ANDY Burton has won the GMF Motor Factors Wyedean Forest Rally for a record-breaking sixth time.

At the wheel of his familiar Peugeot Cosworth and partnered by Robin Kellard, the Hereford driver arrived back at the Chepstow Racecourse finish 19 seconds ahead of the Ford Focus WRC of runners-up Paul Bird & Kirsty Riddick.

It was an emotional victory for Burton as rule changes coming into force at the beginning of 2012 will see such cars as the crowd-pleasing Peugeot outlawed from competition and, consequently, this was the last time that spectators could savour the sight and sound of the hybrid machine in the Forest of Dean.

Meanwhile, for Cumbrian Paul Bird, a first visit to the area proved to be a worthwhile experience – a good haul of BTRDA Rally Series points ahead of his 'local' Malcolm Wilson Rally in three weeks time has set his season off to a promising start. Having set fastest time on the opening stage of the day, 2007 Wyedean winners Hugh Hunter & Andy Marchbank were third after a minor 'off' caused slight damage to their Ford Focus WRC. Adding to the variety of vehicles taking top honours, the Mitsubishi Lancer EVO9 of David Wright & Michael Wilkinson was fourth and Roger Chilman & Andrew Sankey took fifth in their recently-acquired Subaru Impreza WRC.

Still searching for that elusive third victory Coleford's Nik Elsmore, partnered by last year's winning co-driver Paul Spooner, could only manage 6th in his showroom specification Mitsubishi Lancer.