THE Malcolm Wilson Rally was the fourth round of the raceandrally.com 1400 Championship for Bromsgrove's Nathan Crewe and Chris Clifford in the Cottrill Transport-prepared Escort.

The event that began from Cockermouth went ahead with the support of DEFRA, seven months after the planned date in early March, when the news of foot and mouth was just breaking out.

The Nailers Arms Restaurant-backed crew started well in the unfamiliar slippery and wet Cumbrian stages.

The town pair usually use a pace note system that numbers the corners on a scale of one to seven.

But on this rally they had to use a descriptive system that was supplied by the organisers, which caused them difficulties.

The morning stages passed with few incidents and Nathan and Chris were on the pace and on track to take a class win.

On stage four, the longest stage of the day, a gear selection problem lost the pair five minutes when they had to stop on the stage and make a repair.

Five minutes was too much time to make up and the Bournheath Van Centre-backed team had to settle for sixth in class.

The championship will now be decided on the last round at Llandudno, where Nathan needs to finish ahead of nearest competitor Jamie Burton in similar machinery.

Hopefully the Cambrian Rally on November 2 will give Nathan the raceandrally.com 1400 open Championship title and The Welsh National 1400 title.

With two stages around Great Orme on Friday night the two-day event should prove an exciting end to a frustrating season.