FORMER British Junior Rally Champion David Wright faced a challenging outing in the Stena Line International Ulster Rally last weekend.

Bentham-based Wright was driving his Peugeot 206Sxi in the fifth round of the Peugeot 206 Super Cup.

After nine of the event's 15 stages, Wright and co-driver Mike Panes featured in the top 15 and were leading their class.

It did not last as on the tenth stage they ran wide on a corner and became embedded in a hedge.

Sixty seconds later they were back on course but playing catch-up for the rest of the event.

More trouble came two stages later when they went off road and landed in a ditch, this time taking four minutes before rejoining.

Wright did not start the Super Cup Series until the fourth round and trying to make a mark with only two events left, began to take its toll.

Before the excursions into the scenery, the local crew had never been out of the top five in the A6 class for Super Cup cars, but the pressure was on with only three stages remaining before the finish.

A safe run through stage 13 saw them calm themselves before blasting through stages 14 and 15 back into the top five and they finished 24th overall and eighth in the Super Cup.