Stourbridge rally driver Richard Sykes had a day of mixed emotions on the penultimate round of the British Rally Championship Challenge.

The speedster needed to go to the event and win his category with the hope his closest championship rival, David Harrison, did not score, which was going to be a tall order.

But Sykes managed to uphold his end of the bargain with a faultless drive over the 80 miles of the Yorkshire forests, leading the event from start to finish.

Putting the title race out of his mind he set about the stages, taking six straight stage victories to win the event by over two and a half minutes.

He said: “We're happy to have won another round of the championship on these very fast stages but we're also disappointed with not taking the championship to the last round.

“After having a really good start to the year our championship started to fall away from us when we visited the Isle of Man back in July, a silly mistake cost us dearly on Friday evening and then we had our victory snatched away from us on the Saturday due to an event timing error.

“We will now be looking at plans for next year as we're not sure if we'll be doing the last round in November.”

The last round of the championship, The Tempest Rally, takes place on November 8.