CLITHEROE and district motor club have revealed exciting new plans for Blyton Airfield, following the success of last weekend’s Hall Trophy Rally.

The club ran the event for the first time at the Lincolnshire venue, which was used in World War Two by RAF Bomber Command before being abandoned in 1954.

And now clerk-of-the-course Bruce Lindsay, who was instrumental in securing the site, is hoping to run more motorsport events there in 2010.

He said: “The whole rally went very smoothly on Sunday and all the competitors thought it was brilliant.

“We are in the process of signing an exclusive, five-year contract with the landowners to run two rallies, the Jack Neal Memorial and Hall Trophy every year.

“The current layout allowed us to run stages that were up to five minutes long, but there are plans in the pipeline to build a new road which could double the mileage.

“We are also looking very closely at running autosolo meetings at Blyton, which would be hugely popular.”

Traditionally held at Weeton army camp at Blackpool, this year’s Hall Trophy attracted almost fifty crews for 12 stages on the narrow tarmac perimeter roads.

Top seeding went to Carnforth’s Ian Joel, in his Silverstone Tyres-backed Ford Escort Cosworth, with Tony and Emma Hewitt at car two in their Mitsubishi Evo 5.

Mark Roberts and Sarah Hughes started in third place after making the long cross-country trip from North Wales with their Escort Cosworth.

The opening pair of stages saw a three-way battle with Roberts taking an early advantage over Joel and Hewitt.

Joel snatched the lead on stages three and four, but when the gearbox went on the startline of SS5, it left Roberts with clear run to victory.

Second place went to the Hewitts, one minute and 40 seconds behind, with Adrian Atkinson third in his Escort Cosworth.

Two East Lancashire crews were on course for a good result, but were denied by mechanical problems.

Chris and Heidi Woodcock were lying seventh overall when they lost drive to the front wheels of their Mitsubishi Evo, which caused them several spins. Although they managed to keep going, a blown turbo on stage nine forced instant retirement.

Ross Miller, contesting only his second stage rally, had a difficult start, when a faulty rear brake caliper cost them 30 seconds on the opening test.

But Miller, who had SD34 road rally champion Terry Martin alongside, got his Peugeot 206 Cup car up to third in class and 11th overall before a broken steering arm ended their day.

A strong contingent of F1000 crews were also competing, with no less than 14 youngsters in the F1000 Juniors class, who entertained the spectators a display of committed, flat-out driving in very difficult conditions.