BRITISH Rally Championship leader Jonny Milner has received a helping hand in his bid to win the title in his own backyard.

Milner, based at Huggate, near Pocklington, takes his Team Dynamics Pro Rally Toyota Corolla WRC into this weekend's North Yorkshire-based Trackrod Rally knowing he still needs the help of others to clinch the title.

However, his prayers might now have been answered as the redoubtable 1996 British champion, Gwyndaf Evans, could help his title claims after becoming a late entry in his 1600cc MG ZR Xpower.

The Welshman has been a regular thorn in Milner's title rival Justin Dale's side when his world championship commitments have allowed him to compete in the UK.

The championship's complicated class-based scoring system - to be amended next season - means that, although Milner and co-driver Nicky Beech hold a three-point lead over Hampshire driver Dale, even outright victory in the Trackrod - the deciding round - wouldn't be enough to secure the title if Dale's Peugeot 206 wins the 1600cc class.

Milner, rally winner in Wales and Scotland, starts favourite to add a third outright victory to his season's tally but Dale already has a trio of class wins under his belt and would also have been hotly tipped to take another maximum score on the York-based event but for Evans' presence.

Both leading British Championship protagonists have to drop their lowest score at the end of the series and Milner has not finished lower than third in the 'open' class - in Ulster a fortnight ago - so stands to drop four points, while Dale crashed into a river in Scotland, so counts every point he scores in Yorkshire.

That effectively tips the championship balance in Dale's favour by one point should both score equally in their respective classes on the 14-stage North York Moors which starts in Pickering tomorrow morning and finishes in York on Sunday afternoon.

Milner said: "I know the stages well and I've won rallies and rallysprints in the Dalby forest before. It holds no fears for me, but I respect the stages a lot too."

Leeds-based Trackrod Motor Club's seventh and final points-scoring round of the series for drivers forms the biggest rally to be staged in Yorkshire for a decade. Not since the 1992 Lombard RAC Rally has an international field used the stages in Dalby, Cropton and Langdale.

The weekend festival of rallying also includes the one-day Trackrod National Rally, the Trackrod Clubmans Trophy, the Trackrod Historic Cup and Trackrod Landrover Challenge.

Regonal rally championships and the HRCR Historic Rally Challenge are also incorporated into the weekend's action-packed schedule.

Updated: 10:57 Friday, September 27, 2002