DESPITE leading the third round of the MSA British Rally Championship and setting a string of fastest stage times on the Pirelli Carlisle Rally, Elfyn Evans and Craig Parry were hindered by timing regulations in their charge for victory.

Using DMACK’s new DMG+2 gravel tyres, built in the UK for the first time, the pair were awarded fastest times on all but one special stage. However, due to rules limiting average speeds, their race to the top step of the podium was thwarted as they finished third in a Ford Fiesta R5.

“While we were fastest over most of the event, the problem on stage three knocked us back and the timing issue made our fight-back even harder, so we weren’t able to challenge for the win,” said Evans.

“It’s an unfortunate situation as we are there to compete against each other and on this occasion it just wasn’t possible. Once again the roads were great fun to drive on and the car and tyres both worked well.”

Championship leader Evans, from Dinas Mawddwy, was quick out of the blocks for the DMACK British Rally Team - a little too quick, in fact. A total of four drivers beat the ‘bogey time’ for the opening stage, a minimum time set by the rally organisers based on a limited average speed for gravel rallies. Despite completing the stage faster, all four drivers were ultimately handed the nominal bogey time.

Displaying their rally-winning speed, Evans and Parry blasted through the second stage some 7.2 seconds quicker than their nearest rival, to take the early rally lead. But they then dropped back to fifth after clobbering a rock and damaging a front wheel and tyre on the next test.

Undeterred, the charge was on and the pair blitzed the opposition, clawing back 12 seconds to rally leader Fredrik Ahlin on stage four through Pundershaw. However, Evans had beaten the bogey time again by an unbelievable 27 seconds - one of six drivers to do so. Receiving the nominal time again instead of his stage-winning time disadvantaged him in his fight-back.

Rally organisers decided to issue an overnight statement on the situation and controversially added three chicanes to today’s stages in a bid to bring down the speeds. However, 13 drivers still managed to beat the bogey time on stage six.

It was a disappointing set of circumstances and, even though Evans was fastest again by over eight seconds on the final test, he was forced to settle for third place in the end – making it three different tyre manufacturers on the podium.