THOUSANDS of spectators flocked to the North York Moors forests over the weekend to see Yorkshire's Jonny Milner clinch the Pirelli British Rally Championship with an emphatic home win in the Trackrod Rally Yorkshire.

In what were ideal racing conditions, it was the first time in over ten years that international rallying has been staged in Ryedale. The two-day event was the centre-piece of a festival of racing which took place in the forests north of Pickering, and included a special stage at Pickering showground.

"To win the rally and the championship in Yorkshire is a dream come true and is reward for spending nine years trying to find the money to go rallying," said a jubilant Milner, who is the first Yorkshireman ever to win the British Championship.

Toyota Corolla driver Milner, from Huggate, near Pocklington, needed to outscore Hampshire's Justin Dale in the seventh and decisive round to clinch the British crown. He was able to relax for most of the two-day event after Dale parked his smoking Peugeot beside the road with a blown engine on only the second stage.

Another of the county's top drivers Steve Petch, from Richmond, waged a battle royal for second place with Julian Reynolds, from Narberth in South Wales, with Reynolds emerging ahead by just 5.5 seconds after the final stage at Pike Hill.

Following Dale's demise, 1996 British Champion Gwyndaf Evans had a troubled but largely unchallenged run to a 1600cc class victory. He suffered no end of transmission trouble and was forced to swap the car's gearbox twice in service during the 14-stage rally.

There were mixed fortunes for Ryedale's two entrants in the international race. Mark Simpson, from Kirkbymoorside, completed his second successive Trackrod class win in his Nissan Micra, finishing 18th overall. His success completed a hat-trick of class wins for his co-driver Richard Burdon, from Pickering. The other Ryedale pairing of Adrian Wilson, from Farndale, and Kevin Bardon, from Kirkbymoorside, were going great guns in ninth place overall and second in their class until they came off the road just two bends from the finish in the final stage. Thankfully, neither suffered major injury.

There was a huge Yorkshire contingent in the Trackrod National Rally, which followed the British Championship contenders on Saturday, with no fewer than 16 of the top 20 seeds coming from the county. Victory went to Brian Bell, from Skegness, whose Ford Focus WRC was two minutes ahead of the Puma 4x4 of Northallerton's David Brown.

Butterwick driver Steve Bannister and co-driver Graham Watson were leading their class and lying third on the penultimate seventh stage before engine trouble in Bannister's Ford Escort Mk II forced the pair to retire.

Sunday's Trackrod Clubman's Trophy went to Chesterfield's Richard Hill in his ten-year-old Ford Escort Cosworth, who finished 87 seconds clear of the Subaru Impreza of York's Gary Cooper. Pickering duo Steve Magson and navigator Geoff Atkinson performed well to finish fifth overall and second in their class in Magson's Vauxhall Astra. Alan Richardson, also from Pickering, won his class alongside co-driver Chris Roe, from Redcar, with Richardson steering his Vauxhall Nova to 18th place overall.

Updated: 09:42 Wednesday, October 02, 2002