Round 7: Wexford Stages Rally, 13-14 September

This year’s penultimate round, the Wexford Stages Rally, saw Damian Cole and Elliott Edmondson take their fifth maximum points score of the season.

Despite gearbox trouble with their Ford Focus WRC towards the end of the two-day event, the winning pair came home 35 seconds in front of a hard-charging Alex Laffey and Jack Morton’s Ford Fiesta R5+.

Cole and Elliott’s main title rivals, Steve Simpson and Patrick Walsh, took fourth-placed points in Ireland and, now, nothing less than an outright win on the final round will do if they are to prevent Cole taking a record-breaking fifth consecutive title.

Results1 Damian Cole / Elliott Edmondson (Ford Focus WRC) 1h52m25s2 Alex Laffey / Jack Morton (Ford Fiesta R5+) 1h53m00s3 Wesley Patterson / Johnny Baird (Ford Escort MkII) 1h53m09s

Provisional championship standings1 Damian Cole – 148 points2 Steve Simpson – 1383 John Stone – 1334 Alex Laffey – 1255 Keith Robathan – 110