BRIDPORT’S Gary Morris claimed victory in the two-wheel-drive vehicles not carrying ballast the British Trials and Rally Drivers’ Association Car Trials Championship Grand Final at Woolminstone as the season came to a conclusion.

Morris finished ahead of David and Alistair Moss who claimed the Novice and Junior awards respectively.

The Woolbridge Motor Club were invited to organise the Grand Final having successfully delivered the same at the venue two years ago.

At the conclusion of the trial, Woolbridge member and Dutton Melos driver Mark Hoppé was confirmed as the BTRDA Gold Star champion succeeding Shaun Franklin.

The successful duo have already claimed first and second in the Car Trials Championship of the Motor Sports Association with Hoppé, an operations manager from Sherborne, taking the premier award having secured back-to-back championship victories in 2015/2016.

With one qualifying round remaining the Association of South West Motor Clubs series is also within the grasp of this prolific trial car driver.

Season-end accolades were not restricted to individuals with the Woolbridge Motor Club being announced as the recipient of the Mike Stephens Trophy for the best qualifying round of the championship.

The trial, which comprised of two categories to cater for both the BTRDA and local drivers, provided a testing day-long competition with sections devised by Clerk of the Course Andy Webb being acclaimed by many of the drivers.

Double champion Hoppé took victory in the rear-wheel-drive category by two points from the Hillman Imp, driven by Dave Oliver.

The classes catering for the local drivers saw the Weymouth duo of John York and Alsitair Stephenson battle for honours in the rear wheel drive category with their MG Midget and Reliant SS1 sports cars. The former claiming the win after recovering from a slow start which saw him trailing by a six-point deficit at the conclusion of the first round of eight tests. By the conclusion of the fourth round York had built a lead of seventeen points.

Maiden Newton’s John Kirby took his 950 c.c. Citroen Saxo to victory in the front wheel drive division following home the Fiat 127 of Alex Harbourne from Rugby who was credited with the overall event win. John’s wife Sharon took home the award for the Best Performance by a Lady.

The battle for class honours was close at the finish though. Dave Hiscock from Blandford trailed the class victor by eight points at the lunch halt with his 1124 c.c. variant of the Saxo but made-up ground during the afternoon and then closed to within a single point when Kirby suffered a puncture to the front nearside wheel.