NEIL Calvert marked his return to the stages in fine style on last weekend’s Cambrian Rally as, together with co-driver Colin ‘Captain’ Thompson, he won the award for finishing second in class in his Ford Lotus Cortina.

Starting in Llandudno the rally used the forests of Clocaenog and Penmachno to provide its 45 mile schedule of gravel strewn roads.

The Burnley driver, who competed under the 2300 Club banner, also finished 38th in the overall standings, a remarkable achievement in a field of 143 cars that included many World Rally Cars. Calvert’s rally got off to a cracking start as he headed the Historic H1 Class through the opening pair of Clocaenog stages despite dropping time with an overshoot on SS2.

Unfortunately things didn’t go so well when the rally moved to Penmachno where the car under-steered off into a ditch, requiring the services of a small army of spectators to extricate it.

“We lost close to a minute,” said Calvert. “And while we pulled a few seconds back over the final stages we couldn’t make up the lost time.”

Despite not gaining the win Calvert was far from downbeat, stating: “It was the first event I’d done in 10 years where I wasn’t fighting for championship points.

“It was a reasonably successful day, I’d not done the Cambrian for a lot of years and thought I’d be a bit rusty but it soon came together after a couple of corners.

“Added to that the suspension and track adjustments I’ve done to the car all worked and we completed the rally with a set of second-hand tyres so it was all done on a shoestring budget.”

The day didn’t end so well for former Blackburn-based businessman Malcolm Mawdsley who was shaking down his rear-wheel drive Subaru Impreza in preparation for next month’s Roger Albert Clark Rally.

Gearbox problems midway through the final stage in Clocaenog forced their retirement, robbing them of a top 50 result.

But Mawdsley said: “Having experienced a lot of driveshaft problems, we were testing some we designed ourselves so the rally served its purpose in proving our move to home-made shafts has worked.”

Overall honours on the day went to Steve Perez and Paul Spooner who had already been crowned BTRDA Champions on the previous months Woodpecker Stages.

It was a sixth win of the eight round series for the Ford Focus WRC crew while former champions Hugh Hunter and Andy Marchbank finished runners-up in another Focus WRC.