Scotland, June 18: British champion Jonny Milner beat the dusty conditions to edge title rival Tapio Laukkanen to win the 58th Scottish International Rally. Milner triumphed in the Toyota Corolla WRC after 107 miles through 11 stages of Galloway Forest that made up round three of the Pirelli British Rally Championship. He made up for defeat in round two by edging out Finnish rival Laukkanen, driving a Subaru Impreza WRC, by just 28 seconds to win the rally and the four-wheel drive open category. Third was another Finn, 18-year-old Jari-Matti Latvala, in his M-Sport Ford Focus WRC. The trio had traded fastest times throughout the event and it was punctures rather than driver error that determined the final result. Latvala lost three minutes on saturday and then Laukkanen dropped a minute and a half on sunday after both suffered setbacks. A relieved Milner said: "I'm just delighted to have won. "The dust has made it really tricky out there and I've been fortunate to suffer less than the other two with punctures. "Tapio and Jari haven't given me any respite, so it's a very good feeling to have beaten them fair and square".

Experienced Welsh driver Gwyndaf Evans won the less-powerful front-wheel drive class in his MG ZR, finishing in an excellent fifth place overall and beating Colin McRae's protégé, Kris Meeke (Vauxhall Corsa), by almost two minutes.

Neil Buckley (Mitsubishi Lancer E5) won the production class after a highly-competitive drive to 10th overall. Shelley Taunt (Nissan Micra) won both the 1400 class and the ladies' cup. The next round of the championship is the closed-road tarmac Jim Clark Memorial Rally, which starts from Edinburgh on 5 July.

Bureau Report