THIRTEEN’S an unlucky number for some, but not for rally navigator Jason Crook.

For the Blackburn-based mapman guided 13th-seed Myles Gleave to victory on last weekend’s Memorial Road Rally.

It was Crook’s third win on the event – and the second time from 13th place.

The pair were the class of the field, which comprised almost 50 of the top north-west crews.

Organisers Garstang and Preston Motor Club laid out a shortened 100-mile route, starting at Myerscough College and finishing in Knowle Green.

Acknowledged as one of the most popular road rallies on the calendar, the route took in may of favourites, including Dandy Birks, Bleasdale Fell and Abbeysteads.

And there was success for many of the East Lancashire competitors who were out on the rally.

Accrington’s Simon Boardman, in a Proton, finished an excellent ninth overall with Steve Coombes on the maps.

Fellow Proton pilot Terry Martin, current leader of the SD34 Championship, overcame a sticking caliper to claim 11th overall.

Martin, from Blackburn, and navigator Paul Taylor would have finished higher if they had queried the two minutes of road penalties handed to them in error by the organisers.

But the pair left before the results were published and were unable to get the time loss scrubbed.

In the semi-experts class Paul Buckel and Steve Butler, from Accrington, finished fifth and 19th overall. Their run was dogged by clutch problems, caused by a leaking crankshaft on their Proton.

Chorley’s Paul Gray and Marcus Pomfret brought their Mini 1000 home in 29th place – enough to take the historic class win.

Two places behind them were Clitheroe DMC veterans Alan Douglas and Dave Barritt, who boiled the brakes on their Vauxhall Corsa on the first 30-mile section.

That left them with no brakes at all for the second section, which made their win in the novice class all the more remarkable!

Novices Paul Flynn and Andy Froude had more reason to celebrate than most at the finish, after collecting third place in the novice class on their first ever road rally.

“Thanks to everyone who entered and to all our volunteers, the equipment set-up crew, the small band of marshals who made sure we had a rally and finally the rest of organising team, especially those who stepped in at the last minute to help with results,” said clerk of the course Steve Kenyon.