Mccombie returns to head National rally entry

Last year’s winner Bruce Mccombie enters the newly-formatted WRGB National Rally as favourite aboard his Mitsubishi Lancer E9 – a position strengthened by the absence of his closest challenger last year, Luke Francis.

Scotsman Mccombie hasn’t finished in the top five in any of the five events he has completed this year, but it was a similar story last year and that didn’t turn out too badly when he came south to end his season in Wales. He knows the car inside out and the stages well enough to win here before.

Subaru Impreza WRC driver Roger Duckworth finished third behind Mccombie last year. Duckworth, a former stalwart of national rallying has great experience of these woods and will be well worth keeping an eye on.

In the 1600-2000cc class, John Rowlands (Ford Escort Mk2) is easily the highest seeded, although Charlie Jackson and his interesting Ford Fiesta ST kit car could upset the formbook.

Carl Tuer leads the B2 class entries for 1401-1600cc cars in his MG ZR, but he’ll struggle to keep teenager Alasdair Currie at bay. The BTRDA Fiesta ST Trophy frontrunner will drive a Ford Fiesta R2 on this event as a prize for finishing second in the championship. For entertainment value, Alan Desbois and his mental rearwheel-drive Peugeot 306 will be good to watch on the stages. Keep an eye out for Suzuki Shining Stars (one-make series for Swifts) frontrunner Zak Hughes too.

Joe Evett is a class frontrunner on any event he takes part in, and this event will be no different in the up to 1400cc category. He drives a ZR and reliability is likely to be the only thing stopping a class win for him.

Of the historic entries, Shawn Rayner is seeded inside the top 10 and will almost certainly take overall honours and the H3 class. H2 is headed by Rikki Proffitt’s stunning Datsun 240Z, and H1 will be fought out by Ken Davies’ Volvo Amazon and Brian Ferreday’s VW Beetle. It certainly won’t be the fastest battle on the event…