Cumbrian Frank Bird came away with an impressive top-five finish in his debut in the Legend Fires North West Stages Rally.

The Penrith racer and co-driver Jack Morton produced a strong showing in the event around Preston and Garstang.

Bird and Morton took on some of the top names in British and international rallying in the event which Frank’s dad Paul won on three occasions.

In the Dom Buckley Motorsport-prepared and Frank Bird Poultry-backed Ford Fiesta Rally2 with assistance from Hager, MCE, Dragon Energy and Vodiac, Bird took up a top-ten position and then climbed further to fifth.

Bird said: “It was a good day overall on my debut.

“The stages were extremely fast and demanding which kept us very much on our toes.

“We had a little mishap on the first stage with a half spin but then after that made some changes to the car and the pace improved a lot, so I was very happy about that.

“Big thanks to Jack alongside me who had his work cut out with some stages, but he did a fantastic job and also thanks to the team for the work on the car.”