Round 2: Pirelli international Rally, 23rd-24th April

Gwyndaf Evans scored his first Pirelli International Rally victory since 1998 after cruel misfortune befell Keith Cronin on round two of the Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship. Cronin took an immediate lead on SS1 and then consolidated his position for stage after stage with an almost unbroken run of top-three times. However, fate intervened on the final test and, just 200 yards from the finishing boards, Cronin’s car coasted to a halt with a damaged wiring loom.Evans thus claimed the spoils, aided by a final stage puncture for close rival Craig Breen after a string of scratch times. That left Breen third at the finish, with Jonny Greer taking the runner-up spot behind Evans.Team UK’s Adam Gould overcame seemingly insurmountable financial woes to take the start of the event and was rewarded with 10th place. However, it was a rally to forget for fellow national squad members Alastair Fisher and Dave Weston Jnr, the former sidelined by a broken differential on SS7 and the latter rolling into retirement on SS10.Meanwhile MSA National Rally Coach Mark Higgins dropped out of sixth place on SS5 with mechanical maladies.Results1 Gwyndaf Evans / Chris Patterson – 1h27m58.0s 2 Jonathan Greer / Dai Roberts – 1h30m31.2s3 Craig Breen / Gareth Roberts – 1h30m46.1s4 D Sigurðarson / Á Sigurdardott – 1h31m46.1s5 Owen Murphy / James O’Brien – 1h33m33.4s6 J Pritchard / R Durant – 1h33m42.6sChampionship positions (provisional) after Round 2 1 Jonathan Greer - 32 points 2 Daniel Sigurðarson - 263 Adam Gould - 25= Jason Pritchard - 255 Keith Cronin - 20= Gwyndaf Evans - 20