The competitors faced 45 miles of dusty action over nine special stages, the first and last of which were short runs through the Welshpool timber yard of Mick Jones, with the other seven stages spread out through forests in mid to north Wales.

Welshpool’s Stuart Jones and Craig Parry in their Mitsubishi EVO 9 led for the first five stages but they were forced to retire and the young Norwegian, Andreas Mikkelsen, took the lead which he kept to the end.

Andreas, co-driven by Ola Floene, brought the Ford Focus WRC home nine seconds ahead of Jon Ingram and Ian Allsop in another Focus WRC.

Ludlow Castle Motor Club’s Shaun Gardener and Ben Innes were not too disappointed to finish 26 seconds behind Mikkelsen in third place overall grabbing important points towards their challenge in the 2006 Silverstone Tyres Rally Series.

Shaun’s TNT Tyres (Ludlow) Mitsubishi EVO 5 suffered a broken drive-shaft in the last stage, a problem that has plagued the team through the season.

The pair managed to get through the second timber yard stage and limp back to the finish, claiming maximum championship points and the 2006 Gold Star title.

There is still one round to go in the championship, the Cambrian Rally on November 4, but Shaun and Ben cannot be caught on points now.

It means that 2006 is definitely Shaun Gardener’s year, even after a shaky start.

He won the Bill Gwynne Stages in August for the third year in succession, and the Ludlow based Woodpecker Stages earlier this month after 17 years of competing on the event.

This is also an excellent year for Ludlow Castle Motor Club which produced another local hero, Neil Weaver, who won the 2006 Xspec 1400 Championship in July with three rounds of the championship still remaining.

Other LCMC members competing on the Plains Rally had very mixed fortunes.

Only Alex Allingham in his GPn Subaru Impreza was able to escape the event trouble free.

Alex, co-driven by Paul Beeson, finished 15th overall and the points gained means that he is in fifth position in the Group N section of the Silverstone Tyres Rally Series.

The only other LCMC crew to finish was Henri Grehan and Chris Ridge who completed the event in 125th place after the Plaslime Ford Escort Mark2 suffered problems.

Other Ludlow Castle Motor Club crews failed to finish after suffering accidents or mechanical failure.

They were: Andrew and Shane Bowen (Ford Escort G3), Roger Chilman Jnr and Andrew Sankey (Walters Group Mitsubishi EVO 6), Gary Scott (Peugeot 205 Gti), Robert Holloway and Jo Stone (Peugeot 205), Richard Preece (Peugeot 205).

Report by Keith Gluyas