REPORT / LEE HOLLAND STAGES 2025

10/03/2025 Off By admin

WORDS BY ANDY COOK | PHOTOGRAPY ANDREW SCOTT AND DAN MORRIS

The Protyre Circuit Rally Championship arrived in Wales for the sixth round of the series. Organised by Pendle District Motor Club, the Lee Holland Stages would be held at the Anglesey Race Circuit, North Wales.

If ever there was a circuit to experience motorsport at, or indeed one of the rounds of the Circuit Rally Championship, this is the one to go for.
Situated on the West Coast of the Island of Anglesey, the circuit offers a stunning setting with some rather pleasant vistas.

Last time out at Snetterton, Michael Igoe and Will Atkins took their Citroen C3 Rally2 home for their third win of the season, which elevated them up in the standings to third behind Michael Jowers. Chris Woodhouse would, however, be the one to arrive in Wales leading the standings.

The event offered the fifty-plus entrants, some 38 miles of sealed surface action across six stages in and around the circuit and grounds of Anglesey with the usual array of splits and mergers.

STAGES 1 – 3

The Skoda Fabia R5 piloted by John Griffiths set the benchmark time on the opening 6 miles test, with Emma Morrison on the maps, the pair got the better of Igoe & Atkins by just a single second. Kiaran Hankin & Ben Butterworth, also in a Citroen C3 Rally, were a further five seconds down on Igloe in third.

Photo: John Griffiths & Emma Morrison | By Dan Morris

A wolf pack of regulars followed on behind, all aiming to get in on the podium fight, including John & Alex Stone in their VW Polo GTi R5 and Chris West in the Peugeot 306 Maxi.

Photos: John & Alex Stone | Chris West & Keith Hounslow | By Andrew Scott

Igloe, eager to continue with his winning ways from the previous two rounds, upped his game in the second test of the morning having initially struggled with the set-up of the Citroen. Stopping the clocks on identical times to Griffiths, his efforts weren’t quite enough to take the lead of the rally at this point in time.

Photo: Michael Igoe & Will Atkins | By Andrew Scott

Just to prove how tight the scrap at the top was beginning to shape up, third-place Hankin was also just a single second off the pace of the two front runners. Behind, Stone was holding off the Maxi of West, extending the gap to nine seconds in stage two.

Photo: Kiaran Hankin & Ben Butterworth | By Andrew Scott

Having dilled in the set-up a bit more, the third and final stage of the morning loop finally delivered Igoe and Atkins their first outright stage win of the event. This time, the margin was a decent six seconds, which had also just earned them the overall lead of the rally by five seconds.

Photos: John Griffiths & Emma Morrison | Michael Igoe & Will Atkins | By Dan Morris

Griffiths and Morrison were toppled from P1 and left wondering where the time loss had come from, however, they still had a good eight-second buffer to Hankin & Butterworth in third but more importantly, still had a further three stages over the after loop to mount a fight back.

Stone arrived at the mid-point in the rally, eleven seconds off the podium, but the battle between him and West behind just got a bit more intense on that final stage on the morning loop. West and Co-Driver, Kieth Hounslow, had finally gotten the better of the Stone boys in stage three, clawing back a single second to trail them by eight at half-time.

Photos: Chris West & Keith Hounslow | John & Alex Stone | By Andrew Scott

AFTER STAGE 3

POS	LEADERBOARD	TIME (DIF)
1	#1 M.IGOE / W.ATKINS	18:58
2	#2 J.GRIFFITHS / E.MORRISON	19:03 (+5)
3	#4 K.HANKIN / B.BUTTERWORTH	19:11 (+8)
4	#3 J.STONE / A.STONE	19:22 (+24)
5	#6 C.WEST / K.HOUNSLOW	19:30 (+8)

STAGES 4 – 6

Heading into the afternoon loop, Michael Igoe and Will Atkins now had their sights firmly on taking the win. The pair set off into stage four with a determined look in their eyes and would gain their second outright stage win here, and with it, bolstering their lead over Griffiths and Morrison by a further five seconds. Eventually, Griffith figured out where the time loss was coming from, it was attributed to an old tyre mistakenly being used.

Photos: Michael Igoe & Will Atkins – By Andrew Scott | John Griffiths & Emma Morrison – By Dan Morris

Stone, also got the hammer down in the first stage of the afternoon loop, recording the third fastest time, with Hankin also stopping the clocks seven seconds slower than Griffiths. Stones’ efforts in stage four would provide some breathing space to West & Hounslow, increasing the gap between them to twelve seconds heading into the penultimate stage of the rally.

Photo: John & Alex Stone | By Andrew Scott

Not wanting to give up the rally without a fight and now with a full set of fresh rubber, Griffiths and Morrision retaliated in stage five. The pair pushed the Skoda Fabia R5 to the limits, and they were rewarded with a stage win. The pair took back five seconds to half the gap to rally leaders, Igoe and Atkins with just one to go.

With just a final 7 miles of asphalt remaining in the final stage of the rally, it was still well and truly game-on between Igloe and Griffiths in a what would be a final-stage showdown.

Alas, it would once again be Michael Igoe and Will Atkins in the Citroen C3 Rally2 to triumph over rivals, John Griffith & Emma Morrison.

Photo: Michael Igoe & Will Atkins | By Andrew Scott

Both crews would give it their all, at the same time, not wanting to throw it off, and they would both, once again record the exact same time. This meant that the win would indeed go to Igoe and Atkins, with that final five-second margin enough to secure their hatrick of wins and their fourth win of the season to date.

Griffiths and Morrison had fought hard, but alas, it wasn’t to be, having to settle for the bridesmaid yet again was becoming a bit of a downer, but nevertheless, they new where the time was lost and second was yet another strong result.

Photo: John Griffiths & Emma Morrison | By Andrew Scott

Kiaran Hankin & Ben Butterworth would round out the podium in their Citroen C3 Rally2, in a bit of a no-man-land, some 25 seconds down on second with no real chance of challenging for the position, the afternoon was more about keeping the likes of Stone and West behind them.

Photo: Kiaran Hankin & Ben Butterworth | By Dan Morris

John and Alex Stone would end their rally, eight seconds short of the podium, but importantly finishing around twenty-three seconds ahead of Chris West & Keith Hounslow who rounded out the top five.

Photos: Jon & Alex Stone – By Dan Morris | Chris West & Keith Hounslow – By Andrew Scott

Championship contender, Chris Woodhouse, with Co-Driver Lucy Wilding, would secure eighth overall in their Ford Fiesta Rally2, the pair would set stage times inside the top ten all day long. Mixing it up with Wil Owen & Robbie Sandford (Ford Escort MKII), who would secure sixth, and Dave Willett & John Davies (Ford Escort MKII) who record seventh. Although Willets was a non-championship crew, meaning that Owens and Woodhouse would be leaving Anglesey with a stash of points for fourth and fifth respectively.

Photos: Chris Woodhouse & Lucy Wilding | Will Owen & Robbie Sandford | By Andrew Scott

“It’s been quite an interesting day, because this morning, we just couldn’t get the setup with the car right, but then towards the middle of the day we found our feet and got a set-up which worked and the times showed that.

A little mistake, we were going well on Stage 5, until I made a mistake outbroke myself and hand to reverse, so we lost some time and Jone gained a nice chunk of time there to put the pressure on us going into the last one.

It worked out how we wanted”
Michael Igoe

“Early doors the first few stages were good, we went to medium but then we couldn’t understand how we lost two lots of five seconds to him and we couldn’t understand how we were haemorrhaging time to him, and then we figured it out that we were on a medium and we didn’t know the history about it, it was an old medium, we put a new one on and took five seconds straight out of him.

It’s good that we can match him and battle with him and put him under pressure, and that’s all I could do. He’s driving really well, all we can do is hope that he makes a mistake”.
John Griffiths

FINAL RESULTS

POS	LEADERBOARD	TIME
1	#1 M.IGOE / W.ATKINS	39:30
2	#2 J.GRIFFITHS / E.MORRISON	39:35 (+5)
3	#4 K.HANKIN / B.BUTTERWORTH	40:00 (+25)
4	#3 J.STONE / A.STONE	40:08 (+8)
5	#9 C.WEST / K.HOUNSLOW	40:31 (+23)