York's Jenny Davies scored maximum points to boost her ratings and take a step nearer to Ladies' Champion in the Pirelli Rally, the second round of the Mobil 1 British Rally Championship.

Because all rally results are provisional immediately after an event, allowing for appeals, there is no official points table available. However Davies, driving the works Proton Compact, was the only manufacturers' women driver to finish, and so gained important points. The reigning champion, SEAT works driver Barbara Armstrong, was forced to retire with mechanical trouble.

It was also a great rally for Selby's James Middlebrook, taking part in the Skoda Championship which offers a first prize of £13,000 or a works-supported drive in next year's Mintex National Championship. Middlebrook survived several tortuous moments as he took the Felicia through the 121-miles of forest and tarmac.

The Skoda Championship consists of nine rounds. Two of them were played out during the Vauxhall Rally of Wales in March when Middlebrook collected 43 points, and after this weekend's double header, rounds three and four, he was able to add a further 42, taking his total to 85, and his overall position to fifth, 27 points behind the championship leader, Daniel Dunbabin of Warrington.

For Proton, Jenny Davies' result is a real boost. Last season was a disaster right up until the last round of the World Rally Championship staged in the United Kingdom, when both works Protons, the other driven by Sweden's Mats Andersson, finished without mishap.

This season both cars are showing their worth, although not without some faults, but happily most of them repairable.

For two other Yorkshire drivers, Stewart Hymas (Harrogate) and Jonny Milner (Driffield) the rally ended in disaster. Both were forced to retire.

It ended for Hymas, with co-driver Richard 'Plug' Pulleyn of Wigginton, during forest stage eight when his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 5 ended upside down in a wood pile. Both men escaped unharmed.

Milner in his Toyota Celica GT4 was lying sixth overall when disaster struck. Slower cars ahead of him would not let his pass, and then the differential blew, forcing the car to a halt mid-stage. He was forced to retire as he stormed through stage 10, confident of a place on the leaderboard and certainly winner of his class, in the two-litre Production Cup for a showroom standard car.

York co-driver Roger Burkhill, paired with German driver Joachim Muller-Wende, took their Honda Civic to stage four on the first day before they lost a wheel and retired.

Formula Three contender Jeremy Smith, of Breighton, drove to 15th place overall in both round four and five of the Autosport F3 championship at Brands Hatch. But the result was not good enough for him to hold on to the National Class leadership, and he dropped to second place with 74 points.

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