The West Wales Rally Spares R.A.C. Rally Championship switches focus to the superb stages of South Wales for round six, the Zutec Neath Valley Stages (Saturday 9 August). Another cracking entry, covering 50 championship contenders, will tackle some of best stages of the season as the title races head for a final showdown.The event will mark the final event in the championship’s 2014 Welsh Challenge as well as the penultimate round of the highly successful Kumho Clubmans Challenge for crews competing on a maximum of six tyres for the event.As the championship heads into the closing stages, the major title contest is now between Nick Elliott/Dave Price and Jason Pritchard/Phil Clarke and once dropped scores are factored in (crews count their best five results from seven events), Elliott has just a four-point advantage. More than anything, both crews need to finish strongly overall on the Neath Valley Stages as Richard Hill and David Stokes/Guy Weaver are still firmly in contention.Leading the field away will be the pre ’68 cars in the Walker Diecastings Category 1, and it is the ever-spectacular Volvo Amazon of Graham Waite and Gill Cotton at the head of the pack. Chasing the Volvo will be the Mini Cooper of Ray Cunningham and Arron Forde, and there is sure to be another big battle for category victory. Paul Mankin should be well in contention in his Lotus Cortina, along with the similar car of Gwilym Roberts and Don James. Ranged against the Cortinas will be wonderful Volvo PV544 of Ian Beveridge/Paul Price, while Callum Barney/Ron Channon (Ford Cortina GT) and Chris and Jo Tooze (Singer Chamois) add further quality to the Category 1 field.In the Capital Construction Category 2, Stokes and Weaver head the field in their Ford Escort Mk1 from the similar car of Chris Browne and Ali-Cornwell Browne. More quality is added to the class C5 field by the welcome return of Warren Philliskirk/Nigel Hutchinson after they rolled out of the Severn Valley Stages and also by the presence of Roger Matthews/Tom Marrott.Class C3 has another very strong entry as Peter Smith and Patrick Walsh pit their Opel Ascona against the flying BMW 2002 of Terry Cree/Richard Shores and the Ford Escorts of Nick Danks/Martin Corbett, David Kirby/Chris Rixon, Phil Jobson/Arwel Jenkins and Simon Pickering/Colin Jenkins.Running alongside the Category 1 cars at the head of the field will be the 1600cc cars from Category 2 with the Escort Mk1 of Robin Shuttleworth/Ron Roughead leading the way from the Hillman Avenger of Barry Jordan/James Gratton-Smith.The Holton Homes Category K continues to build support and is headed by the front-running Ford Escort Mk2 of Pritchard/Clarke, overall winners of the DMACK Carlisle Stages. Tomas Davies/Eurig Davies, Gareth Lloyd/Ryland James and Tom Coughtrie/Jamie Edwards pack out the Category K field in more Escort Mk2s.Elliott and Price head yet another mighty entry for the Rob Smith Rallying Category 3 in their Ford Escort Mk2 and will want to go one better than last year when they finished a very close second to Marty McCormack and Phil Clarke.Out to take the fight to Elliott will be Richard Hill, who has Steffan Evans back in the co-driver’s seat for this rally. However, right in contention will be crews like Matthew Robinson/Sam Collis, Meirion Evans/Iwan Jones, Terry Brown/Tomos Whittle and Tim Freeman/Paul Wakeley. Lining up to battle with the Escort Mk2s will be the mighty Talbot Sunbeam Lotus of Owen Murphy/James O’Brien.In class D3, another great battle is in prospect as local crew Adrian Young/Gwynfor Jones take on Gareth Lewis/Dan Holley and more Escorts for Ben Friend/Sean Kennedy, John Baker/Seyyan John and Paul Fry/Mike Steele. Meanwhile, the class D2 cars run at the head of the rally as the Hillman Avenger of Graham Thatcher/Robert James goes up against the Talbot Sunbeam of Dave Hopkins/Tony Vart and the Ford Escort Mk2 of David Goose/Caron Tomlinson.Running alongside the historics are the cars in R.A.C. Category O for open two-wheel drive cars and the entry is topped by the very rapid Opel Manta of brothers Simon and Alister Crook. Their opposition includes the Ford Escort Mk2 of Barry Stevenson-Wheeler/John Pickavance and the Toyota Starlet of Layton Waters/Kevin Bowcott.The Neath Valley Stages is organised by the Three Counties Car Club. For more details about the event please visit www.neathvalleystages.co.uk.