Number one seed Mark Kelly and co-driver Dai Roberts took a fabulous start to finish victory on last weekend’s Hills Ford 3 Shires Stages in the Kelmore backed Skoda Fabia R5.

After Saturday afternoon’s popular ceremonial start in Ledbury town centre, cloudy overcast but dry conditions greeted over 100 crews as they left the Much Marcle Showground start early on Sunday morning.

Ahead were 60 very slippery miles in the narrow lanes over the three ounties of Herefordshire Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. 

And it was Kelly who led the way on the first loop opening up a staggering 24 second lead from Citroën C3 of Steve Wood with local man Paul Morris calling the notes.

Veterans Roger Duckworth and Alun Cook in the Fiesta R5 held third Melvyn Evans Polo R5 in 4th, with Rob Swann Fiesta WRC rounding out the top 5.

In the 2wd drive battle the Escort of Huw James just edged out the similar cars of Brad Cole and Oliver Davies in a titanic battle.

Hartpury’s Geoff Phelps entertained his neighbours with an exuberant right foot with plenty of straw in the rear arches of his immaculate Hartpury Farms mk1 Escort. 

Many others reported issues and moments on arrival in service.

The second loop saw Kelly extend his lead to 40 seconds over Wood.

In this loop we lost historic leader Tom Llewellin in the beautiful Weir Rallying Escort RS1800, who had built up a very comfortable lead, also event sponsor Tim Hill was another to retire with propshaft issues in the Hills Ford Fiesta R3.

The final loop saw the predicted heavy rain arrive thankfully as the crews were in service so tyre choice was made very simple.

But for Kelly it was a case of game management over the final loop and he brought the Skoda home by 32 seconds from Wood, who had an excellent day getting quicker with each event in his new Citroën C3.

The 2wd honours looked to heading the way of Huw James & Lewis Sim who held a comfortable 14 second lead over Brad Cole going into the last short test,but Cole stopped the clocks a full 19 seconds ahead of James to take both 2wd and class honours with Oliver Davies taking the final step of the 2wd podium.

Local honours from a host of local crews on the entry list went the way of Leominsters Roger Moran and his Hereford co-driver Dan Petrie who finished an excellent 10th overall in the Moran Motorhomes Skoda Fabia R5.