Nicky Grist stages success for Herefordshire driver Roger Chilman (From Hereford Times)

Nicky Grist stages success for Herefordshire driver Roger Chilman

2:00pm Thursday 19th July 2012 in Sport

HEREFORDSHIRE rally ace Roger Chilman and his codriver Brian Thomas have notched their second national rally championship victory of the year.

The county duo came home 17 seconds ahead of Hugh Hunter and Andy Marchbank at the Nicky Grist Stages, the sixth round of the REIS/Get Connected BTRDA series, based at the Royal Welsh Showground in Builth Wells.

Chilman led the 130-strong field by eight seconds in his Impreza S9 WRC at the end of the first stage and, with Hunter’s Focus WRC suffering a puncture, extended the advantage to 17 seconds after the second stage.

By the mid-day service, Chilman had added a further 10 seconds to his advantage and was still 25 seconds ahead going into the final stage.

Clutch problems caused a few worries as the event came to a close but Hunter could only claw back eight seconds to leave Chilman a clear winner.

Ludlow pair Shaun Gardner and Ben Innes in their Mitsubishi Evo came home in third place, just ahead of Presteigne’s Nigel Griffiths and Jon Scott in their Subaru Impreza.

The series will continue with the Woodpecker Stages, based at Ludlow Racecourse, on September 1.

“I’m absolutely delighted to win,” said a jubilant Chilman.

“This is one of my favourite events and the stages were fantastic.

“The clutch problem caused a bit of a concern but we’ve got here.

“I’d like to thank Securcom and Kuhmo Tyres for their support — this result puts us back in the title hunt again now.”