RALLY stars past and present attracted thousands of enthusiasts to Castle Combe for the 14th year of Rallyday on Saturday.

Father and son rally stars Gwyndaf and Elfyn Evans stole the limelight, the younger Evans having stepped up to the World Rally Championship this year with the M-Sport team. The Cumbrian outfit also brought Mikko Hirvonen’s Monte Carlo-winning Ford Fiesta S2000 from 2010, as well as Colin McRae’s Safari winning Ford Focus WRC from 1999, to the event.

Markku Alén, who won the FIA Driver’s Cup in 1978 – the year before the WRC Drivers’ Championship was established – made his maiden appearance at Rallyday driving a Lancia 037 - as he piloted in the mid-1980s - and the Toyota Celica GT4 that took him to fourth on the 1992 Lombard RAC Rally.

He also led a 14 strong Lancia Stratos Parade at mid-day, in memory of 1979 world champion Björn Waldegård, who had been due to attend Rallyday, but passed away aged 70 at the start of the month.

Alen said:“I had no idea coming here what to expect, but I like it very much.

“There are a lot of spectators, a lot of history and also this track is beautiful - very safe.”

Rallyday also hosted celebrations for the 30th anniversary of the Metro 6R4, one of Britain's best loved rally cars of all time.

Harri Toivonen and David Llewellin, the 1989 and 1990 British Rally champion, playing a big part of the festivities, which included a reunion of the team that actually built the original car.

Other stars in attendance included five-time WRC event winner and Richard Burns Foundation patron Markko Martin, who drove an ex-Colin McRae Subaru Impreza WRC and the new Richard Tuthill Porsche 997 RGT.

The 1977 and 1985 British Rally champion Russell Brookes, Phil Collins, Nicky Grist, Terry Kaby and Rallyday hosts, Tony Mason, Howard Davies and Graham RobsonMason presented the ‘Brian Stubbings Spirit of Rallyday’ Trophy to Roy Edwards, who has driven at every Rallyday since 2001. The trophy was awarded for the first time last year in memory of Stubbings, the co-founder of Rallyday, who died in February 2013.

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