Osian Pryce dominated the historic section of the Escort Rally Special, finishing 55.61 seconds ahead of his nearest rival in Belgium last weekend

The one-off event celebrated the 50th anniversary of Escort saw the Machynlleth ace joined by Newtown’s Jess Hockley in claiming historic class glory by nearly a minute despite suffering clutch problems and an engine misfire on the final stage.

Pryce said: “The Escort Rally Special was a fantastic event which I will remember for a long time.

“The road section to the first stage was a little tight and Jess and I were a little flustered but we finished the stage well and could not believe we were leading the historic section by almost four seconds.

“We increased our lead to over a minute and a half going into the fourth and final stage and only 0.2 seconds behind the leaders of the modern category.

“It was all going well until we lost the clutch and the engine started to misfire on a gravel section.

“I hoped that the misfire would clear when we got back onto tarmac, but instead it got worse.

“Luckily we had started the last stage with such a big advantage that we still had a sizeable victory when we eventually reached the finish of the stage.

“We met so many wonderful competitors and for the locals to praise us on our performance was something really special. It really was a fantastic event and a dream weekend for a big Escort enthusiast like myself.”