Millbrook Proving Ground once again was the venue for West Essex Car Club's Rod Cattini Motorsport Millbrook National Stages Rally.

The event is a full tarmac event with a mixture of long fast sweeping bends, straights and for added interest adverse cambers, blind jumps and steep hills. The venue is used for top secret testing and development work and also incorporates a high speed 5 lane banked 'Speed Bowl'. In essence this is the place for a tarmac single venue rally.

The Millbrook Stages is part of the Safety Devices Tarmac Championship and is round two of the series after the recent foot and mouth crises had sidelined the Tour Of Epynt in April.

An impressive line up of top drivers and world class machinery was present with Mel Evans in his newly acquired Escort WRC leading the field away. Steve Hendy, Steve Scott and Andy Blair flew the Ford Escort WRC & Cosworth flags whilst John Indri, Tony Jannetta and Jon Mercer took up the Metro 6R4 side of the proceedings. All the drivers were itching to prove a point after the long lay-up and shortage of events. This was shown prior to the rally, with service crews warming brakes, transmissions and finalising pre-event checks. One of the most expensive cars on show and receiving lots of attention was the brand new ex-works Prodrive Subaru WRC of Steve Fleck.

Stage One saw a blistering pace set by the dark horse of the rally John Indri who set the fastest time on stage one by a full 8 seconds which had the rest of the field stunned. This was the first major test for the new car, which had just recently been up-rated to a full 2.5-litre spec. An undisclosed sum of money had been spent of the engine alone, John was remaining tight-lipped but the power of the 6R4 has to be seen to be believed. The car must surely be the fastest 6R4 recently seen in British rallying and it was a sight and sound to behold. Mel Evans (the event favourite) was completely taken unawares by Indri's charge and it took until SS4 and new tyres for him to respond.

This pattern carried on through the morning with Evans, Mercer and Hendy chasing Indri hard for the lead. Mark Straker in his Darrian was mixing it with the big boys and putting in some blistering stage times. Steve Fleck meanwhile, suddenly disappeared after SS1, a broken clutch abruptly stopping his rally - he was not a happy man.

SS6 saw Mel Evans sidelined with gearbox problems, which reduced the pressure on Indri who continued to set fastest times. Steve Hendy had a moment when he approached the jump, when a flailing anti roll bar slashed his tire and kicked the car sideways, the problem was fixed at service and Steve continued the event. Jon Mercer in the other hot 6R4 was dialling himself and his car back into the pace. The previous week it had been badly damaged on the first stage of the Montenegro Belgium Rallysprint, John Price Rallying had worked through the previous week to get the car ready for Millbrook. Mercer constantly 'tweaked' the cars suspension setup throughout the day.

At the final stage it was John Indri who took the honours to win his first ever national rally. Steve Hendy overcame suspension and tyre problems to take second with Mark Straker taking third spot, a remarkable drive considering the machinery he was competing against. Jon Mercer took fourth spot to earn Safety Devices championship points to lead the series.

Many thanks to West Essex Car Club for organising a fantastic rally and Millbrook Proving Ground for providing an excellent venue.

Classification
1. John Indri/Dave Engwell Metro 6R4 51m 36s
2. Steve Hendy/Mark Milton Escort Cosworth 52m 20s
3. Mark Starker/Keith Hounslow Darrian T9 52m 33s
4. Jon Mercer/Alex Davies Metro 6R4 52m 33s
5. David Kynaston/Andy Russell Audi A3 52m 40s
6. Steve Scott/John Legg Escort WRC 52m 43s
7. Tim Wilson/Laurie Walker Escort WRC 53m 19s
8. Paul Shelmerdine/Steve Renham Escort Cosworth 53m 22s
9. Mark Worley/David Gamblin Escort Cosworth 53m 55s
10. Ray Brammer/Stephen Lloyd Subaru Impreza 54m 16s