17 year old Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen further enhanced his reputation as a young driver to watch with a committed display on the Swansea Bay National Rally this weekend.  Mikkelsen set a string of fastest times to finish second overall, just three seconds away from taking victory on the MSA National Gravel Rally Championship event.From Baerum in Norway, Mikkelsen recently starred on the Quinton Stages Rally, where he made history by becoming the youngest driver ever to have won a stage rally in the British isles.  The youngster followed that historic success up with fastest times on the Jim Clark Reivers Rally, and also led the Old Ranges Stages in North Wales before mechanical problems dropped him down the order.Arriving in Swansea with co-driver Ola Floene, Andreas was debuting his gravel specification Ford Focus WRC05.  The ex-factory Ford was only collected by technicians from RamSport on the Tuesday prior to the event, so Mikkelsen had only completed a handful of miles in the car prior to starting in Swansea.  Dry, hot and dusty conditions were the order of the day, and with only a minute gap between each car on the event, the presence of the ever hanging dust was to play a dramatic part on the opening stage.Mikkelsen was quickly into his stride on the 16 mile opener in Resolven.  Unfortunately, the faster the youngster went, the more dust he was having to drive in.  Pushing hard in the difficult conditions was to catch out the former motocross ace, as he missed a junction in the dust, and had to three point turn the Focus around on a narrow escape road.  Further time was lost as Mikkelsen re-joined the road, and a disappointing stage time was the result.  Andreas had dropped nearly 45 seconds to the leading drivers.The RamSport run Focus was performing brilliantly, and Andreas wasted no time in reminding everyone that he means business on the stages.  The Ford stopped the clocks on the second stage a full five seconds faster than his rivals, and Mikkelsen then set fastest time on every single remaining stage as he desperately tried to close the gap on eventual rally winner Marcus Dodd.  The immaculate M-Sport built car was looking a little worse for wear after the final stage, as Mikkelsen arrived at serious speed into one chicane.  The doors on the Focus took a few bruises, but the youngster lost little time in the process and was very happy with his first outing in the Ford Focus WRC05 on gravel:'I'm a little disappointed not to have won of course!' commented Andreas at the finish.  'The first stage was just crazy.  We couldn't see anything.  We arrived at a junction and I missed the turning.  We went straight down an escape road.  Normally it would have been easy to turn the car, but the road was too narrow.  We had to go backwards and forwards a lot to get the car turned, so we knew we had lost a lot of time doing this.  After that, things were fine.  The car was fantastic, and I spent the rest of the day getting used to the nature of the stages, and the grip levels.  In some places it was quite loose and quite slippy, but we didn't have any problems.  The Michelin tyres work very well in dry conditions so they were definitely the best choice for us.  I'm very pleased to have finished second.  I think we showed that we can set some good times, and we're learning the stages as we go.  Of course the other drivers know what to expect more than I do, but it is another event finished for me.  The battle was good fun, and it was good to have recovered most of the time that we lost in the first stage.  Without that mistake in the dust I'm sure we could have really challenged for the win, but there will be another time for that'.Mikkelsen's next outing will be the Coracle Stages at the Sweet Lamb Testing Complex on Sunday July 29th.  The 40 stage mile event is yet more valuable practice for the youngster.  Mikkelsen will then contest the Manx International Rally in the first week in August, where he will pitch himself against the best of the British and Irish Tarmac Rally Championship competitors on the famous motorsport island.