayne returned to first service he was lying fourth in the Evo Challenge and a mere 20 seconds off the current leader Julian Reynolds.

Stage 3, Radnor, was a massive 19 miles long, and Wayne intended to push hard but, with 7 miles still to go, he ran wide and picked up a puncture and limped out of the stage, dropping over 2 minutes to the leaders.

With all hopes of another podium dashed the rest of the rally was all about damage limitation and a string of top 4 times helped the Kumho tyres and Silkolene Oils backed driver climb back up the leader board before a brief excursion into the undergrowth on the final stage not only scared a couple of photographers but also dropped him more time.

"I'm pretty frustrated really. We had a good feeling with the car in the morning, and our times, when we had a clean stage, showed we are bang on the pace. The puncture cost us loads of time but when you consider we had dropped to tenth in the Evo Challenge and eventually climbed back up to seventh that's not too bad really. As for the car itself she ran faultlessly throughout the day. Bring on the Swansea Bay now!"

Wayne now finds himself lying 5th in the championship standings as the season has a bit of a mid season summer break. Battle recommences on the South Wales based Swansea Bay Rally on the 21st of July.

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