Wrexham rally driver Jamie Edwards heads to Newtown next weekend for the third round of the Formula 1000 Gravel Rally Championship, the Mid Wales Stages Rally.  The 29 year old jointly leads the Championship after taking his first ever victory on April's Gwynedd Rally, also based in the forests of Mid Wales.Edwards and Farnborough co-driver Pamela Hilton will face some tough opposition as they take on the flowing Powys stages next Sunday.  With new roads to tackle in the Ceri and Sarnau forest complexes, along with Sweet Lamb and Hafren where the duo competed recently, a quality field of F1000 contestants will assemble in Newtown for the start on Sunday morning.Joint Championship leader Chris Shaw returns to give Edwards a run for his money, along with rapid series regulars Tristan Dodd and Kieran Darrington.  Newcomer Paul Constantine will also pose a very stern challenge in his Nissan Micra.For Edwards, the plan is similar to his last outing in the Hafren and Sweet Lamb forests, where he looked to attack from the start and try to put pressure on his rivals.  Despite engine problems with the MATADOR Tyres backed Nissan Micra, Edwards upped his pace significantly to record his first win of the year after 40 miles of intense driving. The unlucky Dodd took road penalties for arriving at service late and was unable to catch the flying MATADOR pair on the final stage.The Gwynedd Rally was not plain sailing for Jamie's Nissan though, as the car has since required a gearbox change and new exhaust system in order to be ready for the demands of 45 miles of special stages on some classic Mid Wales forestry roads.  With confidence high after the last round, Jamie is heading south to Mid Wales confident of a good performance, and with one principle goal in mind:'If we can finish the rally well and come away still leading the series, I will be very happy indeed' said Jamie ahead of the rally.  'The car needed quite a bit of TLC after the last rally, as some sections of the stages were rough and caused a lot of damage to the underneath of the car and the rear suspension.  Not only did we flatten the exhaust, we also spotted a chunk of metal and a bolt missing from the gearbox, so we've had to source a new one from one of our sponsors, Simpson Salvage.  This is a new event though, and I'm very confident going into the rally, but not over-confident about the task in hand.  I know that any one of the F1000 crews entered is very capable of winning the event, so we're just going to give it our best shot and see if it is good enough on the day.  The dusty conditions could make for some very interesting stage times - and hopefully the stages will be smooth as well.  We'll be attacking right from the first stage, as there is no time to bed yourself in within such a competitive and close championship as the F1000 series!'The Mid Wales Stages starts from Theatr Hafren in Newtown on Sunday 26th June and will take Edwards and Hilton across the county of Powys in what could well be the closest rally so far of the Formula 1000 Gravel Series.