NINE months after sweeping to victory on the De Lacy Club's Kall Kwik rally, Scorton driver Steve Petch and John Richardson from Northallerton claimed another victory on home soil last Saturday.

The pair won the same club's inaugural, compact and well-received Forest Stages rally held in the Dalby Forest complex near Pickering.

Driving their SGP Motorsport Hyundai Accent WRC, the pair led the 37 stage mile event from start to finish. They ended up nearly three minutes to the good after the six stages and, despite a couple of overshoots on the very slippery opening leg resulting in a broken windscreen, they were never seriously threatened.

Fourteen seconds faster than Leeds brothers Jeremy and Paul Nolan on the opening test in Swairdale, Petch upped the pace on the longer Sneverdale stage as the Nolans suffered a monumental crash within sight of the finish, totally wrecking their Mitsubishi.

Also going out on the first leg was another of the fancied runners, Matt Yeadon from Pickhill, who, along with Boltby co-driver Richard Shores, went out after sliding into a muddy ditch in his Nu Era Ford Sapphire Cosworth.

That left the Steel River Ford Puma Evo of Thimbleby businessman David Brown, fellow Yorkshireman James Thompson - the reigning British Touring Car champion who was giving his brand new Mitsubishi a pre-Rally GB shakedown - and Richard Watts from Bridlington (Escort Cosworth) to give chase nearly a minute behind Petch as the cars headed for SS3 in Staindale.

Petch continued to extend his advantage on the six-miler, emerging some 17 seconds faster than Thompson, and he continued his attack on the little used and notoriously slippery Bickley test to lie some 1min 52secs to the good at final service.

But behind the battle was hotting up and just two seconds covered Thompson, Watts and Brown as they set off for the final couple of runs through Dalby, a repeat of the opening two stages.

Sensing a welcome victory, Petch erred on the side of caution while continuing to increase his lead through the final dozen or so miles, unaware of the drama that was unfolding behind him.

Both Watts and Thompson were blazing a trail through the final stage, the latter quite literally when his car caught fire a few hundred yards from home.

Sportingly, Watts stopped to assist and the resulting one minute time loss meant that he surrendered second place to Brown and co-driver Tony Walker from Barnard Castle.

With no contingency to compensate the Bridlington driver, he and co-driver Christine Parling (York) chivalrously settled for third place overall.

Petch eventually finished 2mins 48secs ahead of Brown with Watts a further 38 seconds back in third. Exelby's Chris Lewis and co-driver Jon Dunning from York claimed fourth in their DSM-prepared Food Weighouse Mitsubishi.

Ripon driver Tim Pearcey and co-driver Mick Johnson from Thirsk claimed the honour of being first two-wheel drive car home in the Ford Escort, finishing seventh overall on their way to a class win.

Stephen Petch junior and Tow Law co-driver Michael Wilkinson recorded a great result in their 1400cc SGP Ford Ka with a superb 20th overall and a class win, while Thirsk driver Chris Wise and co-driver Tony Christon ended up four places above them and ninth in class in their Ford Escort Cosworth.

But Simon Rippon from Darlington and co-driver Ian Jackson of Eaglescliffe retiredat halfway with a broken drive shaft on their Inkland Vauxhall Astra.

Provisional results. - 1 S Petch/J Richardson, Hyundai Accent WRC, 35mins 01secs; 2 D Brown/T Walker, Ford Puma Evo 4x4, 37.49; 3 R Watts/C Parling, Ford Escort Cosworth, 38.27; 4 C Lewis/J Dunning, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6, 38.42; 5 I Gwynne/C Cooledge, Subaru Impreza, 39.19; 6 G Cooper/M Whattam, Subaru Impreza, 39.25; 7 T Pearcey/M Johnson, Ford Escort, 39.38; 8 A Carter/A Townend, Ford Escort, 39.49; 9 J McNeil/C Francis, Subaru Impreza, 39.58; 10 N Dobson/D Dobson, Ford Escort, 40.36.

* Stockton on Tees rider Karl Nicholson has emerged as champion of one of the toughest club road racing series in the country.

The New Era Superclub Formula 600 championship was fought out over 22 races during the season at various tracks in England and Wales and 27-year-old Nicholson's prize for winning was a brand new Honda CBR600.

After wins at Mallory Park and Castle Combe as well as double victories at Pembrey and Cadwell Park during the season, the Lincoln Electric Honda rider rode to a pair of sensible fifth places in the wet final round at Snetterton last month to clinch the title to go with his Laird of Croft from last season.

Fellow Stockton rider Tom Leonard was pushing for the championship in the early stages with three wins, a second and a pair of thirds in the opening six races.

An engine blow-up forced his campaign to end early, but he still managed to claim ninth in the standings.

Meanwhile, in the national MRO Championships, Bishop Auckland ACU Academy rider Barry Burrell finished runner-up in the prestigious RS125 Aprilia Superteen Championship, claiming five wins and a third place out of his final six races.

Yarm's Russell Hodgson ended up ninth in the MRO 125cc standings after contesting just three rounds - which he used as practise for his British Championship campaign - with two second places and a fourth.

Whitby racer Jenny Tinmouth finished just outside the top 40 overall after contesting just two rounds. She also competed in three rounds of the New Era Superclub GP125 series, scoring points on each occasion.

l The traditional Riponian Rally, normally run on the first weekend in February, has been postponed for 2003 due to a lack of stage mileage.

The Ripon Motor Club event usually attracts a good entry for the stages around the Lightwater Valley theme park and the forests near Sutton Bank, but, due to the deterioration of a number of stages used in recent years, the organisers have decided to shelve plans amid concerns from competitors.

The Waterloo stage near Helmsley was getting particularly rough and with no alternative venues to replace the dozen or so competitive miles, the club had no alternative but to scrap plans for 2003 and perhaps beyond.

However, the organisers are planning to run a single-venue rally next September in Hamsterley forest to be named the Hamsterley Riponian