GARY Le Coadou and Paul Hollingham had a successful visit over the weekend to Down Ampney in Gloucester and returned home to Somerset with their Toyota Celica GT4 having been the Overall Winners at the Owen Developments Stages Rally.

The rally attracted a good entry with over 70 crews from across the country competing on 56 stage miles set over ten stages. The organisers, EMCOS, set an interesting course, having pumped gallons of water onto one part of the stage just before a hairpin to create a huge water splash - this lead to some interesting driving skills!

The day started well with Gary and navigator Paul setting fastest time on the first two stages. Considering neither had ever been to this venue before, this was a great achievement. Last year's rally winner, Steve Snook in his Subaru Impreza WRC S9, chased hard and set the fastest times on the next two stages marginally reducing their lead and putting immense pressure onto the duo.

But Gary and Paul added two more seconds to their lead on stage five before firmly establishing their lead with fastest times on stages six and seven. Steve Snook's Subaru had locked up and slid into one of the very tight chicanes and dropped a further 24 seconds.

Unfortunately, the Celica emerged from stage seven with a four-inch nail sticking out of the tyre. This luckily happened towards the end of the stage and the tyre was changed at the next service.

With only three stages left, the pair now had a comfortable lead and were able to back off to avoid the likelihood of mistakes and cruise home to victory. Steve Snook was runner up, 26 seconds in arrears, and third place went to Jim Munden in his Ford Escort who was one minute six seconds behind the Toyota.

Gary would like to thank service manager Rob King and Bill Paynter for keeping the car going throughout the event, Andrew Hollingham for making the best bacon rolls in town, John Houghton, and the Toyota's sponsors, PCS Furnishing Centre, Mintex Racing, Matador Tyres and Livingstones Warman Insurance Brokers for all their support.

The Toyota is back out contesting in the next round of the BTRDA Asphalt Championship on May 28 at Millbrook, Bedfordshire.