Silsden’s Damien Smith and Keighley’s Frazer Hutchinson had a torrid time on the demanding Welsh stages on the British round of the World Rally Championship last weekend.

The Skipton Ford Rally pair drove a Fiesta ST, prepared by local rally preparation experts Sykespeed.

Heavy rain the night before had left the stages treacherous and made driving conditions extremely difficult.

The lack of a pre-event inspection of the course meant that Damien had to relay on pace notes provided by the organisers and the pair found this a struggle to get used to.

Damien said: “I just couldn’t commit in Radnor, which was a shame as this stage is so fast and flowing.”

The main loop of stages were on the military ranges of Epynt, a mixture of tarmac and forestry roads which are some of the most demanding in the world.

By stage three, Damien had gained in confidence and started to drive more aggressively, yet keeping the car in one piece.

However, trouble was just around the corner and four miles from the end of stage four, they lost the brakes on the Fiesta.

The crew had to make running repairs on the road section to the next stage. The repair gave some of the braking power back but the confidence had gone again.

“I was constantly thinking the brakes would let go again,” said Damien at the end of the stage.

“You can’t commit to these super-fast stages if you’re thinking the car won’t stop and then to top it all off we got a puncture near the finish.”

Cardiff was the location for the overnight halt and the Sykespeed rally team got to work on the car in readiness for the final loop of stages in South Wales on Sunday.

The crew had managed to keep the car on the road in the muddy conditions and were chasing a top-15 finish when they entered the infamous Resolfen stage. Almost 30km in length, this classic Welsh stage was to be their ruin. Damien and Frazer were midway through the stage and committed through an extremely fast section of flowing corners when the spring platform on the Fiesta ST snapped and ripped the suspension out of its mount, ending their rally there and then, deep in the Welsh forest.