In an extraordinary day as dramatic as any in this year's 14-round World Championship, Britain's top drivers, Colin McRae and Richard Burns, finished the second leg of the RAC Rally exactly level.
Today, they may achieve the best result for home drivers since the 1950s, but should Burns win he will prevent McRae from taking the world championship from his Mitsubishi team-mate Tommi Makinen.
If Makinen can keep going, McRae may be able to little about it in any case. Sixth place, where Makinen currently lies, and one point will be enough to deny McRae and his team calculate that there are too few serious rivals left to stop the Finn. However, the Mitsubishi driver is so ill with flu that he can barely speak, which gives McRae some chance.
It was thought that McRae would disappear over the horizon once the rally entered the Welsh forests yesterday. Instead, the Scot emerged from the morning's first special stage in Radnor Forest in eighth place and close to despair. Running at the head of the field, he bore the brunt of a treacherous mixture of darkness and dense fog, and skidded off the roads momentarily.
Conditions were so bad that he only realised he had left the road when he heard the impact. "It was through some six-gear corners and we were in third gear. We couldn't see a thing. Maybe five metres. I've lost interest. It's a lottery," he said at the time.
He had also lost a minute and a half to the new leader, Burns, yet within hours, the younger man was under intense pressure, for McRae electrified the crowds with a counterattack that brought his Subaru level by nightfall.
"I was cutting all the corners and bits were flying off everywhere! It's as quick as it'll go," he said, having sliced 28 seconds from Burns' lead in a single special stage. Asked if he was taking risks, he answered, "you can't go that speed and be cautious. If we keep going this pace it shouldn't be any problem, but you never know."
By late afternoon, he was content to slow up a little, reasoning that he was close enough to pick his moment in South Wales today. Other competitors congratulated Burns for his stunning drive in the fog, in which he caught and passed the 1994 world champion Didier Auriol, gaining two minutes in 10 miles. He proved his mettle by holding off the Ford drivers Juha Kankkunen and Carlos Sainz and, with McRae in no mood to take prisoners, he was content to retain a share of the lead at all.
Driving rain and cloying mud have taken their toll. Carlos Sainz left the road four times before lunch, but lost more time when his Ford was slowed by a transmission fault, while Auriol crashed his Toyota and McRae's remaining team-mate Piero Liatti, this year's Monte Carlo rally winner, overturned his Subaru twice in Hafren forest, but continued.
Others were less fortunate. One stage was stopped while injured competitors were airlifted to hospital.
Guardian Service
Overall Positions (at end of second day): 1=, C McRae and Burns 2 hrs 13 mins 43 secs; 3, Kankunnen at 1 min 16 secs; 4, Sainz at 1:45; 5, Gronholm at 3:40; 6, Makinen at 3:59; 7, Liatti at 5:12; 8, De Mevius at 5:59; 9, Vatanen at 9:38; 10, Holowcyc at 10:17.
