This is a blog post. To read the original post, please click here »

Written by [url=mailto:robin@bradfax.com]Robin Bradford[/url]Second to Bourne on Sunday’s opening Stewarts Hill stage (4.1kms), Bird took the lead, Skeete occasionally in trouble with the launch control – at the Prizegiving, he said: “Really, I think the launch control was having trouble with Roger” – but Bourne was on a charge. With three stage wins from the first four, he passed Bird for second and, by the end of the second Karcher Kendal (6.1kms), was just six-tenths behind Skeete.

Over the next six stages, Skeete and Bourne enjoyed a titanic struggle, Skeete the faster of the two on Stewarts Hill, Bourne on Kendal . . . each time Skeete extended his lead, Bourne cut him back on the next stage. As they headed for the Shell V-Power SuperSpecial at Simpson Motors – included in the event’s overall timing calculations for the first time - the gap between them, which had risen to 4.31secs at one point in those six frantic stages, was back down to six-tenths!

[nggallery id=328]

_________________
3NE•2NR