RALLY Scholarship winner Dan Boardman has scrapped plans to contest this year's Peugeot 206 Championship in order to hitch a ride with Ford.

For the 26-year-old from Ribchester has made a last-minute switch to the new, one-make Fiesta Sporting Trophy which starts next month.

Boardman, who won the Innovation Motorsports scholarship scheme to find the country's best up-and-coming driver, will form a two-car team with team boss Chris Moore.

He said: "This is a dream come true for me. The Peugeot Championship was going to be great, but to be competing alongside Chris in a brand new Fiesta is just something else.

"The Fiesta series is backed by M-Sport, who run Ford's World Rally Championship team, and is so high-profile that everyone wants to get on board.

"We had a look at the car when it was unveiled at the Autosport Show in January and decided that this was the way we wanted to go."

Moore is making his return to rallying after a two-year sabbatical from the sport.

The Geordie firefighter hasn't competed since the Manx National rally in 2004, when he led the Peugeot 206 Cup contenders by 40 seconds before being forced to retire with a broken driveshaft.

Since then he has been working to build up his company, Innovation Motorsports, along with his two rally schools, RallySchool UK, near Leeds, and RallySchool Norway.

"Having a driver of Chris's calibre alongside means that not only will I benefit from his experience but he'll also provide the performance benchmark," explained Dan, who works as a project engineer with TVR in Blackpool.

Partnering him will be 21-year-old college student Yolandie Walsh, from Rishton, who won a place in the co-driver's seat in the same scholarship.

Mechanics Niki Savelio and Stuart Farrell make up the rest of the team..

The Fiesta SportingTrophy is based around the 2-litre, Fiesta ST group N car, and has a conversion kit from M-Sport, designed to provide all the safety equipment and performance upgrades to enable the car to be competitive and reliable.

The series will start with the Malcolm Wilson Rally on March 11, based at the team's Dovenby Hall HQ in Cockermouth.

Competitors will then face five more gravel rallies and two asphalt rallies in the UK, finishing with the Bulldog Rally in October.