THE Champion family from Castleton had plenty to celebrate last weekend as Ryan Champion won the International Trackrod Rally and his mother, Joyce, co-driving for Yorkshire's Peter Slights, won the classic section in the Trackrod Historic Cup.

The Trackrod Rally, organised by the Leeds-based Trackrod Motor Club, is the penultimate round of the Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship and was based at the showground in Pickering.

The event, which this year was condensed into one day instead of the usual two, comprised 12 stages of classic North Yorkshire forest roads and nearly 190 competitors contested the six individual events.

Champion, the 31-year old Mitsubishi works driver, and co-driver Craig Thorley pushed hard right from the start. They were lying in second position, just 0.3 seconds behind the Mitsubishi of Jonny Milner, after the first spectator stage.

They maintained a top three position through the early stages despite some difficult conditions. After winning stage five, the ten-mile Langdale stage, Champion commented that everything was going well and it was shaping up to be a good battle.

On their second visit to the showground stage, they stopped the clock just over one second ahead of Manxman Mark Higgins to take the stage win and move to the top of the overall leaderboard.

Winning three more stages cemented their position at the top of the podium and they eventually took overall victory with Higgins in second and Milner third.

An overjoyed Champion said: "The Pirelli Rally (last May) was my first international win and I'll always remember that, but to win a round of the British Championship on home soil was so sweet.

"You never know how many opportunities you'll get to win your home rally so this was very special and for mum to also win today was fantastic."

He added: "It was never going to be easy. It was a good fight right to the end with Mark Higgins and we'd battled Jonny Milner and Gwyndaf Evans earlier in the day too.

"Mark has driven so consistently this season, but that's the second time I've beaten him in a clean fight, and I'll keep on reminding him of that."

The points Higgins and Rory Kennedy were awarded for second position were enough to ensure Higgins was crowned the 2006 British champion.

Third position meant that Milner, from Huggate near Driffield, and Welsh co-driver Nicky Beech also claimed maximum points in the Mitsubishi Evolution Challenge, thus reinforcing their position at the head of the leaderboard for the works Mitsubishi Motors UK drive in the BRC next season.

Meanwhile, Heighington's Suzuki JWRC works driver Guy Wilks and Phil Pugh from Wales won the Super 1600 class by more than four minutes from fellow Suzuki Ignis driver James Wozencroft. They took seventh place overall.

The 25-year-old professional rally driver, who is contesting the Junior World Championship as well as the BRC this year, said: "We did what we had to do, we made sure we were dominant and we did a professional job."

The Darlington-based SGP Motorsport team had a weekend of highs and lows.

Stephen Petch from Scorton and Tow Law's Michael Wilkinson were taking part in the main event as well as contesting the Mitsubishi Evolution Challenge.

But the event did not last very long for the pair. They were lying in eighth position after their first run around the showground, but on their first visit to the forest they picked up a puncture about three miles into the stage.

The punctured tyre rapidly disintegrated, causing damage to the bodywork and destroying the oil cooler, forcing them into retirement.

Former national champions Steve Petch and Northallerton's John Richardson brought their Hyundai Accent World Rally Car home in top spot in the Trackrod National Rally, but not without problems along the way.

The electrical systems on the car were causing problems from the start, but they tied the first stage of the day with the Focus WRC of Brian Bell before Malton's John Bannister and co-driver David Robson started to stamp their authority on the event.

They pushed their Subaru Impreza to win the next two stages, and a nip and tuck battle ensued between Petch and Bannister for the remainder of the event.

Bannister went into the last stage of the day with an 11-second advantage over Petch, but a slight off on the last run through Gale Rigg meant he dropped 30 seconds to Petch, who won the event by just over 18 seconds.

Bannister was second, with his father, Steve, taking the final podium position in his Ford Escort MKII.

Last year's Trackrod National Rally winner Tim Pearcey had a rally to forget.

Co-driven by Sam Collis in his newly-acquired Subaru Impreza, Pearcey didn't get any further than the first showground stage when the clutch slave cylinder failed.

Also in the National Rally section, Northallerton crew Chris Blake and Tony Walker retired on stage six when their Northallerton Tyre & Battery-sponsored Ford Escort Cosworth suffered mechanical woes.

In the Clubmen section, local crew Dave Craven and Ian Jackson won two stages on the day and brought their Mitsubishi Evo 6 home in second position, just under 30 seconds behind the Evo 6 of Jimmy Christie.

Northallerton shopkeeper Darren Grimston, co-driven by Larry Carter, retired after stage five with loss of oil pressure. Pickering driver Alan Richardson and co-driver Christopher Roe, from Redcar, retired on the last stage with mechanical problems.

In the Historic Cup event, Morton on Swale's Charlie Taylor, aided by Steve Bielby, managed to salvage seventh position overall and fourth in class despite being given a notional time for stage two, which was cancelled due to an accident.

North Yorkshire daughter and father rally crew Amanda and Derek Cornforth made a one-off appearance in the British Rally Championship Trackrod All Stars.

Taking a break from the BTRDA Xspec 1400 Championship, the Thirsk pair jumped at the chance to compete on a local rally in their 6th Gear PR-sponsored Ford Ka.

They had a reasonably trouble-free event, apart from going off the road in Dalby and getting the car beached.

They lost about four minutes, but were helped back on track by spectators and finished the All Stars event sixth overall and second in class.