Witham rally driver Neil Wood, 39, partnered by his regular co-driver Justin Imber, 29, from Braintree, bounced back after their impressive, but ultimately disappointing, performance in July's Jim Clark rally.

Competing at last weekend's Colin McRae Stages rally, the fifth round of the Pioneer Daihatsu Rally Challenge 2000, Wood and Imber finished in a highly creditable second place, over a minute ahead of the third placed pair.

Based at Lanark, the home of the famous McRae rallying family, the event started well for Wood and Imber.

The first stage was a long and dusty 20-miler, and the Boardworth Motor Company crew finished in third place, only nine seconds behind championship leader Scott Vogl, and a comfortable 53 seconds ahead of the chasing pack.

Over the next two stages they consolidated their third position, and were well placed to attack Vogl's position when luck - bad in this case - intervened.

After the two leading Daihatsu crews had completed the fourth stage, thereby recording official times, one of the other non-Daihatsu competitors crashed and blocked the track.

Unable to clear the obstruction, the marshals decided to cancel the stage for the remaining crews, and awarded an 'average' time only.

In Wood's and Imber's case this was some 17 seconds slower than the time would have hoped to achieve, so it proved a costly handicap.

"That stage was crucial to our strategy," said a frustrated Wood at the finish in Lanark. "Before, we had been in a position to challenge the leading pair, but someone else's accident managed to put us out of contention with only two times sections to go.

"The 17-second 'penalty' put us 40 seconds behind Vogl, and there was no way we could have made that up in the time remaining."

Now with an 80-second advantage over the next Daihatsu crew, Wood and Imber decided to adopt a cautious approach over the final forest stages, and arrived at the finish pleased with their third place.

Once again, however, luck intervened, but this time it was to their advantage.

At the final control, they found that they were in second place; the leading Daihatsu had been penalised four minutes for checking into a control too early - a costly mistake in rallying terms that had dropped it down into sixth place.

"Rallying isn't just about driving as quickly as possible," explained Imber. "There's teamwork involved, and the co-driver has a major responsibility for not only giving the driver instructions at each corner, but also for clocking in and out of the various controls at exactly the right time."

The penultimate round of the Pioneer Daihatsu Rally Challenge is the Woodpecker Stages, which takes place on September 2 and 3.

Based in Ludlow, this event is run on the fast and famous mid-Wales forest stages, and should provide Wood and Imber with plenty of opportunities to close in on the leading teams.

They will be hoping that all their luck is good this time.

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