Shelly's normally reliable Subaru plays up on the Red Dragon rally (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Shelly's normally reliable Subaru plays up on the Red Dragon rally

THE 2003 British ladies' rally champion Shelly Taunt, alongside Highworth co-driver Julie Murphy, battled against all the odds during last weekend's fifth round of the BTRDA rally championship.

The Red Dragon rally, held in the Welsh forests of Rheola, Resolven and Walters Arena, put the girls to the test as conditions were extremely dry.

Dust proved a major problem for all 180 competitors and for the Silverstone Rally School, Guest and Fiore Bricklayers, Advanced Sign Factory, Rapid Hire and Simpsons of Highworth backed crew.

Electrical failure and a puncture on the penultimate stage, found the pair rapidly dropping to the back of the field.

Their Subaru Impreza was working well on the first two stages, but on stage three the car suddenly lost power when Shelly was exiting a left-hand hairpin and they were forced to pull over.

An estimated eight minutes were lost and, although the car was turning over, it would not fire up.

The girls eventually got the car going and were able to continue. They still had a further stage to complete before service when their mechanics were able to repair the problem.

With the huge loss of time and other two stages still to go, the crew decided a finish was all they could aim for.

Having completed just three miles of the penultimate stage, a puncture saw the pair lose more valuable time as they were forced to pull over to change a wheel.

Despite the problems, Shelly and Julie enjoyed the event and Julie said, "It was another learning curve. I suppose I have been lucky in previous events as we didn't really encounter problems - certainly not one after another.

"Shelly's experience kept us going and we even had a giggle changing the wheel. The Subaru is a heavy car and trying to change a wheel on uneven ground on the top of a Welsh mountain with thick dust in your face was quite amusing."

The girls finished 119th overall, but still collected points in their championship quest. Their next event will be the Dukeries rally which starts in Mansfield on Saturday, June 19.

For information relating to this event and the team, please log on to www.shellytaunt.com