CREWS from Monmouthshire made the short journey to Ludlow for the Woodpecker Stages, for the BTRDA and Welsh series.

Just six stages made up the 42 competitive miles in Haye Park, Bringewood, Wigmore and the ultra fast Radnor Forest for the entry of 175 cars.

Chepstow duo Sasha Kakad and Andrew Price took top local honours, with 16th overall and 5th in class in the Westbase Technology Lancer Evo 9. Hot on their heels were Bob Morgan and Adie Williams in their Skoda Fabia. After a slow start on the opening two tests, Morgan pushed hard on the next four to finish 19th overall, and 7th in class.

There was last stage heartache for Mark Griffiths and Will Rogers in the Griffiths Engineering Escort RS. Having led the class all day in the drying conditions, the last stage was bone dry and the more powerful Escorts passed him, and he dropped from first in class to third and 24th overall with only five seconds covering the top three.

Ross on Wye duo Gary Bollands and Russ Joseph finished 49th and 4th in class in the GB Motorservices Subaru Impreza.

Another Ross on Wye pilot Paul Gunter with Broadwell youngster Jack Walby switching back to the co-driving seat after his exploits in his Citroen C2 this year, took 58th & 11th in class in the BG Landrovers Escort RS.

On only his second ever event and first on gravel Richard Cole took 109th overall & 4th in class in the Richard Cole Contracting 1400 Escort with Simon Cox on the notes.

Charles Hopkinson had Colin Jenkins alongside on his first event since the Wyedean, finishing 113th & 14th in class

Those who didn’t make it to the finish line included James Dunkley & Dan Sayce, whose head gasket failure brought their 1400 Corsa to a stop on stage two.

Tom Marrott and Mark Wheeler were going well in their BMW 325 until stage five, when broken steering speared them off the road.

Another crew to have a day to forget was Welsh historic championship front runners Jason Gardner and Graham Cox in their Escort Twin Cam. A puncture on stage one was followed by a slipping clutch on the next test. Another puncture on stage 3 was followed by an off on stage four, and to complete the day a clutch failure on the way to the final test. Both Gardner’s championship rivals had retired earlier in the day, so the fight goes to the final round in North Wales in October.