Winner Wilks Excluded after Trackrod Rally
The one-day Trackrod Rally Yorkshire brought the brothers David and Mark Higgins together on equal points at the top of the British rally championship chart, but for four hours after the finish it seemed that Guy Wilks was catching them fast, and was now just two point adrift. Then at  2130 hours came the announcement that Wilks had been excluded for running a non homologated steering on his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX. Wilks had led the rally trouble-free from start to finish, winning the event for the second year running and scoring best time on every stage, while both the Higgins had problems. In the morning, Mark had hand-brake problems in his old Impreza N11 and David had to drive three stages with a broken driveshaft on his new N14. Then in the afternoon Mark had gear linkage trouble and David broke another driveshaft. Mark held second place all rally except for one stage when his problems let the Irish driver Keith Cronin past. David expected to finish sixth but a time control penalty at the end of the event for David Gass whose Mitsubishi had gearbox troubles elevated him into fifth and Wilks' misfortune finally raised him to fourth.
The ‘Trackrod' was the first forest championship rally for BRC drivers for five months. The early autumn day in Yorkshire started fast but the first stage was halted when Daniel Barry crashed his Mitsubishi heavily, injuring his hand against the roll cage. Wilks' teammate Gwyndaf Evans ran the morning in three wheel drive mode when a driveshaft broke on the first stage, but he eventually climbed back to fifth. Top two-wheel drive car was the Renault Clio S1600 of Brian O'Mahony in front of Adam Gould's Clio and Luke Pinder's Ford Puma. Steve Perez won the free formula national category event in which competitors tackled the last seven of the ten stages, in his Focus World Rally Car.

Wilks' team have given notice of an intention to appeal, but as things stand the championship's "drop-scores" rule now strongly favours Mark Higgins. This is on account of Mark's fourth outright victory in five events, and he only has to finish in a second place on one of the two last events to be British champion for a fourth time.

Final results Trackrod Rally
1 M Higgins/Kennedy         Subaru Impreza N11        1h24m28.3s
2 Cronin/Shinnors           Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX  1h25m07.1s
3 Weston/Robson             Subaru Impreza N12        1h27m27.3s
4 D Higgions/Thomas         Subaru Impreza N14        1h27m32.5s
5 Evans/Nagle               Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX  1h27m56.9s
6 Wozencroft/Ridge          Subaru Impreza N12        1h28m02.4s


AZ is the Champion of Russia
Veteran rally driver Alexander Zheludov regained the national championship title in Russia after winning the final round, the Novorossiysk Rally outright in his Subaru Impreza N12. His nearest rival Evgeniy Novikov had a rally plagued with problems and did not finish, and Zheludov's nearest challenger at the end of the event was the Fiesta 1600ST driver Sergey Naryshkin. The rally was held on the course earmarked for the 2010 FIA world championship event and was dramatic with high winds bearing down on the region around the celebrated Black Sea port. 18 year old Novikov had been lying second in his Lancer Evo IX but then had transmission trouble. Later he stopped in a water crossing and he and his Australia codriver Dale Moscatt retired when they suffered turbo trouble. Initial leader Andrey Zhigunov retired with suspension failure on his Mitsubishi letting Zheludov inherit a substantial lead towards the end of the two-day event which even brake problems did not threaten. Zheludov is remembered as a driver in the Gazprom team which entered world championship rallies in the late nineties, and although Russian he often competes under Ukrainian colours, as that is the nationality of his lady codriver Irina Kolomeitseva. He contests Russian as well as Ukrainian championship events.

3mmm
photo 1: Guy Wilks
photo 2: Mark Higgins
photo 3: David Higgins
photo 4: 2008 Russian Champion