Fylde coast crews among the 2024-25 Circuit Rally Championship hopefuls

The father and son team won the first in Class A awards, having finished fifth overall in their Legend Fires VW Polo GTi R5 in the Bolton-le-Moors Car Club event.

Held at Cheshire’s Oulton Park earlier this month, it was the opening round of the 2024-25 Circuit Rally Championship and attracted a 109-car entry.

The South Shore crew held third place for much of the day but were denied a podium place on the final stage, missing out by just three seconds.

Victory on the day went to Garstang and Preston Motor Club member James Ford, co-driven by Scotsman Neil Shanks, in a Citroen C3 Rally2.

Their stiffest competition came from the similar car of Michael Igoe and Will Atkins, whose fastest times on the final pair of stages proved too little, too late.

Fleetwood Auto Engineer Mark Holmes and co-driver Jonathan Cragg, from Thornton, came close to a top-10 finish but the Ford Fiesta R5 driver ultimately had to settle for 11th place.

Their day had started in dramatic fashion with a high speed spin on the opening stage that saw them complete the test in 30th place.

They played catch-up thereafter but a run of top-10 fastest stage times brought rapid progress up the standings.

The Over Wyre pairing of Paul Murphy and Richard Robinson finished 22nd in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9.

St Annes driver Steven Farman had a troubled time with his Subaru Impreza, which meant he and co-driver Ann Dixon failed to finish.