British Ladies rally champions Stephanie and Rachael Simmonite won the ladies battle in their Ford Escort Super Rally car and also finished the Rally of Wales eighth overall.

Their result raised Ford to third in the manufacturers' title chase after two days of tough competition in the opening round of the Mobil 1 RAC British Rally Championship.

The Thornton-based sisters boosted their chances of retaining the British Ladies Championship for a fourth time as nearest rival Barbara Armstrong finished in tenth overall, almost two minutes behind.

The Simmonites opened the gap after setting the fastest time on four of the opening seven stages through 95 miles of forest tracks based in mid-Wales.

The only real drama to cause the sisters a scare was on the opening stage, the 15mile Myherin, when they went over a severe bump and jolted the master switch out of place. They lost 30 seconds to Armstrong during the stage, but soon caught up.

Stephanie knew the first three stages would be the most important in her battle with Armstrong and she won two of them.

Stephanie then went on to win two stages towards the end of the forests of Dyfi and Gartheiniog and came out of the final stage delighted at her victory and the way her Chris Birkbeck Rallysport-prepared car had run.

"I am really chuffed!" she gushed. "This is a personal best for me to win the ladies' battle, to finish eighth overall and fourth in category as well as scoring points for Ford. It's great for the manufacturers' title chase as Ford will now be third."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.