DANIEL Barritt got his British Rally Championship season off to a flyer by finishing sixth overall on the Pirelli International Rally.

In a star-studded field, which boasted no less than seven former British champions, Barritt and new driver Phillip Morrow ended the rally less than two minutes behind winners Ryan Champion and Craig Thorley.

"Under normal circumstances sixth place wouldn't be much cause for celebration, but considering the opposition, we were pretty happy," explained Daniel, 26, from Hapton.

"We lost fifth gear on the very first stage, which left us with just four gears for the rest of the first day, but we were still able to trade times with both David and Mark Higgins, Gwyndaf Evans and Jonny Milner, who have all won the British Championship.

"And we beat Alister McRae, who is a former works Mitsubishi driver in the World Championship.

"Given that Phillip has never contested the Pirelli before, and we were within half-a-second a mile of these guys, I would say he's got a good future ahead of him."

The Pirelli International, the opening round of the BRC, marked a big step up for the Northern Ireland driver, who has only previously contested national events.

Based in Carlisle, competitors tackled 115 stage miles in the Kielder forest complex, held over one and half days starting on Saturday morning and finishing back in Carlisle on Sunday lunchtime.

Boosted by a £40,000 fund provided by his local motor club at Ballynahinch, 22-year-old Morrow decided to take the experienced Barritt, who has won both the US and British titles and is currently contesting the Production World Championship with Fumio Nutahara, as his navigator for the season.

And that paid dividends for the pair, as Barritt explained: "I've done the Pirelli five or six times before, so I know some of the difficult sections of stages. Phillip was able to avoid trouble by listening to the advice over the intercom.

"Although this was our first event together, we work well as a team, and hopefully there's a lot more to come in terms of speed and results."

Their next event together is the Donegal International, based in Southern Ireland, which the pair will use as an extended test session for their Mitsubishi Evo9, ahead of round two of the British Championship, the Jim Clark Rally on July 7-8.

Results: 1: Ryan Champion/Craig Thorley (Mitsubishi Evo 9) 1hr 45m 37.8s; 2: Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Subaru Impreza)1.45:50.6; 3: Gwyndaf Evans/Huw Lewis (Evo 9) 1.45:58.4; 4: David Higgins/Ieuan Thomas (Evo 9) 1.46:56.6; 5: Jonny Milner/Nicky Beech (Evo 9) 1.47:16.6; 6: Philip Morrow/Daniel Barritt (Evo 9)1.47:30.1; 7: Alister McRae/Gordon Noble (Impreza) 1.48:38.1.