Mark Kelly blitzed the opening two stages of the Hills Ford Stages to go into Saturday’s night’s overnight halt with a seven second lead.
Setting an unbeaten time of 1min 41secs over both runs over the 1.85 mile Castlemorton stage, Mark and co-driver Will Atkins put all of last year’s event winning experience to good use to rocket ahead in their Kelmore Škoda Fabia R5.
It is a lot closer just behind, as Sam Touzel/Max Freeman (Smart Scaffolding/Express Auto Parts Ford Fiesta Rally2), Roger Duckworth/Alun Cook (Technia Fiesta R5) and Darren Atkinson/Harry Stubbs (Haldane Fisher Escort Mk2) ended Saturday night’s opening pair of stages tied just behind in the Protyre Asphalt standings.
Neil Roskell/Dai Roberts (ND Civils/Burdens/Witham Motorsport Fiesta Rally2) and Steve Wood/Kenny Hull (Citroën C3 Rally2) were tied just one second further behind – while Will Hill/Richard Crozier (Hills Ford Fiesta Rally2) and Huw James/Lewis Sim (A&D Tyres Escort Mk2) were a mere one second behind them.
The newly crowned Protyre Asphalt back-to-back champions Callum Black/Jack Morton didn’t get off to a great start as their Pallas Connections Fiesta Rally2 kept on stalling. This left the 586 Sport crew some 37 seconds off the pace.
Simon Bowen/Craig Simkiss had a disastrous start and picked up an opening stage maximum stage time after putting their Fiesta S2000T into a ditch. They ended day one 2mins 22secs behind the leaders.
It was also bad news for Ant Allery/Richard Bonner, who retired their Escort Mk2 with early gearbox issues.
The Hills Ford Stages continues tomorrow (Sunday 15 September) with 10 more stages on the on the closed public roads around Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
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