LUDLOW Castle Motor Club are celebrating a famous one-two finish in the Mintex MSA British Historic Rally Championship.

Club member Phil Clarke had already landed the title alongside Jason Pritchard and his success was followed by fellow Ludlow driver Keaton Williams claiming second place with John Perrott in the final round of the championship.

Williams and Perrott only had to start the final round, the Trackrod Rally, to claim a category win but they also harboured a slim chance of taking second place in the overall standings.

Covering 53 miles in the Dalby Forest complex in North Yorkshire, with two stages in the dark and two runs through the main Dalby Stage, the event was a serious test for drivers, co-drivers and cars.

Williams and Perrott, in Perrott’s MkI Escort, were frustrated to be lying in 12th place overall at the end of the evening stages. At the service halt they changed the gearbox which had been playing up, but Perrott was convinced that there was a problem with the differential as the car refused to turn in, but only in one direction. Unable to fix it they decided to carry on regardless.

With five stages run the following day the pair were determined to bring the car home in one piece. However the opportunity to take second place in the championship overall was too good to miss and the pair upped their pace and managed to claim fourth overall, sealing second place in the championship as well as taking the category and class wins.

Also making the trip to Pickering was Bridgnorth’s Jez Rogers, who was out with Simon Webster for only the second time in Webster’s Viking Motorsport prepared MkII Escort, and it was Rogers who came out on top.

At the end of the night stages they were in seventh overall reporting no issues and looking forward to the following day’s stages. They pushed hard and Rogers felt they were lucky to get away with one or two moments. They were rewarded with their best-ever result of third overall and second in class.

Clarke was out with regular driver Pritchard in the MkII Escort, and they were determined to enjoy the event with no pressure to secure points, having secured the title in the penultimate round.

The two night stages saw them lying in third place. Unfortunately it all went wrong on the third stage the following day when some ruts on the inside of a right-hand bend sent the car up a bank and into a gentle roll putting them out of the event.

Both Clarke and Pritchard were uninjured and the car was driven back to the rally finish.