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UK: Steve Perez Astra Stages summary

Points Make Prizes For Perez VK Vodka Kick Rally Team driver Steve Perez moved to within nine points of the series lead after a thrilling Astra Stages battle in the classic Welsh forests, which played host to round two of the Kumho Tyres ...

Published: Apr 4, 2004, 1:43 PM

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Points Make Prizes For Perez

VK Vodka Kick Rally Team driver Steve Perez moved to within nine points of the series lead after a thrilling Astra Stages battle in the classic Welsh forests, which played host to round two of the Kumho Tyres National Rally Championship.

Driving the Tim Ashton prepared Ford Focus WRC, the Chesterfield driver along with Yorkshire co driver Plug Pulleyn, repeated their performance of a month ago in Bournemouth to record yet another fourth place finish after 80 miles of stages in difficult conditions, to elevate themselves to second in the championship.

Unlike a number of drivers around him, Perez had a relatively trouble free day and started well to lay inside the top ten after the opening stage in Clocaenog. From there, he climbed to seventh before upping his game even further to claim fourth after the first of the Penmachno tests held in driving rain.

With five drivers vying for fourth place overall and separated by just a handful of seconds, the final loop was always going to be critical and Perez responded well to emerge 2.5 seconds to the good at the head of the chasing pack. A stunning drive through the final two stages consolidated his fourth place and at the Llangollen finish, he was just 11 seconds down on former champion Marcus Dodd (Toyota).

"We did what we came here to do and to get a result" declared Perez on the finish ramp. "I'm still learning to drive this car all the time and this is a good result for us. We had a good, clean run without too many problems and second place in the championship is a good position to be in going into the next round in the Isle of Man" he concluded.

<pre> Results 1 Andrew Burton/John Roberts Peugeot Cosworth 1:15:09.1 2 Roger Duckworth/Mark Broomfield Subaru Impreza WRC 1:16:30.2 3 Marcus Dodd/Stephen McAuley Toyota Corolla WRC 1:17:44.1 4 Steve Perez/Plug Pulleyn Ford FocusWRC 1:17:55.9 5 Steve Petch/John Richardson Hyundai Accent WRC 1:18:03.4 6 Bob Ceen/Alistair Douglas Subaru Impreza 555 1:18:23.6

Championship: 1 Duckworth 47 2 Perez 38 3 Petch 38 4 Burton 25

The next round takes place on May 7/8 with the Roush Manx National Rally.

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