RALLY driver Tim Green is tackling this year's Network Q Rally of Great Britain in an unfamiliar car after ditching his Skoda for a Proton backed by the Oxford Mail.

The rally - the country's biggest spectator event - includes two spectacular tarmac stages in the grounds of Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, and Cornbury Park, Charlbury.

For his third rally Network Q Rally, the 34-year-old, who is an estate agent in Wantage by day and a rock musician by night, has switched from the Skoda in which he won the Skoda National Rally Trophy to a Proton.

He said: "This is the first event I have driven the car in and it is not perhaps the easiest event to use as a shakedown for the new season, but it is a real challenge in which we have achieved good success in the past.

"We've only had limited time for testing but the car seems reliable and certainly performs well."

On Sunday, Green and co-driver Rob Smith, 36, from Swindon, will be behind the wheel alongside 170 cars at the start of the rally from Cheltenham racecourse.

He joins a star-studded field ,which includes ITV's F1 reporter Louise Goodman, of Forest Hill, near Oxford, who will be driving a Ford Ka, F1commentator Martin Brundle in a Toyota and F1 pundit Tony Jardine, who will be taking part in a Proton.

Leading the field will be Mitsubishi's reigning world champion Tommi Makinen - confirmed world champion for the fourth year in succession.

The remaining top places will be hotly contested - especially by last year's Network Q Rally winner Richard Burns, of Kidlington, who is currently lying in third position in the driver's championship.

Among other local crews, Steve Hill, of Great Milton, has had less than two weeks to familiarise himself with the Mitsubishi Lancer he will be driving, alongside top co-driver Ian Grindrod.

He knows the car well as he has prepared it and another one for Charlbury driver Avon Cayzer, but was only offered the ride when Irish driver Richie Holfield was forced to pull out just ten days before the start of the rally.

The Blenheim stage, which will be used on Sunday afternoon, has been altered since it was last used two years ago after some drivers expressed concerns about the proximity of several large trees.

This year part of it will run alongside the lake designed by Capability Brown with very little margin for error from the gravel track and a dunking in the murky waters below.

Other local crews include Paul Snell, 38, of Little Tew, who was bitten by the bug when he was given a day's rallying tuition at Silverstone as a birthday present. This will be his fourth Network Q Rally in a Ford Cosworth with navigator Stephen Greenhill, from Waltham Abbey.

Richard Tuthill, 24, of Wardington, near Banbury, is driving a near-standard Subaru.

Martin Rowe, of Aston-le-Walls, near Banbury, competes in the F2 category for Renault alongside Finnish teammate Tapio Laukkanen, who lives at Chalgrove, near Oxford.

Rally driver Avon Cayzer is also driving a new car this year - a Mitsubishi Lancer prepared by Steve Hill's firm.

He should know the Cornbury tracks well - he grew up on the estate which is run by his brother Lord Rotherwick.

Story date: Wednesday 17 November

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.