Although not particularly deep, snow that had fallen in the days leading up to the Wyedean Forest Rally had frozen on the tracks in the Forest of Dean, making the going very difficult for many of the capacity entry 180 crews who started on Saturday morning.

2007 Wyedean winners Hugh Hunter/Andy Marchbank (Ford Focus WRC) set fastest time through the opening stage, Sallowvallets, and looked on course for another victory – that is until they had to stop and change a puncture on the fifth of the seven stages, and then suffered two more before they reached the end. Having no more spare wheels, they had no choice but to retire.

Having been absent last year, 2010 victors Steve Perez/Paul Spooner were also in trouble. Running as high as second overall at one point, their Ford Focus WRC left the road midway through the event, damaging its suspension and removing a front wheel. Game over.

Having retired from the event in 2011, Charlie Payne and co-driver Craig Thorley returned this time to win the Rally in their Ford Focus WRC. After a remarkable day in the Forest the Yorkshire crew arrived back at the Chepstow Racecourse finish more than three minutes ahead of runners-up Shaun Gardener/Ben Innes (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO5.9).

Ross team Dan Gray and Rob Tuckwell started the Rally 24th car on the road and were hoping that the snow and icy conditions may have been cleared by the time they got on to the stages, however they couldn't have been more wrong.

Every stage throughout the day had terrible driving conditions and Dan struggled to keep the car on the tracks, this showed when they pair spun off into the trees on stage two causing a gearbox mount to shear off leaving the duo to limp to the end of the stage.

Dan told the Gazette:?"I thought this was going to be the end of our rally, but with some improvisation at the remote service stop we used a ratchet strap to hold the gearbox in place for the remaining five stages."

Dan and Rob finished the rally 15th in class and were delighted to finish the rally at all, under the circumstances.

The 37th Wyedean Forest Rally proved to be a very stern test of man and machine, leaving the 122 crews who were classified as finishers with plenty of stories to tell.

Full results of the Team GMF Wyedean Forest Rally are available on the event website http://www.wyedeanrally.com">www.wyedeanrally.com