FORD Rallyesport Junior Team driver Ryan Champion enjoyed a successful tarmac debut with his Super 1600 Ford Puma on last weekend's Jim Clark Memorial Rally, which comprised round three of the Pirelli British Rally Championship.

The event started with two spectator-friendly tests at Leith Docks in Edinburgh on Friday evening before moving on to the closed road tarmac tests around Duns on Saturday and Sunday.

Champion, from Castleton and partnered as usual by Gloucester's Cliff Simmons, had only driven the car on gravel before the event. However, he quickly moved into fourth in the Super 1600 category behind factory entries from MG, Opel and Peugeot.

After eight stages on Saturday, Champion had moved up to second behind Opel driver Kris Meeke. But as he negotiated the water splash on the infamous Langton stage, the force of the water damaged the radiator and led to engine overheating problems.

Champion managed to nurse the car back to service where the team cured the problems, but the time loss dropped him to third. However, he was able to go some 15 seconds faster than his nearest rival on the final stage of the day.

The final few stages were run in bright sunshine on Sunday morning and Champion steadily closed the gap on second-placed Leon Pesticcio. But the rally just wasn't quite long enough for the Ford crew to re-take second place.

Two other crews from the region contested the main event, with Shildon driver Barry Johnson as high as second early on in his Subaru WRC before gearbox problems sidelined him at three-quarter distance.

Ingleton's Tony Thompson and co-driver Ian Windress, from Northallerton, took sixth in the Mitsubishi Evolution Challenge.

Sunderland driver Chris Moore managed a fine third place in the Peugeot 206 Cup category, with Darlington's Paul Swift 15th in the same class, while three of the region's Ford Ka competitors also made it to the finish.

Jonny Brown, from Great Broughton, and Harmby co-driver James Lester claimed second in class, with Scorton driver Stephen Petch and co-driver Mike Wilkinson, from Tow Law, holding on to seventh.

Darlington's Paul Hudson guided Costa Rican driver Gigi Bettencourt Gomez to 20th at the end of a gruelling event.

Sunday's National Rally saw Tristan Pye, from Bishop Auckland, and Scot Roger Herron bring their Subaru home ninth overall and second in class, with the Consett pairing of Barry Renwick and John Askew claiming 17th in their similar car on their way to 12th in class.

Boldon driver Gavin Spencer and Ingleby Barwick's Steve Waggett took their Vauxhall Nova to 37th overall and seventh in class.

Rounds 11 and 12 of the 2003 Green Flag MSA British Touring Car Championship are the headline events for the biggest race meeting of the season at Croft circuit this weekend.

The latest rounds of Britain's most popular racing car series are set to be the most fiercely fought yet after the on-track rivalry at Rockingham three weeks ago ignited a war of words between VX Racing's James Thompson and Yvan Muller and the MG Sport and Racing pairing of Warren Hughes and Anthony Reid.

Honda Racing finally broke the dominance of VX Racing to achieve a fine one-two victory in race one, but the battle that had everyone mesmerised saw sparks fly between the VX Racing and MG front-runners.

Muller triumphed in the race two melee to take his fifth win of the season, while MG recorded their best result of the year, costing Thompson a podium finish in the process.

The verbals broke out afterwards with all drivers being highly critical of each other. With tempers still simmering, expect paintwork to be exchanged as well as placings when battle resumes this weekend.

Frenchman Muller leads the pack in his Vauxhall Astra Coupe, but his team-mate and defending champion Thompson, who lives just down the road at York, is hot on his heels.

Sunderland driver Hughes arrives in seventh place in the series standings, courtesy of his best result of the season last time out at Rockingham when he was placed fifth in his MG.

The supporting acts will be just as exciting, with single-seater action in the form of Formula Renault UK and UK Formula Ford as well as the radical Legends brigade.

The Porsche Carrera Cup GB and Elf Clio Renault Sport UK Cup will also be represented, with practice starting at 9.30 tomorrow before the first of five races gets under way at 2.45.

Sunday's racing starts at 12.15 with the first of the two BTCC events. Seven races are scheduled to follow, with the second feature race going at 4.15.

Adult admission costs £12 tomorrow and £25 on Sunday with accompanied children under 15 admitted free. Weekend tickets are available at £25 and grandstand seating costs an extra £6. Tickets are available from the Croft ticket line on 01325 721815.