After securing his first National Rally Championship victory earlier this year, Roger Chilman and co-driver Brian Thomas scored another impressive win on last Saturday's (14th July) Nicky Grist Stages.

The sixth round of the REIS/ Get Connected BTRDA series offered the 130 crews a real short sharp event with stages in Halfway, Crychan, Route 60 and Monument, from its Builth Wells base.

Chilman was straight out of the box in the Securcom/ Kuhmo Tyre shod Impreza S9 WRC, setting the fastest time on the opening test, eight seconds up on the Focus WRC of Hugh Hunter.

The lead then increased to 17 seconds after stage two, with Hunter puncturing, by the mid-day service the gap had increased to 27 seconds with Shaun Gardner and Nigel Griffiths battling hard for third place.

The second loop went well with the leading duo swapping seconds, going into the final stage the gap was 25 seconds, but they then started to experience clutch problems, Hunter could only take eight seconds back, leaving Chilman and Thomas victorious by 17 seconds.

"Absolutely delighted to win, one of my favourite events, the stages were fantastic, the clutch problem caused a bit of a concern but we've got here," said Chilman.

"Thanks to Securcom and Kuhmo Tyres for their support, puts us back in the title hunt again now."

Bob Morgan and Adrian Williams had one of their better runs to take 16th overall, seventh in class, the Winner Garage Impreza now run by GJM, a switch to Dunlop tyres and some adjustments gave the duo a lot more confidence, they were lying 23rd at service but a good afternoon loop, saw them climb the leaderboard.

"We tried a lot of new things today and it takes time to adjust, but our afternoon times were a lot quicker so we are happy with the result," said Williams.

Nigel Jenkins with Jack Walby on the notes in the Calico Interiors 16v 1400 Nova had a good run to 32nd overall, sixth 1400 and fifth in class.

For the full report, see this week's Beacon (18th July).

Roger Chilman and Brian Thomas are pictured on their way to victory. Picture by Paul Mitchell.