After missing the opening round, reigning British champion returned to the national rally series full of hope in a Proton Satria Neo Super 2000. He led the rally from the start till over half distance, then mysteriously the car caught fire on a stage and was destroyed. It was a devastating end to a convincing charge, and an incident which caused considerable disruption to the remainder of the event. When the event finally restarted Mark Higgins held a ten second lead over Keith Cronin with now only two stages to run. The Irish Mitsubishi driver Cronin seized his chance and on the final stage, just as he had done at the Bulldog Rally, snatched victory on the last possible occasion. Cronin had recovered from a slow start and later had turbo boost problems but speeded up, winning the final four stages to be run.

Wilks had been going well but suffered a momentary delay when debris jammed the throttle after a heavy landing, the shock of which had smashed the rear window. The final moments of Wilks' event were dramatic. Mark Higgins reported he had to swerve to avoid pieces of the burning car lying in the forest track before he eventually arrived where the stricken car had stopped. Another car which retired due to fire was last year's British Star Driver winner Adam Gould, when flames damaged his car after sliding off the road.

Visiting drivers were very successful. Another Irish driver Craig Breen's Fiesta was the best two-wheel drive car, Ulster driver Martin McComack won his class in a Citroen C2 R2 Max and Australian Molly Taylor won her class in a Suzuki Swift. Finnish driver Matti Rantanen's Renault had been the fastest 2wd car until he rolled and retired, and Swedish driver Andreas Sjolander stopped before the first stage with fuel pump failure. The rally as run in the border country in the North of England, using the extensive Kielder Forest complex.

3mmm
Photo 1: Cronin - Mitsubishi
Photo 2: Wilks - Proton before retirement
Photo 3: Higgins - Subaru

Overall classification (41 starters / 30 finishers)
1 Cronin/Shinnors          Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX     1h10m17.7s
2 M Higgins/Thomas         Subarui Impreza N11          1h10m19.7s
3 Bogie/Raer               Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X      1h11h46.7s
4 Fisher/Kennedy           Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX     1h11m48.5s
5 Greer/O'Conaill          Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX     1h12m00.7s
6 Weston/Robson            Subaru Impreza N14           1h12m20.5s