Stephen, co-driven as always by Michael Wilkinson, was reunited with his Hyundai Accent World Rally Car a week after contesting the Greystokes Stages at the wheel of a Group N Mitsubishi Evo 9. And for the second week in succession Stephen, who was expected to challenge for class honours, suffered a cruel hand of luck.

After struggling through the opening two stages with a mysterious handling problem it all became clear when the track control arm suddenly broke half way through stage 3. Stephen did his best to limit the time loss as he nursed the wounded Accent out of the stage and into service, but an agonising 5 minutes had been lost.

Once repairs had been administered by the SG Petch Motorsport team, Stephen and Michael returned to the woods for a bit of damage limitation. A string of top 3 in class times through the afternoon showed what might have been.

“I’m getting a bit frustrated with all this bad luck that always seems to come my way. I haven’t had a clean run in so long that I’ve forgotten what it’s like. When the car goes well she is amazing to drive, so I just have to hope that we have a good end to the season

Incredibly Stephen is still in the thick of the class battle, currently lying second overall in B13, sandwiched between Marcus Dodd and Andy Burton.

The next outing for the young County Durham rally driver is expected to be the Bulldog Rally in October.

Stephen, along with co-driver Michael Wilkinson, contested last weekends inaugural Greystokes Stages in Cumbria as a warm up event. Because there was less than a week between the two events the SG Petch team chose to contest the Greystokes stages in their production class Mitsubishi Evo 9. Stephen and Michael were looking forward to the event, based completely within the famous Greystokes Forest, but unfortunately their rally came to a premature end when the pair suffered a broken pro shaft which then ruptured the fuel tank, briefly setting fire to the car. Thankfully the crew were able to extinguish the flames with no major damage.

“What an adventure. I haven’t really had a lot of luck this year. Last weekend was a bit of a scare as we had exactly the same problem that Guy Wilks had in his works Mitsubishi a few weeks ago. Luckily, though, we saved our car. Now we’re off to Swansea for a rally that I really enjoy. The stages in South Wales are fantastic and hopefully we can get a good clean run in the Hyundai.” said Stephen.
The 2008 Swansea Bay Rally kicks off at 8am and includes 65 high speed stage miles through such classics as Rhondda, Resolven and the spectator friendly Walters Arena. Stephen and Michael are seeded at Car number 6 this weekend.