BLACKBURN'S John Stone survived an early scare to finish fifth in the Pendragon Stages rally.

Stone ripped off the wing of his Metro 6R4 on the opening stage and it subsequently fell off nine miles later.

But he overcame the setback to earn himself a fantastic finish.

Stone, who is currently second in the North of England Tarmac Championship, said: "I'd never done the event before and I was desperate to get a good finish. It's split into three legs and I thought I'd bide my time over the first one, see what the pace was like, then speed up.

"But we ended up taking the wing off.

"We came to the corner and the car in front knocked its wing mirror off. I think that distracted me and I went into the corner a bit tight and collided with the straw bale.

"It didn't feel like a heavy contact at all, it must have just caught it at the wrong angle, so I was left dragging the wing round for most of the first stage."

Fortunately, the bump didn't cost him too much time and he charged through the rest of the rally to finish fifth - which is even more impressive considering almost half of the 115-strong field of drivers failed to make it to the end.

The Pendragon Stages comprises 65 competitive miles, and includes six long stages on the Warcop ranges and two pairs of fast stages in Lowther Park.

And, after getting a taste of the action, Stone is hungry for more.

He added: "It's not very often you can get the Metro flat out to the limit at a venue, but there were two at the weekend where we really got some speed up. It was very exhilarating."

Stone now has two rallies left at Otterburn to try to overcome current Championship leader and reigning champion Bob Grant, from Scotland.

However, he admitted it was going to be tough to take the top spot.

He said: "We've got to rely on him not finishing on one of them and we've got to win both events, so the chances are quite slim."

Pendle quartet James Howard/Charles Woodward and Dave Blackburn/Rod Brereton also completed the rally.