THE fourth round of the Formula Rally Championship survived a last minute foot-and-mouth scare as the R&M Williams Welsh Rally went ahead, much to the relief of both organisers and competitors, last weekend.

With the scheduled route on the Epynt military ranges in the Brecon Beacons being declared an infected zone just 48 hours before the rally was due to start, the organisers had to re-route the rally to the Caerwent army base close to the host town of Swansea.

But the event proved a success, especially for a couple of local crews who maintained their Ford Puma 1400cc Championship challenge.

Leading the way with an impressive third overall and a resounding class victory was Durham driver David Henderson and his co-driver Ian Windress, from Northallerton, in the Breakdown Doctor-sponsored car.

The former circuit racer underlined his considerable talent on the sealed surfaces by finishing third behind Peugeot works driver Justin Dale and former British champion Martin Rowe (Ford) in their fully-fledged 1600cc kit cars.

But the day didn't start off too well for the youngsters. Henderson had to give first blood to Heighington driver Guy Wilks - the championship leader going into the rally - on the opening four stages, his cause not helped by driveshaft failure half a mile into the eight-mile stage two, which dropped him ten seconds to his rival.

Wilks, 19, was flying in the Philip Wilks-backed Puma and was up to ninth overall and leading the 1400cc class before problems on stage four saw him drop 12 seconds to the recovering Henderson, who in turn edged ahead of his rival on SS5.

With both crews trying their hardest, they climbed the leaderboard to fifth and sixth places respectively overall as some of their rivals fell by the wayside.

Wilks and Welsh co-driver Clive Jenkins suffered an off on the penultimate stage which cost them three minutes and relegated them to 11th overall, but they still managed to hang on to second in class.

Henderson, as well as winning the Colin McRae Ladder of Opportunity award, clinched an unprecedented third overall just two minutes down on Rowe and took the Ford Puma 1400cc class by over three minutes from Wilks, who was left ruing his mistake.

Henderson and Wilks are now tied for the lead in the championship with two wins each out of the four rounds to date. The next event is in Scotland in two weeks time when the Speyside Stages Rally takes place in Elgin.

But it wasn't such good news for two of the region's other competitors in the Formula Rally series, neither of whom saw the finish ramp in Swansea.

Castleton driver Ryan Champion led the Peugeot Super 106 Cup going into the rally and the 25-year-old rally instructor and his Gloucestershire co-driver Cliff Simmons were soon in contention for honours in the slippery conditions before a puncture cost them a minute on stage three.

Champion charged back through the field and into the top five in class going into the penultimate stage. But six miles in, the Motul-backed Peugeot suffered brake failure, resulting in an 80mph off which bent the steering and made it impossible to continue.

The result means Champion has dropped to fourth place in the series, but he will be up for revenge when he contests the Scottish Rally - where he finished eighth overall back in 1997 - in a month's time.

Ford Ka championship driver Stephen Petch junior, from Scorton, set third fastest class times on the opening two stages before his SGP Motorsport car slid into a ditch on SS3 for his first retirement in the four events he has contested to date.

l In front of another record crowd, Darlington rider Mark Burr scored a career best second place in the British Superbike Privateers Championship at Knockhill in Scotland last weekend.

The 20-year-old took advantage of a depleted grid and wet qualifying conditions to secure a tenth place start on the grid, less than half a second down on the works Suzuki of John Crawford.

He then took 14th overall and fifth privateer in race one despite pain from his recently dislocated shoulder.

As conditions improved for race two, Burr, aboard the Toshiba Hawk Racing Kawasaki, fought off a strong challenge from his teammate Gordon Blackley to clinch a magnificent ninth place overall and 20 points towards his championship challenge for second place in the Privateer's race.

The result sees Burr move up from tenth to seventh place in the series standings with ten races remaining.

David Gatenby from Ingleby Barwick recorded a battling 14th place in the 250cc event on his way to claiming two more championship points.

The 20-year-old qualified the Joe Joe's Honda in 16th place ahead of championship leader Darren Barton and rode a steady 25-lap race to record his second points-scoring finish of the year.

Leyburn rider James Brackenbury overcame the difficult conditions to qualify his Auto Moto 600cc Yamaha in 25th place for the Junior Superstock race, before recording yet another finish by taking 23rd place at the chequered flag.

Also in action in the Junior Superstock class was Guisborough's Dennis Hobbs, who was having a one-off ride aboard the Beowolf Suzuki.

Despite still suffering with the broken hand sustained at Donington earlier in the season, the 18-year-old posted third fastest time in the opening session after being quickest for most of it.

Technical problems meant Hobbs could not take part in session two, but he still managed to qualify ninth overall. However, due to the injury flaring up in the dry morning warm-up, Hobbs had to sit out the action.

Hutton Rudby teenager Russ Hodgson had to also miss the weekend's action after crashing in practice following machine trouble aboard his Tillston's Honda.

Hodgson broke a bone in his right wrist and now faces a battle to be fit for the next round at Cadwell Park over the Bank Holiday weekend.

l Following on from his victories at Oulton park last time out, 15-year-old Middlesbrough schoolboy Paul Veazey leapt to the head of the Aprilia RS125 Challenge points table with another resounding double win when the series visited Brands Hatch last weekend.

Six points behind main championship rival Cal Crutchlow at the start of the day, Veazey, riding the TJW Aprilia, qualified in fourth place before getting the better of Crutchlow by just half a second in race one.

Race two saw Paul fight his way through from a poor start to win the race and his championship challenge was helped when Crutchlow crashed out, leaving Veazey with a 24-point advantage going into this weekend's action at Cadwell Park.

l An impressive crowd of more than 12,000 turned out in fairly dreary weather conditions to witness some exciting racing in rounds 17 and 18 of the www.TheAA.com MSA British Touring Car Championship at Croft circuit last weekend.

In challenging conditions, the feature race was won by Frenchman Yvan Muller, who now leads the BTC Touring Championship by three points from teammate Jason Plato.