FOR the second event in succession, County Durham rally driver Chris Anderson's hopes of a good result were thwarted when the mechanical gremlins struck on the opening stage of the Tyneside Stages Rally.

After the disappointment of the last stage problems which robbed him of a potential top ten finish on the previous Weeton Stages Rally, Anderson was hoping for a return to form over the narrow asphalt roads of the Otterburn Army Ranges in Northumberland.

However, on the very first stage he suffered problems with the power steering which hindered his progress. Luckily for him, Durham co-driver Chris Thirling had a spare part in his kit bag and the problem was fixed at the end of the stage.

But that's where his luck ended as any hopes the 17-year-old maintenance engineer from Butterknowle had of progressing on his debut on the multi-venue paced notes event were dashed when gearbox problems stopped the Ford Puma S1600 on the day's second stage of the Alnwick and DMC and BDMC event, which comprised a qualifying round of the AS Performance North of England Tarmacadam Rally Championship.

Anderson said: "I'm very disappointed as I didn't get a proper run, but what little bit of experience I did get in using pacenotes was invaluable and they were working very well.

"We suffered a problem with the car on the first stage and we thought we had done well to fix it, but then it started losing power and making funny noises on SS2 so rather than just drive it until it broke, we parked it up which my team told me was the most sensible thing to do. "Hopefully, that's all our bad luck out of the way and we can have a good run next time out."

The next event is the two-day Mercury Stages Rally to be held at Ingliston in Scotland over the weekend of July 25/26th.