Roger Albert Clark Rally blog...

A damp and dreary Carlisle Airport sees the rally survivors head off for the last leg of this tough event. We have already lost some top crews and the damage to some of the cars already on trailers attests to just how hard the crews have been pushing to keep up with the pace of the leaders. Away we go now, Keilder beckons...

Sitting on the start line of the Newcastleton stage on Saturday evening (I think it's Saturday) and it's getting dark already - with hours of running still left. The hours of daylight seem so short it doesn't seem very long ago that the sun was coming up over Carlisle airport and now it's sunk again over the Scottish Borders.
The event continues and we've driven just over 600 miles since Elland Road on Friday...

Mr McCormack took a rather unconventional line through the chicane at Olivers... So much so that marshals had difficulty identifing the car - evidently, numbers on the roof might have helped...

"Six additional WRC attired mechanics turned up overnight to service Mr. Wilson's car, replacing everything that could be replaced..."

We lost Jeremy Easson here this morning when engine failure saw him sidelined.

O'Connell went off in Ae and lost 40 seconds to 1 minute but remains in contention.

'Mad' Mick Jones' crew finished servicing his car at 5:00 this morning and after an hour's sleep were there to see him restart. Dedication or what?

...of Carlisle airport this morning and now we're behind the last car on the road in the main 'Roger Albert' field -car 36 on the start line of Ae. Beautiful sunny morning. Here we go again

In the concurrent Open Rally, Mick Jones (Escort Mk2) took control with a great run that took him clear of the battle for second place between the Escorts of Brian Lawlor and Dave Hemingway. However, Lawlor lost a lot of time in Greystoke, so Hemingway now holds a narrow second place from Marcus Noble.

After a short night, crews are back in action early on Sunday morning for another tough day in the forests of the Scottish borders. More news on Sunday night.

Paul Lawrence

Wilson’s pace thrilled the thousands of fans who were out in the Yorkshire forests and then at Oliver’s Mount to see the action.

McCormack bounced back from a couple of early offs to take second from the charging David Stokes (Escort Mk1) and Richard Lepley (Porsche 911). Out of the rally went Andrew Haddon’s Porsche 911 with engine dramas in Langdale, while Jeremy Easson dropped a lot of time in Greystoke with ignition dramas on his Escort.

Paul Lawrence

After a tough day of rallying in Yorkshire and then the Lake District, Malcolm Wilson has taken control of the 2008 Roger Albert Clark Rally in his Ford Escort Mk2.
As weary crews headed for the overnight halt in Carlisle, Wilson had extended his lead to 1m42s over Martin McCormack after a mighty performance in the car that was only run for the first time on the morning of the rally.
Paul Lawrence

Well, here we are at 'Olivers' up behind car 133, the last KallKwik competitor. This has been a hard fought battle for these guys over some fast Yorkshire forest stages. Langdale was particularly fine - fast and smooth but this is the last stage for them before they finish back in Pickering. Then for us it's on into the night up to Carlisle.