Clive Wheeler accelerated into the lead of the Volkswagen Polo Rally Challenge after staging a dramatic final-stage class win on the Scottish National Rally last weekend.

Sussex-based Wheeler and his co-driver Ken Bartram overhauled Ian Chadwick (Cork) for victory by just 5.7 seconds after Lancashire's David Bateson, who had led all the way, crashed out almost within sight of the finishing line.

It was Wheeler's second Polo Challenge win of the season in his Rycliff-backed car and gives him a 10-point championship lead over Chadwick with three of the eight rounds remaining.

Wheeler, from Albourne, said: "We lost time with a puncture on the penultimate stage and had to change the wheel before starting the final test. We made it to the start line with seconds to spare.

"The gearbox was jumping out of third all the time so Ken had to hold the lever in position as well as try to read the pacenotes. It was a lucky win."

Bateson, who went into the Scottish round as championship leader, set a storming pace from the outset. He and his Belfast co-driver Guy Carlisle opened out a 12.5-second advantage over Chadwick on the first stage.

But Chadwick and co-driver Stephen Robson (Consett) fought back to win stages two, three and four to narrow the gap to 2.3 seconds. Bateson went quickest again on the penultimate stage to enter the fateful final test 6.9 seconds ahead.

However, his grim forest-rally luck struck again, his car slithering off the road and into a ditch close to the spot where the same thing happened in last year's Scottish Rally.

Chadwick, meanwhile, was having problems of his own. He checked into the sixth-stage startline four minutes late and was docked a 40-second penalty, enough to hand victory to Wheeler.

The next round is the Rally of Kent on October 13.

Provisional placings: 1. Wheeler (Albourne) 110 points, 2. Chadwick (Cork) 100, 3. David Bateson (Barrowford) 90, 4. Robinson (Moreton Morrell) 84, 5. Kermode (Douglas) 72, 6. Smith (Cambridge) 60.