TERRY Martin made the perfect start to his road rally season by claiming a well-earned victory in the Shaw Trophy.

The Blackburn driver, with new navigator Paul Taylor on the maps, finished four minutes ahead of Rob Chalmers and Chris Bebbington after 110 miles of hard driving in Northumberland.

The route should have been longer, but organisers Whickham DMC were forced to cut 30 miles off the total after torrential rain left many roads under two feet of water.

The first half of the rally took crews through some classic north-east lanes, with many blind crests and long straights -- made worse by snow on higher ground.

Early leaders after the 13-mile section in Harwood forest was the Peugeot 309 GTi of Rob Chalmers and Chris Bebbington, but the difficult conditions were starting to take their toll on competitors.

First retirement of the night went to second-seeds Steve Head and Graham Raeburn, who suffered driveshaft failure after just three miles. Next out were Garstang and Preston MC's Steve Kenyon and Myles Gleave after snapping the throttle cable on their Ford Sierra 4x4.

Top seeds Paul Schatz and Jerry Hettrick didn't get off to the best of starts, dropping a couple of minutes after wrong-slotting early on and then suffering gearbox problems with their Peugeot 205GTi in the second half of the night.

At the halfway rest halt, Chalmers and Bebbington held a narrow lead over reigning SD34 champions Malcolm Grisdale and Bob Hargreaves, from Pendle DMC, with Martin and Taylor tied for third overall with fellow Clitheroe DMC crew Simon Daly and Jason Crook.

A coming-together with a bridge parapet could have spelled disaster for Martin and Taylor just ten miles from the finish, but the pair survived to take win -- despite a rearranged front end on their Peugeot.

With the three following crews all tied on nine minutes, the results were decided on times set through Harwood Forest.

That left Chalmers and Bebbington as runners-up, followed by Grisdale and Hargreaves.

Despite being plagued with a misfire that lasted all night, Daly and Crook were happy to continue their run of good form with an excellent fourth place in their MG Maestro.