BOB Morgan with Adrian Williams on the notes continued their fine early season form with a superb third overall on last weekend’s Plains Rally.

The event, a round of the British Historic and Pirelli Welsh championship, attracted a top quality entry of 135 cars to its base in Bala, writes Paul Willetts.

On offer were 44 miles of top quality Welsh forestry roads in Aberhirnant, Llangower and the Clocaenog complex – 10 stages in all with a mid-day service back in Bala.

The duo started well and soon settled into a good rhythm holding fourth after four special stages but they lost time on the longest stage of the day in Clocaenog East when they just couldn’t find a good rhythm.

A mix-up with tyres meant they had to do the second loop on untested tyres.

A puncture on stage seven was followed by a small off and stall on stage nine but despite the issues, they had moved up to third overall.

The final stage produced no more dramas and they arrived back in Bala well pleased with their days work.

The Winner Garage Skoda-backed Fabia R5 hadn’t missed a beat all day, and a good haul of Welsh championship points was the reward.

Geoff Phelps and Colin Jenkins in the Dave Jenkins Motorsport-run Escort RS1800 took 46th overall and sixth in class.

In the very popular historic event, Henri Grehan and Dan Petrie had another excellent day finishing seventh overall but third historic home just three seconds behind Irishman Michael McDaid in his RS1800.

Again, the Plaslime-backed RS1800 hadn’t missed a beat – their only problem being a squashed exhaust on stage four,which meant a lack of power for the second loop of stages.

By then, the penultimate stage, they had worked their way to second historic, only to lose out on the final, long and fast Clocaenog East stage lacking full power.

“It was a shame we couldn’t hold onto second but the squashed exhaust hampered our progress no end this afternoon, but it’s another good haul of points and we move on,” said Petrie.

Just six seconds behind Grehan was Robert Gough, co-driven by Jack Bowen, who took fifth historic and ninth overall in his Escort RS1800.

He had a small off on the Clocaenog East stage but apart from that the duo had a fairly trouble-free day with just nine seconds covering second to fifth in the historics.

The Open event was won by Matt Hirst and Declan Dear in the Fiesta R5 and the historic event was dominated by Matt Edwards and Hamish Campbell in the RSD Fiat 131 who took fourth overall.