A cock-a-hoop Jenny Davies rolled her Proton onto the finishing podium at Cheltenham last night celebrating her 53rd place in the Network Q Rally of Great Britain.

"It's brilliant," said the York-based 22-year-old, hugging the silver trophy presented to those who made it through the 28 stages over 1,175-plus miles, taking in forests and moorlands of Wales, and the racing circuits of Silverstone, Donington and Millbrook.

Jenny, with co-driver Claire Mole of Berwick, also finished fourth in her class, Group A 1300cc-1600cc.

But it was not plain sailing. Like most competitors, the Proton team decided on gravel tyres for the Silverstone stages, but these proved virtually useless on the fast tarmac stages.

A front tyre shredded and the engine flooded twice before a Skoda was to cause difficulties during the final stages.

Explained Davies: "We were sitting behind a rally Skoda who refused to move over and let us pass. We were a much faster car and he should have moved.

We had to sit behind him for six miles, before he eventually moved over. Claire gave him some sound advice, and he promised to move over in future.

"That afternoon on the third from last stage, we came up behind him again. This time he did pull over, but as we went into a 60-degree bend I took the corner a little too fast and we went off. By the time we got back onto the track, that Skoda was back in front of us and it took an absolute age before we could get past again."

Davies' joy was in sharp contrast to Spaniard Carlos Sainz.

Sainz was robbed of the World Championship in the cruellest circumstances after a dramatic climax to the rally which was won by Richard Burns.

He was just 300 yards from the end of the final stage when the engine of his Toyota Corolla set on fire and he was forced to retire.

Sainz had been set to complete the rally in the fourth position he needed to overhaul Tommi Makinen in the standings and capture the world crown for the third time.

But he was left in tears at the roadside, his co-driver Luis Moya banging his crash helmet in frustration as Sainz became the third big name to finish on the sidelines after Makinen and Colin McRae.

Of the other North Yorkshire drivers, rally regular Les Andrews of Knaresborough roared over the finishing line in 57th place and third in class in his Vauxhall Astra.

But of the 168 competitors, half the field retired, among them most of the North Yorkshire entries.

Stewart Hymas of Burton Leonard, near Harrogate, and co-driver Richard "Plug" Pulleyn of York survived 25 special stages only to come adrift three stages from home when the engine started to tire.

For North Duffield driver, Charles Gabb, and co-driver Jonathan Riley (Selby) the rally came to an abrupt end on Monday at the forest stage at Tywi when the gearbox seized.

The day before, during the unique Silverstone sprint where two cars compete against each other on adjoining tracks, they hit one of the hairpins so fast that their Ford Sierra climbed the dividing bank and almost rolled on to the other track.

Then, moving on to another special stage at Donington race circuit, they broke an engine mounting and tootled around the next stage back at Cheltenham while two of the team's mechanics drove back to York during the night to pick up new engine mountings.

York's Simon Redhead went out on Sunday after the engine of his newly-bought Subaru Impreza 555 died and refused to start again.

York's Gary Cooper and Jonathan Belbin also went out on Sunday after their Subaru went through a horrendous roll at Donington but they escaped injury.

Missing from the start, although listed as among the entries, was Jonny Milner, the Stamford Bridge British Rally Championship driver.

"I don't understand how my name appeared on the entry list, because I never intended to drive. If I had I would probably have beaten the lot of them!" he quipped.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.