Network Q RAC Rally 23-25 November 1996

Apart from spectacular crashes early on in the Chatsworth stage which ended the hopes of Welshman Gwyndaf Evans (Escort) and Robbie Head (Renault Megane) - who both somersaulted several times after clipping the same tree stump - the leaderboard at the end of the second day of the Network Q RAC Rally remained substantially unchanged throughout the eight stages totalling 27 miles in parks and stately homes of the British nobility.

Armin Schwarz from Germany extended his lead in the last of the Toyota Celicas to six mins over the Japanese driver Masao Kamioka (Escort) while the Swedish veteran Stig Blomqvist continued to make full use of every ounce of grip he could find to keep the Skoda team well on target for World 2 litre honours.

The demise of Evans spurred on the 44 year Czech driver Pavel Sibera who charged into fourth spot in the second of the Skoda Favorits to make it Skoda first and second in the international battle. He had to keep charging for the Belgian Gregoire de Mevius really began to enjoy his rally and made up a minute in his Renault Megane on the Skoda ahead.

The Polish star Krzysztof Holowczy was held up on Sunday morning when he spent 20 minutes while he had a "chat" with the local Yorkshire police and the only other unscheduled stop involved around 40 cars when the main motorway being used by the rally came to a halt in a snowstorm. All crews affected picked up time penalty but have put in a block appeal to have the penalties scrubbed.

Once again the weather has intervened and before crews reached Chester for a few hours sleep before the 02.00hrs resumption on Monday Nov 25th, the organisers announced that the 13 mile Dyfnant stage in north Wales had been abandoned because of heavy snow.

We shall be back again tomorrow, Monday November 25th, at around 12.00hrs.