BROADWAY’S Gary Le Coadou narrowly failed to defend his title at the annual Regency Stages Rally at the Royal Bath & West Showground at the weekend.

The event, organized by Weston Super Mare Motor Club, was a qualifying round of three regional championships and consisted of eight tarmac stages – including two night time stages – over a distance of about 45 miles.

The event, which was supported by 102 crews, started with damp weather conditions causing the tarmac surface to become extremely slippery.

Having won the event last year, Le Coadou started the event in his Toyota Corolla WRC as Car 1 with a new co-driver in Plymouth’s Tony Bassett.

Le Coadou set the fastest times on the first two stages and pulled an eight second advantage over Graham Butler in his Focus WRC.

And with equal times on stage three the Corolla still had the slight advantage.

However, with the conditions drying and a damaged wheel, the Corolla lost seven seconds to the Focus on Stage 4 and Le Coadou was clinging on to a one second lead.

With the battle really intensifying, both crews tied on stage times for Stage 5 and 7.

On the final stage Le Coadou was unfortunate to be held up by several slower cars on his second loop and Butler managed to claw back the time and take the win.

There was also an intense battle further down the field for third and fourth place between Josh Payton in his Mk2 Escort and Mike Threlfall’s Mitsubishi EVO9 with Payton finally taking third place 55 seconds behind Le Coadou.

Le Coadou said: “I’d like to thank my service crew – Bill, Charlie, Rob and Scott – for keeping the car going throughout the event.”