LAKELAND-based rally driver Paul Bird has just celebrated winning the ANCRO National Rally Championship, but found himself edged into second place in Saturday's Coppermines Grizedale Stages Rally on Saturday.

Bird, from Penrith, sold his championship-winning car earlier in the week and was in the ex-Mark Higgins Stobart Motorsport Ford Focus WRC - and under strict instructions not to damage the car which is also in the shop window.

A steady run on the opening two Grizedale Stages saw Bird and co-driver Ian Windress arrive at the first service stop over half a minute down on rally leader Guy Wilks from Darlington, driving a Hyundai Accent WRC, but the Cumbrian upped the pace on Dunnerdale's short stages to consolidate second place going into the final 20 miles.

A time-consuming spin and an overshoot scuppered any chances of Bird going all out for victory on the last pair of tests and he had to be content for runner-up spot for the second time running.

Grizedale's own David Shuttleworth and navigator Simon Megaw finished joint fourth overall alongside Steve Petch in his Hyundai WRC with an overall time of 50 minutes and 47 seconds.

Rivals Dave Wright and Shelly Rogerson, also members of Kirkby Lonsdale MC, swapped places with them mid-rally, putting Shuttleworth and Megaw into sixth position after Stage 4. But the duo outpaced Petch and Wright on Stages 5 and 6, taking 20 off Wright and 12 seconds off Petch to give their Mitsubishi Evo 4 a top-five position.

Dave said: "That was the best rally I have ever finished. Everything went well, the car never let me down and the new engine held I haven't sweated so much during an event. I was fighting all the way to the finish with a result I am still grinning about."

Shuttleworth and Megaw came in as first in class and first south Cumbrian crew.

RESULTS:1, Guy Wilks/Phil Pugh (Hyundai Accent WRC) 46-44; 2. Paul Bird/Ian Windress (Ford Focus WRC) 48-11; 3, Jon Ingram/Ian Allsop (Ford Focus WRC) 48-35;4, Steve Petch/John Richardson (Hyundai Accent WRC) 50-47;5, David Shuttleworth/Simon Megaw (Mitsubishi Lancer) 50-47; 6, David Wright/Shelley Rogerson (Subaru Impreza) 51-04; 7, Gary Adam/Gordon Adam (Subaru Impreza) 51-09; 8, Tristan Pye/Andrew Roughead (Subaru Impreza) 51-41; 9, Barry Groundwater/Jude Wylie (Mitsubishi Lancer) 51-59; 10, Stephen Petch/Michael Wilkinson (Subaru Impreza) 52-03.