Defending Welsh Rally Champion Matthew Hirst claimed his second BTRDA victory at the Kielder Forest Rally on Saturday (15th June).
Partnered with co-driver Declan Dear, the pair claimed the win by over 12 seconds from second place challengers Jonny Greer and Niall Burns.
Dear won three of the six categorized stages to keep him in the hunt for the BTRDA title.
The reigning Northern Ireland Rally champions who just successfully claimed the titles around a month ago was competing on British gravel in over five years got to grips to the forest stages and getting some decent miles in the Citroen as it was announced that the pair would not be competing in this years Donegal International Rally.
Coming in third was rallycross star Patrick O’Donovan and Jack Morton in the Hyundai i30. They finished a further two seconds back from Greer and Burns and fourteen seconds behind Hirst and Dear respectively.
Vivian Hamill and Liam Clark rounded up the top five positions.
As for current championship leader Elliot Payne it was a day to forget. The pair just couldn’t find any pace in the opening stages of the event in the Fiesta R5 and finished nearly three minutes behind the event winners.
Despite this, they managed to pick up seventh place. Elsewhere Patrick Naylor claimed top honours in the group N class while Shane McGirr won the historic class in the Lada Riva.
