Wily Evans seizes title

The win lifts Evans and co-driver Chris Patterson back into contention for the Dulux Trade British Rally Championship, last won by the Welshman in 1996. When he sat more than a minute and ten seconds off the pace with just four stages of the famous Scottish rally to go, few gave him a chance. However, the battle that had raged throughout Friday night's first six stages between young Irishmen Keith Cronin, the reigning British Champion and top seed this weekend, and Craig Breen, whose combined age is just 43, ran into trouble.

Breen had the most expensive car in the international field, his Ford Fiesta S2000 worth around 250,000, and it showed as he dominated Friday's shorter stages. However, Cronin's Subaru Impreza N15 proved its worth on the near 15-mile Abbey stage across the Lammermuir Hills and he should have gone into an overnight lead. However, the Impreza swung wide on a bend in the dark final stage of Friday night and suffered a puncture, turning what was a 16-second lead into a 13-second deficit on Breen and Welsh co-driver Gareth Roberts.

Cronin feared that yesterday's stages would suit Breen better and the 20-year-old proved it to be true by increasing his lead in the morning stages. However, the Waterford driver, who failed to finish the opening round of the British Championship in Wales and then was denied victory in last month's Pirelli Rally by a puncture, suffered the agonising feeling of fading power in his Super 2000 in the tenth stage, which pointed to a blown engine and another premature end to a rally he was dominating.

Another Irish pair, Alastair Fisher and Rory Kennedy, briefly led in their Mitsubishi Evo 9, but veteran Evans had scented his opportunity and won the last six stages to storm to the front and land the international rally by 31 seconds from Fisher with Cronin in third, more than a minute further back. Dave Weston Jnr from Aberdeen came through in the rain-sodden final stage to claim a fine fourth with Welsh co-driver Ieuan Thomas.

In what was an incredible two days of rallying, English pair Damien Cole and Craig Drew won the 62-car National Rally in a Ford Focus WRC – posting some quicker times than the international winners – and there was a good Scottish showing with Duns duo Douglas Brydon and David O'Brien finishing a fine fourth in their Subaru Impreza, and Mull's Calum and Iain Duffy taking sixth as Scots claimed the rest of the top 11 spots.

The Historic Rally delighted the thousands of spectators scattered around Duns and the Berwickshire countryside with a colourful array of Vauxhall Chevettes, Opel Kadetts, Triumph TR7s, Mini Coopers, Porsches and Talbot Sunbeams, but it was Darren Moon in a Ford that emerged at the top of the field, while Richard Archer and Tom Ward won the Challenge Rally in a Vauxhall Corsa. Reigning Landrover Champion Sgt Ewen Christie from Perth and co-driver Curtis McKerlie secured a hat-trick of titles for his Landrover Wolf XDs from the Armed Forces Rally Team.

Berwickshire will not be calmed quite yet, however, as more than 130 mostly Scottish cars will today take part in the final event of the weekend, the eight-stage Jim Clark Reivers Rally, from 9:30am until 6:30pm.