JASON Pritchard claimed a third place overall finish at last weekend’s Melvyn Evans Motorsport Tour of Epynt.

The event formed the opening round of the MSA Asphalt Rally Championship and won by sponsor Melvyn Evans of Lampeter with Damian Cole ending second.

Builth Wells based Pritchard spun his North Road Garage Ford Fiesta S2000 on the opening stage before setting a fightback to claim third, setting a stage best time on stage seven.

Pritchard said: “I haven’t driven the Fiesta S2000 much so every mile in the car we’re improving.

“The car hasn’t got the grunt of a World Rally Car but we were fastest in the rain on the final stage so maybe we could have been closer to challenging for the win. “

Pritchard now looks ahead to the second round of the championship where he will be aiming to record his first win in his title defence.

“We’ll use the Focus WRC on the Isle of Man in the next round,” said Pritchard. “We’ve won the event three times in a row and last year we set fastest time on every stage bar one so it’s an event myself and co-driver Phil Clark look forward to.”