SOME tough conditions faced a handful of Ludlow Castle Motor Club co-drivers at the Weir Engineering Wyedean Forest Rally.

Held in the Forest of Dean, the slippery surface caught out several crews over the 45 mile event.

Mike Wilding was the top seeded Ludlow member in the main field at number 33 in Jon Ballinger's Opel Manta.

The crew proved their seeding was spot on by finishing 34th overall and third in their class.

Church Stretton's Phil Clarke was in a Citroen C2 R2Max alongside Venezuelan Rene Dias Torcat and was seed at 100.

The pair were expecting the stages to be a little rough and seven months out of a car meant Dias Torcat adopted a cautious approach.

Sitting at 69th overall and fourth in the class through the afternoon stages meant there were no major problems for them to deal with.

They eventually finished 66th overall and third in class.

Jez Rogers was co-driving for Jonathan Jones in a Ford Fiesta First 1600 class and, despite an overshoot on a hairpin, having no first gear and sustaining two punctures, the crew were pleased to end the day 72nd overall and third in their class.

With the 1400cc cars running first on the roads, the first Ludlow member into the forests was Keaton Williams, co-driving Neil Mathews' 1400cc Vauxhall Nova.

The pairing, on their first event together, were happy being the eighth quickest in their category on the first stage and were lying seventh overall and sixth in class.

But their run ran out on the road section to stage three when the engine began to misfire.

This progressively got worse, resulting in the pair having to crawl through the short stage with Williams pushing the car on the uphill sections.

The fault was traced to an air lock in the fuel pipe, but by that time the crew had already retired.