FORMER Le Mans 24-hour winner Guy Smith was celebrating another notable victory as he triumphed in the Swift Signs Christmas Stages Rally, held at Croft Circuit, writes Larry Carter.

Smith, who combines circuit racing with the odd rally, profited from the retirement of reigning champion Kevin Procter as he built up a healthy lead by the halfway stage of the hour-long race.

As a result, he was able to take things fairly easy in the closing stages, and along with his Welsh co-driver, Patrick Walsh, the Beverley driver finished 34 seconds clear of the field in his Ford Focus WRC.

The win added to Smith’s victory in the Jack Frost Stages Rally back in January, and meant he and Walsh were unbeaten at Croft in 2016.

Procter, who is from Scruton, had started strongly as he attempted to defend his title, and boasted a four-second lead after the second stage, but his day wasn’t to last much longer as a head gasket failure on stage three ended his rally.

Darlington husband and wife, Paul and Jessica Swift, filled the runner-up spot in their Ford Escort Mk2, with Northallerton duo Graeme Bell and Russ Radford, who won the final stage, finishing third in their Proton Neo Satria.

Scotch Corner motor engineer Tony Bardy finished fourth, 16 seconds down on Bell, with Castleton’s Ryan Champion a further 27 seconds back in fifth. Peter Smith and co-driver Graham Wild took sixth and, a little further down the field, there were some impressive drives from local drivers in the lower-powered cars.

Bedale’s Joe Cunningham and Northallerton co-driver Marc Fowler provided another giant-killing act by finishing eighth overall as they claimed a class win in their 1400cc Vauxhall Corsa.

The Whitby dad and lad team of Nick and Joe Cook powered their Ford Escort Mk1 to ninth overall and a class win too, with Durham’s Andrew Fawcett and co-driver Chris Purvis bringing their Vauxhall Nova home in 11th overall and second in class.

Richmond brothers Mark and Andrew Constantine claimed 13th overall and third in class in their Vauxhall Corsa, two places ahead of Stokesley pair, Mark Burton and Zoe Wright, who overcame a number of problems with their Ford Fiesta XR2 to finish fourth in class.

An excellent drive by Mickleton duo Andrew and Joe Hutchinson saw them bring their Renault Clio home in 16th overall and third in class, while for Northallerton dad and daughter, Andrew and Georgina Smith, a clutch problem and misfire relegated their Ford Escort to 18th overall and fourth in class on the final stage.

Bishop Auckland’s John Pye and co-driver John Coxon took 20th overall in their Subaru, with Ingleby Barwick driver Martin Peters and Hutton Rudby co-driver Jason Leaf overcoming a lowly seeding to finish 23rd overall and fifth in class in their Citroen Saxo.