Dorchester duo Anthony Wilmington and Andy White narrowly missed out on a podium place in the Rallye Sunseeker National.

The county town pair performed admirably through the forests of Dorset and Hampshire but had to settle for fourth spot in their Mitsubishi Evo6.

Carrying the colours of W&S Recycling for the first time, Wilmington and White were hoping for the win which has eluded them to date, and the prize of a free entry in the Sol Rally Barbados.

But from the start the more powerful Subaru Impreza WRC of Roger Duckworth and Mark Broomfield and the Ford Focus WRC08 of Michael O’Brien and Paul Spooner set the pace with Duckworth going on to record the fastest time on each of the event’s 12 stages to claim first place.

The Dorchester pairing fought hard to stay in the battle but a drive-shaft failure left them with only two-wheel-drive during the afternoon stages, which dropped them to fourth spot.

Third went to Daniel O’Brien, son of Michael, and Paul Morris.

Of the other local crews involved, Matt Thorne and Les Harrogate from Wimborne fared best, finishing sixth overall and winning the class nine honours in their Ford Escort MK2.

Ringwood pairing Jay and Sally Wyatt came 10th overall and second in class nine in their Escort, while Three Legged Cross driver Gary Hayter was 15th overall and first in the class eight standings.

Bournemouth ace Darren Jones was left to rue mechanical fail- ure after a drive-shaft problem brought his challenge to an end on stage 11.

In the International event, Mark Donnelly took the honours in his Renault Clio R3.

The Northern Irishman had been neck-and-neck with Finnish driver Jarkko Nikara but disaster struck for the latter when his Citroen DS3 R3T caught fire on the penultimate stage, at Ringwood South.

The Challenge section was won by James Ford and co-driver Neil Colman in their Ford Escort MK2, while James Potter and Nick Broome triumphed in the battle of the Historique cars with their own Escort MK2.