SIMONSTONE-based brothers Dale and Wayne Thomas staged one of the comebacks of the rally in their Opel Manta 400.

A lowly 42nd overall after five stages, the pair were, by their own admittance, 'ready to pack up and go home'.

However, a storming run over the remaining 15 stages saw the pair climb the leaderboard to finish an excellent fifth overall in their Fraser Eagle-backed Opel Manta 400.

And Dale, who hadn't driven the car competitively for five months, had the added bonus of winning the class for over 2-litre cars. "We were ready for going home when we saw the time sheets after Leyland," explained Dale.

"Lying 42nd wasn't where we expected to be, even though we knew we had lost a lot of time at Burscough, where our two-wheel-drive Manta just couldn't compete with the four-wheel-drive cars.

" I haven't driven it since last year, which didn't help, but once I got into the groove again on proper tarmac stages, we were away."

And the brothers, who both work for the family firm of Envirowash at Simonstone Business Park, were never out of the top four during the afternoon stages at Weeton, Clifton and Leyland - where they claimed second fastest, just three seconds behind winners Peter and Tim Stojanov.