The first round of the 2005 BTRDA Championship took place this weekend, the Wyedean Stages rally.  This event was based in Chepstow, out of the racecourse.

The first stage was a 1 mile run around the racecourse, which went from tarmac to 'gravel' about half way in.  Mike and Scott set an equal 9th quickest time through here.  A long road section then took the crews out in the Forest of Dean for the bulk of the stages.  Serridge was the first stage and was the only stage that was to be run twice.  The crew had a bit of trouble with the car in this stage and missed a few gears which cost time.  19th overall being the stage time.  18th quickest in the next stage, Swallowvallets.  Trelleck Cmn was the next stage and only 2 miles long.  13th quickest in there.  The next stage was Chepstow park, which was very slippery.  Most of the stages so far had been slippy, but this was extreme.  It was a battle just to keep the car on the stage.  17th quickest was the stage time, and this wasn't helped by bending the steering arm half way through.  This left them 13th overall upon returning to Chepstow racecourse for the main service of the day.  The steering arm was repaired, but a patch up job was all that could be done.

The next stage after service was Mailscot, where the crew's time was 25th.  The steering arm was still causing problems at high speed and this was affecting the times.  The second run through Serridge brought a 22nd quickest time.  The next stage was the longest of the day and Mike and Scott had decided to really push hard in here to make back some time lost on the previous two stages.  This was halted when they arrived at roughly halfway through the stage and got shown a 'red-flag' which meant they had to cease competition.  This was due to a big accident up ahead.  This was a real shame as they both felt the stage would have been one of their quickest.  A short stage through the Chepstow racecourse, at 12th quickest, and then through the finish.  The final result was 17th overall from the 180 starters.  Both Mike & Scott were disappointed with the result, as if the steering arm hadn't caused problems and the 8th stage wasn't cancelled, they feel they could have got up into the top ten.