Nigel Jenkins and Karen Watts took the top local honours on last weekend's Braces Bakery/ Gerry Jones Transport Neath Valley stages, with a fine 15th overall, 1st in class in the NJ Autos/ Gibson's backed 16V 1400 Nova.

The Three Counties Car Club-organised event offered five stages totalling some forty three competitive miles in the classic Rheola and Margam forests, for the ninety entrants.

The event was split into two categories with an historic event running ahead of a modern one.

The historic rally was the latest round of the WWRS RAC historic series, and attracted a top quality entry with the likes of the highly talented Irishman Martyn McCormack RS1800, plus Nick Elliott, Jason Pritchard, Matt Edwards in similar cars, with another Irish interloper Owen Murphy driving the ex-Russell Brookes Lotus Sunbeam and Steve Perez in a Datsun 260Z.

Top local crew honours in the historic event went to Simon Pickering with Colin Jenkins on the notes in their Dave Jenkins Motorsport-run Escort RS1600. The duo had a fairly trouble free run to 21st overall/5th in class, despite two spins on the opening eleven mile Rheola test costing a few seconds. Not far behind them were fellow locals, Rob Weir and Ben Giles in the Weir Laundry Equipment/RSR Escort RS1800, finishing 26th overall and 13th in class. They dropped a lot of time when they hit a rock on the opening test which squashed the exhaust virtually flat. This led to a distinct lack of power for the first three stages, until the system was changed at service.

"We suffered badly from the exhaust,I had a job to pull away from stage starts and under low revs very difficult to get moving,it cost us fair bit of time" said Rob.

The open event saw Jenkins and Watts have a trouble free run to take a clear class win and a top 15 finish, putting behind them the disappointment of two recent retirements.

Some of the other local crews weren't so fortunate. Rory Hall and Will Rogers in the RP Joinery Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6 had a short lived event when the rear differential blew just a mile in to the opening test. Will's brother Matt didn't fair much better, when together with Alun Roberts in his Peugeot 206, they retired on stage two with electrical problems.

Jason Morgan with Ross Weir alongside for the first time, was looking to continue his recent good run in the Winner Rally Team Lancer Evo 6, but retired on stage two, with Ross being very unwell.

Shawn Baldwin and Jack Walby in the Autofix of Coleford Escort RS, had a very frustrating event, with a slipping clutch right from the off. They managed to get through the first two tests, only for the engine to let go a mile into stage three, and they were out.

The historic event was won by Martyn McCormack by just 0.7 of a second from Nick Elliott after a titanic battle with Jason Pritchard in 3rd, all in RS1800s.

In the modern event West Walian youngster Dylan Davies scored his second consecutive Neath Valley stages victory in a Mitsubishi Lancer, with a comfortable twenty nine second victory over the Subaru Impreza WRC of John Lloyd, who just pipped another Impreza with Wug Utting.

The event was very well received by competitors for its slick organisation and excellent stages, and was well worthy of its inclusion in a national championship.