Preview, round five: Mid Wales Historic Stages

The 2005 HRCR Classic Stage Rally Challenge reaches round five of the nine-event schedule on the Rally Marketing Mid Wales Historic Stages over the weekend of 25/26 June.

Nine gravel stages in the Hafren and Sweet Lamb region await the crews, with two stages on Saturday afternoon and seven more on Sunday.

Now holding a clear lead after the first four events are Isle of Man crew Martin Freestone and Chris Heyes in their Escort Mk2. They scored their first overall Classic win on the Mutiny after another cracking performance and will head to Newtown full of confidence after that result.

It's not been such a trouble free season so far for the similar car of Gareth Lloyd and Ryland James, who suffered a major engine failure on the Epynt event and then lost a lot of time with rotor arm failure on the Mutiny. If all is running well for them on the Mid Wales, Lloyd/James will be one of the favourites for Classic victory.

Ian Rix and Daniel Stone are having a great season in their Escort RS1800. Since teaming up, the experience of Stone has helped Rix up his pace and that should continue on round five. However, if any good luck falls upon Stuart Clarke/Cliff Simmonds, their Escort Mk2 is another potential winner. It's been a catalogue of problems to date for Clarke, but his perseverance deserves a strong run this time.

Other class D5 Escorts include Dick Slaughter/Geoff Dearing, while the ex-works Talbot Sunbeam Lotus of brother and sister crew Julian and Vicky Burch will be hoping for better luck than on the Mutiny when an engine problem struck after scrutineering and forced them to withdraw from the rally.

Mark and Brett Clifford continue to head class D3 in their Escort Mk2, but face class opposition from the similar 2-litre Escort of Paul Morris and Martin Jones, while series newcomers Richard Perry and Clive Townend top class D2 in their Talbot Sunbeam.The Mid Wales Historic Stages is organised by Newtown and District Automobile Club Ltd. For more details about the event, please visit the website at: newtown-mc.co.uk

The historic rally starts from Newtown at 4pm on Saturday, 25 June and resumes at 8am on Sunday morning.