REIGNING National Gravel Rally champion Marcus Dodd from Poole only managed to get as far as the opening stage of the second round of the series at the weekend.

After winning the opening round in Bournemouth, Dodd was favourite to extend his championship lead but made a mistake on the opening special stage of the Brick and Steel Border Counties Rally.

"We were about half a mile in when we came to a corner that turned out to be a lot sharper than we had in our notes. They must of done some work since we used it last year," said Dodd who tried to throw his Hyundai Accent WRC round the corner sideways.

Unfortunately the manoeuvre failed and the car crashed backwards into a bank damaging the exhaust and restricting the power.

He and co-driver Andrew Bargery managed to limp out of the stage having lost five minutes only to discover the car was stuck in fourth gear, which forced them to call it a day.

The event had started with Bargery feeling unwell and Dodd said it was unlikely they would have finished in any event because of this.

Dodd, who is now seventh in the points, took a positive away from the rally by pointing out that he failed to finish the event 12 months ago but still went on to win the title as he could use it as one of his two dropped scores.

However, family honour was salvaged when Dodd's father, Harry, brought his Honda Accent home in 21st place overall. But even he did not have it easy after the hydraulics failed - a recurrence of the problem he had on Rallye Sunseeker in February.

Dodd senior had been as high as 18th place before slipping back to 23rd with one stage to go.

WRIGHT IN FRONT

TEENAGER Luke Wright is looking to follow in the kart wheel-tracks of F1 Grand Prix star Lewis Hamilton after scoring a debut victory at the opening round of the Italian Open Masters series at Lonato.

In only his first full season of international karting, the Shaftesbury youngster started his weekend with fifth place in qualifying, which gave him a third row position on the grid for his heats.

The 15-year old promptly won his first heat, and was never headed once he took the lead. In the second race, he enjoyed a tussle with fellow Englishman James Thorp and, despite finishing second at the chequered flag, was awarded the win after Thorp's motor was declared to be illegal.

Disaster struck in heat three when he was involved in a collision. Rejoining in last place, Wright climbed back up the order to finish ninth and secure third place on the grid for the pre-final, which he retained in the race.

In the final, Matteo Ghidella initially led, but Wright quickly passed the Italian before coming under pressure from Thorp and another Italian driver, which made it a three-way fight to the chequered flag. Wright held on for a deserved win by the slenderest of margins and sets up his title challenge.