STOURBRIDGE rally driver Richard Sykes experienced the highs and lows of rallying last weekend when he was forced to retire from the national section of Britain's round of the World Rally Championship.

The ceremonial start of the Wales Rally was on Thursday evening and Sykes and co-driver Emma Morrison were rubbing shoulders with the stars of the championship.

Even though the competitive action wasn't starting until Friday morning, Sykes' service crew were already in action as the clutch didn't feel right and so it was changed at 11pm.

Awful weather conditions greeted the crews on Friday morning as they headed for the first of the three stages making up the opening day, Hafren forest.

Sykes' event didn't get off to a good start as the fan switch failed and the windscreen steamed up. The loss of visibility caused Sykes to hit a log and further time was lost having to stop to clean the screen.

Stage two, the hugely popular Sweet Lamb, was going well until the car went through a watersplash and then misfired for the rest of the stage.

Sykes was flying in stage three, Myherin, but after spending time bypassing the fan switch after Sweet Lamb he hadn't had time to change his tyres which made the already massively tricky conditions even more dangerous. Despite almost hitting a gatepost Sykes set a quick time and ended the day 21st overall out of 90 starters.

"The first day wasn't so great for us," said Sykes. "Hafren was a nightmare, a steamed up windscreen isn't ideal when you're travelling at 100mph down a slippery gravel track. Hitting the log damaged the bumper and air intake but we carried on as fast as we could. We reckon we lost nearly two minutes.

"The Hafren air intake damage caused us further problems in Sweet Lamb as the water splash drowned the airflow meter which caused us to misfire. We still managed to get plenty of air over the spectator area jump though.

"We were on the pace in Myherin despite a lack of grip from our worn tyres. We had a great stage until we had to come to a stop at a very thin gateway with a large straw bale in front of it. The car was around two feet off the correct line and we had no choice other than hitting the brakes. I struggled getting the car into gear to restart, the clutch was still causing issues. We still set a decent time despite the stoppage."

Sykes' service crew worked wonders at the end of the day, repairing all the front end damage. They also found that the radiator had been damaged which could've ended Sykes' event on the spot.

Day two started with a spectator stage at Chirk castle. Sykes struggled through the tight chicanes and concentrated on not hitting anything. It was back into the forests for the next four stages and as Sykes gained confidence his times improved to the extent that he was now in the top 10 on all stages and had moved up to 10th overall at the end of the day.

Although the competitive action was over for the day, Sykes was to have a dramatic run back to service. The gearbox started making ominous noises and Sykes had to drive the car very slowly on the 37 mile trip, knowing that it could fail at any moment. The journey to service was completed and a spare gearbox was sourced by Sykes' team. After a lot of work the car was ready for day three.

The final day of the event had three stages and Sykes' plan was to get to the finish while continuing to push to get higher up the top ten.

The plan worked on the opening Alwen stage as he set fifth fastest time.

However, disaster was to strike following the stage. Torrential rain had flooded the gravel track out of the stage and the crews had to drive through the flood. Sykes was stopped part way through the water by an event official which caused the engine to suck up water. The car was towed out of the water and Sykes whipped out the plugs and spun the engine over to try and get the water out. While a lot was cleared the car wouldn't start and Sykes' event was over.

"We got a good bucket full of best Welsh muddy water out of the engine but we just couldn't get it restarted. We even tried getting a tow to try a bump start. Another DS3 driver had suffered the same fate. It was a hugely disappointing way to end the event but at the same time I was elated that we had taken on and beaten some much more powerful four wheel drive machinery in our little two wheel drive Citroën - a great achievement given the appalling conditions we were driving in."

Sykes is now planning his 2016 rally season with various championship options being considered.