The Plains Rally, organised by Knutsford Motor Club, provided another competitive event in the 2010 BTRDA Rally Series with strong competition in all the classes and categories.
At the front of the field the Millers Oils BTRDA 1400 battle between Darren Pinchin and Matt Edwards resumed with Matt taking an early lead with some stunning times. Darren tried very hard to make up the time but crashed out of the event on SS4. However rallying can be a fickle sport and Matt Edwards and also Callum Black, both in MG ZR’s, retired on the very last stage with drive shaft failure, leaving Martyn & Richard Lewis to take a well deserved win and the BTRDA goblets, on their home event.
In Silver Star it was Peter Elkins & Andrew Joll who took the Class B11 win and the BTRDA Goblets ahead of Allan McDowall & Gavin Heseltine.
At the head of the field the battle for the outright win was between Andy Burton and Steve Perez who swapped fastest times throughout the event with only seconds in it. However Andy’s quicker time on SS1 was just enough to give him the winning edge. The 2009 Gold Star champion David Wright was third with current Championship leaders Roger Chilman & Andrew Sankey leading the Gp N cars home in forth place.
17 year olds Ashley Slights & Thomas Hughes did not take long to get used to forest rallying and on only their second forest event they scored maximum points in BTRDA Rally First. Conversely the most unfortunate retirement was BTRDA Rally First favourites Matt Griffin & Joe Cruttenden who suffered gear linkage failure on the way to the start.
There were 112 finishers from the 145 starters.
The next BTRDA Rally Series event is the Rainworth Skoda Dukeries Rally on Saturday 12th June.
The event web site has been updated to include the entry form, regulations and the web entry system which also has both bank transfer and credit card payment facilities.
As well as being a round of the BTRDA Rally Series the Dukeries is also the next round of the MSA English Rally Championship plus 4 Regional Association championships. The standard entry fee has been held at £375 with £50 reductions for any driver entering their first forest rally and all BTRDA registered Rally First crews. The event is open to non UK competitors who have an national competition licence issued by their ASN and it will be listed on the MSAs NEAFP calendar. | 
