The Kielder forest complex in Northumberland is the largest man made forest in Europe and is notorious for its fast flowing narrow tracks and deep ditches that punish the slightest error.
This was the final round of the 2022 British Historic Rally Championship and torrential rain greeted the crews as they departed from Kielder Castle to tackle the stages.
The heavy rain made the forest track very slippery and even more challenging than usual.
We set off at a cautious pace for the first two stages but found our rhythm on the long stage three, posting a good time.
In the afternoon stage, we ran slightly wide on stage four and ended up in a ditch but the car was not damaged and we managed to keep enough momentum to pull ourselves out and carry on with only a few seconds dropped.
On the final stage of the stage of the day, with just a few corners to go, we again ran wide and dropped the car into a ditch. Fortunately there were lots of spectators at that point in the point in the forest and they pushed the car out of the ditch.
We lost about 50 seconds but we got to the finish and claimed 18th overall in the Historics and 2nd in class and 5th in Category 2 despite all the dramas!