Neil Howard Memorial Stages Rally, Oulton Park, 23rd November 2013

Manchester solicitor Graham Coffey took victory in the final event of 2013 at Oulton Park, winning the Neil Howard Memorial Stages rally by just two seconds in his ex Petter Solberg Subaru Impreza WRC.

The rally was a tightly contested affair, with John Stone having to settle for the second step of the podium in his Skoda Fabia WRC, with David Shuttleworth completing the top three in his Impreza S11 WRC.

The early running was made by the Impreza of Steve Simpson and Mark Booth, the bright white car winning three of the opening five stages and opening up a slender lead over the Skoda. Eventual winner Graham Coffey was third going into the final three stages, 11 seconds off the pace. The event was thrown wide open on SS6, as the unfortunate Steve Simpson suffered turbo failure, ending his rally on the spot.

This set the stage for a final stage showdown, with Stone and Coffey recording identical times on SS7, leaving the Skoda driver with a two second advantage going into the twighlight of stage 8. However, a time of 6m13s for Graham Coffey, compared to 6m17s for Stone was enough to give the Subaru driver and his debut co-driver Victoria Myers victory.

Full results can be found here

Words and photography by Richard Crawford

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