INTREPID Ludlow Castle Motor Club chairman Ben Innes was persuaded to reacquaint himself with his rally overalls in partnering current UCI Mountain Bike Downhill World Champion Gee Atherton in his first rally in a Peugeot 106.

The pair travelled to the Anglesey Race Circuit for the JRT Enville Stages, organised by Warrington Motor Club, and covering 50 miles over 10 special stages around the circuit.

Atherton, from Llangynog near Oswestry, was hopeful that Innes experience would help him through the day to record a finish with the car still in one piece.

A cautious but sensible start saw them lose 46 seconds on the first stage to the leading crew in their class.

That was reduced to just 26 seconds on the re-run of the stage but Atherton was then hindered when he had to hold the gear lever in place to prevent it from jumping out of gear.

Despite that obvious handicap, and having only one set of soft tyres which were destroyed by the end of the event, they managed to improve on their earlier times, and were only 16 seconds behind the class leaders at the finish.

From a seeding of 59, Atherton and Innes were pleased to finish 30th overall, and fourth in their class, and they are looking forward to more events when Atherton’s mountain-biking commitments permit.