There was success at home and abroad last weekend, in snow and sun.

The annual Malcolm Wilson Rally challenged competitors with some exceptionally tough conditions. And, across the Atlantic, M-Sport Ford World Rally team’s Elfyn Evans secured the Cumbrian team’s first podium of the year.

At home, the Malcolm Wilson Rally proved a real test for the competing crews. As snow fell on the higher ground, the forest roads in Whinlatter proved too tricky for some with a number of competitors sliding off the road and being unable to get back. There was less snow in Greystoke and Grizedale, but they also proved extremely challenging.

In the end, it was Euan Thorburn who secured the win behind the wheel of his ex-works Ford Focus RS WRC. Partnered by Paul Beaton from the Borders, the win was Thorburn’s second at the Malcolm Wilson Rally – having also secured victory in 2015 – and second of the year to make it two out of two in the 2019 BTRDA Gold Star Championship.

Local crew Barry Lindsay and Caroline Lodge were on home soil and mixing it with the BTRDA Championship crews, coming away with a great result behind the wheel of their Peugeot 206.

Opting for a safe pace through the treacherous, snow-covered stages, the pairing then upped their speed in the afternoon – a strategy that worked to their advantage as they won the B10 class by more than five minutes and finished an impressive 21st overall.

They also collected the Keswick Plate for the highest-placed Cumbrian crew.

“It was a tough day and I think there was a moment in all eight stages where we could have gone off,” admitted Lindsay after the event.

“When you’re pushing for the top results, you have to take a few risks, and thankfully, it all paid off.”

Lindsay and Lodge will be back in action this weekend on the first round of the Scottish Championship – the Border Counties Rally which is also a round of the ANECCC Championship.

Elsewhere in the Malcolm Wilson Rally, Carlisle’s Phil Jobson and co-driver Chris Sheridan took their historic MkI Escort to third in class and 32nd overall.

And among the non-finishers were Steven Clark and Mark Fisher who clipped a rock and broke the steering on their Mitsubishi Evo. Also Andrew Wheatley and Kirsten Dallas, who bent the rear beam of their Puma, and Rob Graham and Helen Harkness, crashed out in the snow.

Further afield in the heat of Rally Mexico, Elfyn Evans and Carlisle co-driver Scott Martin secured their first podium of the year with the M-Sport Ford World Rally team.

The Mexican event is considered one of the toughest rallies in the FIA World Rally Championship, but Evans and Martin took that in their stride – not making a single mistake and delivering impressive pace and consistency throughout the weekend.

Regularly posting top times, they held second position for much of the rally before being caught out by the loose conditions in a single stage on Saturday afternoon. Losing 16 seconds to championship leader Ott Tänak, they were left in a fierce battle and, ultimately, had to settle for the third place when the Estonian took the better tyre choice into Sunday’s closing stages.

Yet despite missing out on the second step of the podium, Evans and Martin remain pleased with their performance and will aim to keep the momentum going when the championship returns to Europe and asphalt at the legendary Tour de Corse later this month.

“I’m a little disappointed to have missed out on the second place, but this was still a good weekend and there are a lot of positives to take away,” said Evans. “We didn’t make a single mistake and we’ve collected some good points that will give us a better road position in Corsica.

“Most importantly, we can see that we’ve made some good changes to the car with quite limited testing, and we’ll work hard to build on that throughout the year.”

Team Principal Richard Millener was also pleased to see the results of the team’s continued development and praised the efforts of the entire team.

“We knew that we had a good chance this weekend, and Elfyn and Scott have delivered a really strong performance – showing the pace of the Fiesta on gravel and proving that we are going in the right direction with our continued development program," he said.

“This podium was the result of a really strong team effort with the mechanics keeping the guys in the rally. I am sure that we will see some more weekends like this throughout the year – and that is certainly our goal.”

Indeed the M-Sport technicians showed their class when discovering some damage to the rear cross member during Saturday’s midday service. With just 14 minutes on the clock, they successfully changed it as well as the rear differential – a task which would have taken 25 minutes under normal circumstances!