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The Pro-Art Red Dragon Stages The Port Talbot MC organised Pro-Art Signs Red Dragon Rally may have lacked it's former BTRDA championship status, but on Saturday April 5th it showed that it had lost nothing else, the rally adjudged a success by its peers, and providing a day of close, compact and competitive rallying in the forests of the Vale of Neath. Rally winners - and pre-event favourites -  were Hugh Hunter and Andy Marchbank in their Ford Focus WRC, half a minute clear of Damian Cole/Den Golding in their Get Connected Hyundai Accent WRC, added interest provided by young Welsh driver Stuart Jones, he and co-driver Andy Bull out testing the new MG S2000 Sport, and with an admitted advantage of having accompanied the organisers through the stages pre-rally, set three fastest times, two seconds and a third, and could theoretically have been rally winners had they not deliberately failed to check in to the final control, bearing in mind their unique situation. The exercise allowed the young British Rally Championship crew some development experience, but also gave organisers feedback on how a leading BRC crew viewed what the Pro-Art Red Dragon provided for competitors. Hunter and March bank were worthy winners though, Jones more than happy to have got in valuable pre- Pirelli International Rally test miles in the MG, able to fine tune set ups for both wet and dry stages, such were the conditions on the rally, entered purely as a test session prior to the imminent BRC round. At the finish Hunter praised the organisers - the rally newly overseen by PTMC co-driver Dylan Jenkins and veteran ANCRO Clerk of the Course Alan Stoneman - the winner expressing surprise that the event had been dropped as a BTRDA round, and a conviction that it should be re-instated, and, with series observers present on the rally and many other competitors agreeing, it will be interesting to see what developes from the organisers determination to run the event, and make it the success it proved. With the event also having continued backing from Pro-Art Signs of Neath, the company that recently won a small business award for excellence, and over forty miles of stages in a one day format that saw crews arrive early and be off home by tea-time, inclusion in the Millers Oils Welsh Clubman Forest series, Pine Lodge Maps MSA Welsh National Championship, ASWMC Loose Surface Championship and ANWCC Forest Championship, the rally provided keen competition from the outset. Stage one went to the Hunter Focus WRC, from Richard and Sara Ceen in their similar car, their start number 53 much improved by taking a seventh overall and class third by the end, the Jones MG sharing that stage second spot on identical time, over the eight and a half miles from Walters Arena down to the Neath valley bottom. The Hunter Ford retained the lead on stage two, near five miles of fast flowing stage further down the Neath Valley to finish near Abergarwed, free of the radar traps that once so influenced Wales Rally GB and a measure of the Police confidence in the good conduct of the rally. With speed confined to the forests it was an MG that was in pursuit of the Focus WRC, Jones a mere three seconds in arrears, a situation he would reverse on stage three, as the rally took in the seven miles of the first Rhondda stage. Michael O'Brien got his Focus into a stage second here, four seconds down on the MG, with Hunter plummeting down to sixth fastest, seventeen seconds adrift of the leader. Stage four saw the rally back to the Walters Arena stage, the O'Brien glory dented - as was his Ford Focus, which lost its front bodywork after an off that cost around a minute - but Ford honour upheld by the Focus WRC of Hunter, fastest by five seconds to move into the same margin behind the leading MG. Damian Cole was third, albeit rather distant in his Get Connected Hyundai WRC, though he was rewarded by second overall at the finish, as Jones and Bull sportingly - and very properly - elected to non-finish. The fifth stage was another run through Rheola, the Jones MG again fastest, but by a mere two seconds from Hunter, his Focus literally on the hunt, the Cole Hyundai third on the stage and in third overall place. Into the final seven miles it was then, another Rhondda run, with the white MG again fastest by seven seconds from the pursuing Ford Focus WRC, as Martyn and Ian England got their Mitsubishi Evo9RS into third, their best run of a day that saw them consistently in the top ten stage times, a feat that also brought the class victory. At the finish Hunter and Marchbank took the winners laurels, as the Jones/Bull MG team slipped away, their job done, Damian Cole and Den Golding (Hyundai Accent WRC) took runners up from Pete Egerton and Paul Spooner, their Hyundai Accent in the top five placings throughout the day after a consistent run. The class wins included David Howells/Andy Morgan - Subaru Impreza - their margin over a minute, Tony Williams / Mike Jones of West Wales taking the class in their Ford Escort RS, Brace/Samuel first in the historic Ford RS1800, Trevor Baynham/Tony Bailey taking their class win, also Ford Escort mounted,  Alan & Denise Desbois taking their rear wheel drive Peugeot 306 to a win for the West Country, from second and third PTMC crews Dai Lloyd/Simon Anthony (who won the best PTMC crew award with their Peugeot 205 GtI) and John Evans/Neil Featherstone in a Ford Escort Mark Two, whilst the final class win went by the huge margin of over seven minutes to Clive Anstey/Derek Mines in their Vauxhall Corsa, out of the forty four finishers. Roger Gale PTMC Pictures by Rally Action Photography