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Post Event
Severn Valley Stages, Saturday 3rd June 2006...
Newport Pagnell's Mike Winfield and Andy McGowan claimed their first win of the season with a double victory in both the Total Motorsport Solutions 1400 Challenge and the ANCRO National Clubmans Championship in class 1. Driving their GP Autosports Peugeot 206 1400, the pair endured the fast mid Wales stages on the way to their first victory in the category and Mike's first ever class win.
The rally started well with the crew setting fastest time through the days first stage, stopping the clock 1 minute and 12 seconds faster than the identical car of Martin Laverty after 12 miles of Crychan Forest. “We pushed very hard in the first two stages to try and establish some kind of lead” said Mike at the finish. “I was very conscious of us not getting on the pace straight away as in previous rallies which was a definite area which I needed to address. We have generally been on the pace in the afternoon stages of all the rallies we have done, but our deficit was always made in the first two stages”.
Closest Peugeot 206 challenger Martin Laverty and Andrew Roughead were later to develop an engine problem, leaving Mike to concentrate on the ANCRO class 1 battle. Mike said, “Knowing Martin had a problem was unfortunate, but at least it let me off the lead to do battle with the usual ANCRO crews. I backed off in the afternoon loop of stages, as I was quite worried about damaging the car. The afternoon stages were a re-run of the mornings in parts, and were not in the best of conditions as a result, big rocks and very rough in places.
“I am so pleased for both myself and all the team to finally get a win, as everybody works so hard, both on the face of it and behind the scenes away from rallies. The next round is the Swansea Bay Rally in South Wales, which I finished second at last year, so I will be hoping for one better this year and to add to the win tally!” The Swansea Bay Rally, based in Swansea city centre takes place on the 22nd July, where Mike and Andy will be hoping to repeat their Severn Valley success once again.
Posted by Ben Hennessy 
31.10.06
latest news
Pre Event
Severn Valley Stages, Saturday 3rd June 2006...
Peugeot 206 crew, Mike Winfield and Andy McGowan head off to Builth Wells in mid Wales this weekend to contest the Severn Valley Stages, the second round of the ANCRO Clubmans Rally championship and third round of the Total Motorsport Solutions 1400 challenge.
"This was an event which we went well on last year" said Mike. "On this event in 2005 we beat Martin Laverty (biggest rival so far this year) by 2 and a half minutes, so we will be hoping to run strongly and set a good pace again this year".
The crew currently lie in 5th place overall in the ANCRO clubmans category and 2nd in the Total Motorsport Solutions 1400 challenge.
"The stages are the best in the country and are a real challenge. The vast majority are used later in the year for Wales Rally GB and are very fast and flowing which seem to be the type of stages which we are most competitive on" said Mike.
"We did a lot of development on the last rally and I have managed to get in lots of test mileage inbetween as well. We are all keen to see how we get on this time round and see if we can close the gap on the same old frontrunners".
The rally will start on Saturday morning at the Royal Welsh Show Ground in Builth Wells, returning there for the finish in the evening. The action takes place in the very fast Welsh forests, with stages in Crychan, Cefn, and Halfway Forest complexes off the A483 towards Llandovery.
Visit the event website at http://www.mutinyrally.com/severn/spectators.html for further information and detailed spectator instructions.
Posted by Ben Hennessy 31.10.06
