DESPITE them contesting events nearly two hundred miles apart, the region's two 1400cc rallying stars Jonny Brownand Mark Constantine came away with a resounding class win apiece in their respective events last weekend.

Great Broughton student Jonny Brown and co-driver James Lester from Harmby enjoyed their best result to date when they took the 1400cc Commercial Consultants Vauxhall Nova to a class victory on the Tyneside Stages Rally held over the military ranges of Otterburn.

Choosing to miss the clashing BTRDA event on the same weekend due to the regulations stipulating they had to not contest one round, the youngsters decided the super-fast Sherwood Forest event would not suit their down-on-speed car so they headed north instead.

Brown was immediately on the pace setting fastest class time on SS1 by some 16 seconds but a fuel starvation problem, coupled with a pothole damaging the suspension meant they dropped time on the second stage and afterwards only sterling work by their service crew allowed them to stay in contention.

After five stages, Brown had dropped to second in class but the 19-year-old fought back on SS6 to close to within 20 seconds of the class leader. Fed up with a string of second place finishes, Brown attacked all out on the final 22-mile test and emerged with a 20-second lead to claim his first class victory as well as finishing 24th overall.

Meanwhile Constantine, from Richmond, and co-driven as usual by brother Andrew, headed for round six of the BTRDA Rally Championship comprising the Autospares Dukeries Rally which was based in Mansfield and once again came away with a class win to increase their lead in the B9 class of the series to eight points over the absent Brown.

Driving the WA Browne Maxsport Nova, the pair ended up in 39th overall on their way to winning the B9 class by over half a minute and in doing so, moved up to 2nd place in the overall raceandrally.com 1400cc championship.

But with the current leader of the series yet to not contest a round, things are looking bright for Constantine who is just three points behind. Brown, for his part, lies fourth in the overall 1400cc category nine points adrift and third in the Under 25 standings with four rounds remaining.

Also in action on the Dukeries event were two other local crews, neither of whom saw the finish. Harrogate's Tim Pearcey and co-driver Mick Johnson from Thirsk retired their Ford Escort on SS6 with engine problems whilst Pickhill driver Matt Yeadon and co-driver Richard Shores from Boltby went out after the very first stage with broken suspension on their Nu Era Ford Cosworth.

It was, however, better news for local competitors on the Tyneside Stages with seven out of the nine local crews entered, posting good results.

Whilst Jonny Brown was the only driver to take a class win, plenty of others were in contention, the best being Newton Aycliffe's Geoff Wright and co-driver Sheila Thompson in their RMC Nissan Almera Kit Car who managed a fine 9th overall on their way to 3rd in the 1600cc class with the Barnard Castle pairing of Tony Thompson and Richard Myers taking 11th overall and 4th in class in their Mitsubishi Lancer.

The younger of the Thompson brothers Mark, and fellow Barnard Castle resident Giles Dyke claimed 23rd overall and 9th in class in their Peugeot 205 but it wasn't such good news for the Williams Renault of Alistair Hutchinson and St John Dykes, also from Barnard Castle, who crashed out on SS4.

Bedale's Bryan Gill and co-driver Joyce Champion from Castleton also retired their John Gill Ford Escort Cosworth with transmission problems on SS5.

* Darlington rider Mark Burr continued where he'd left off the week previous at Brands Hatch, this time with another superb performance at Rockingham in round seven of the British Superbike Championship last weekend.

Fresh from his first ever double points haul, the 21-year-old qualified the 750cc Hawk Racing Toshiba Kawasaki on row three of the grid after improving by three places in the Superpole session to give him a career-best starting position of 11th.

In the opening race, Burr was circulating in 11th place but the front end patter got gradually worse and he ended up crashing out of the race just a couple of laps from home. But the youngster made up for his disappointment in race two when he was involved in a titanic battle with the works Suzuki of TT legend David Jefferies, just losing out in the final stages but he still ended up with his best result of the season in 9th.

Meanwhile, with Guisborough Superstock ace Dennis Hobbs sidelined from the weekend's action with suspected appendicitis, it was left to Middlesbrough schoolboy Paul Veazey to represent the region but sadly to no avail when he suffered a weekend of problems aboard the 125cc Banks Racing Honda eventually retiring four laps from the end of the race whilst outside the top ten.

* Colin Ward from Stanley rode his Sherco to yet another win on Sunday when he took the North Durham club's trial at Oxenlaw, Castleside, near Consett, for the loss of just a single mark. The event catered for all levels using three courses, experts, intermediates and easy. Ward's nearest rival was Andy Huddleston on his Montesa who would have finished on one also, but unfortunately went in the wrong direction through one section and lost five for that. In the intermediate class, Geoff McDonnell on his Sherco finished on six, five clear of Scott Fenton who took second place in the intermediates on most cleans from Ian Cheetham.

Results. - Experts: 1 Colin Ward (Sherco) 1; 2 Andy Huddleston (Montesa) 6; 3 Carl Shaw (Bultaco) 7. Intermediates: 1 Geoff McDonnell (Sherco) 6; 2 Scott Fenton (Sherco) 11MC; 3 Ian Cheetham (Beta) 11. Easy course: 1 Steve Hedley (Sherco) 5FC; 2 Dale Royal (Sherco) 5; 3 Ian Rutter (Gas Gas) 10.

A busy weekend for local trial riders starts on Saturday, June 29 with Guisborough Motor Club's fifth round of their club trials championship at Skelder Farm, Commondale, starting at 6pm. For information Ann Watson on 01287 660577.

On Sunday, June 30, Guisborough are in action again with a centre trial for clubmen and youths at Skelder Farm, Commondale, starting at 10.30.

Also on Sunday, the North East centre junior trial takes place at Doddington, near Wooller, Northumberland, starting at 11am, contact Harry Norman on 0191 252 8641.

Again on Sunday is the Richmond Motor Club with the Noel Peacock central trial at Weststonesdale, Keld, on the Keld to Tanhill Road starting at 10.30, contact Angela Sunter on 01748 884549.