LUDLOW Castle Motor Club's Alex Allingham and Chris Williams staged an astonishing fightback at the Cambrian Rally at the weekend to win the Pirelli MSA Welsh National Championship.

The duo rolled on the first stage of the event to lie in 123rd place, with their rivals sitting in third.

But they fought back brilliantly to take the title – their third Welsh championship in five years.

The success means they will gain a free entry in the national section of the Wales Rally GB next month.

Fellow Ludlow Motor Castle Club members James Hamer and Mike Baker were also in the wars and put their Subaru off the road over a three-foot drop.

Luckily, they landed onto an access road and managed to scramble their way back onto the stage.

Hamer admitted to a lapse of concentration following the off when they slid on a bend that claimed Ludlow's Jon Ballinger and Mike Wilding.

Spectators managed to push Hamer and Baker back onto the road and they eventually finished in Llandudno in 23rd place.

However, the finish was enough to give Hamer the Welsh Under-25 Championship.

Ballinger and Wilding also won their class on the BTRDA Championship with Tenbury's Wilding taking the senior co-drivers title.

Church Stretton so-driver Phil Clarke sat alongside Ben Llewellin from Haverfordwest in a MKII Ford Escor, with Llewellin, the son of former British champion Dai Llewellin, setting the fourth fastest time in the two-wheel drive section.

But a tricky right-hand bend saw the crew spin and not not classified as finishers due to the loss of time on the stage.

Meanwhile, more than 50 crews pounded the lanes of Shropshire and mid-Wales during Ludlow Castle Motor Club's classic tour.

Vehicles varied from a 1964 Mini Cooper to a 2009 Morgan owned by four-time British Rally Championship winning co-driver Jim Porter.

Others included Ford Escorts, Austin Healey's, a Hillman Avenger Tiger and a Morris Minor Traveller.

The tour started at Ludlow Brewing Company's headquarters off Corve Street in Ludlow before heading out towards Newtown.

The return journey saw the procession make its way through Bishops Castle before heading to Richards Castle and onto the finish point at Ludlow Kitchen, Bromfield.

Elsewehre, father and son Chris and Keaton Williams from Ludlow finished 16th overall and fourth in their class in the 1000 Lanes Rally in Abergavenny.