9:00am Sunday 5th September 2010
DAMIAN Cole and co-driver Craig Drew were crowned 2010 REIS British National Asphalt Champions and Get Connected/Legends Fires King of Epynt crown after finishing second overall on Field Fare Catering Mewla National Rally.
But the day did not start well for Cole as showers had made tyre choice difficult over the military ranges,and the wrong choice saw him drop 25 seconds to rivals Peter Lloyd/Graham Handley in the Impeza S14WRCover the opening two stages.
Lloyd continued to dominate building a comfortable lead of 33 seconds after Stage Four from Cole with Eian Pritchard a distant third in only his second event in a new Impreza S11 WRC.
As the stages dried out, Cole launched his attack on Lloyd on the long Stage Five, halving the Subaru driver's advantage.
He took a further second on the next test to lie just 16 seconds behind with two tests remaining.
But it was the Hereford driver who was first to hit trouble on the penultimate stage, when he had a massive sixth gear off and dropped nearly a minute and half regaining the road.
This dropped Cole to third promoted Pritchard to second, but Lloyd still led by a minute with just one short test remaining.
But Lloyd broke a driveshaft and retired, bringing to an end an excellent drive.
This left a somewhat suprised Eian Pritchard leading by 24 seconds, although Cole took 14 back on that final test.
The result was enough for Cole and Drew to be crowned double champions.
They had to overcome a multitude of problems during the year, yet still took four outright victories.
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