Paul Bird has boosted his championship chances in this year’s BTRDA Rally Series with victory on last weekend’s Woodpecker Stages.

The British Superbike and MotoGP team boss, whose Dom Buckley Motorsport-prepared Ford Focus WRC07 runs on Pirelli tyres, took his second successive win in the series with a dominant performance on the Ludlow-based gravel event.

The Cumbrian and co-driver Aled Davies set the fastest time on the opening stage by seven seconds before doubling their advantage on the next test. They lost time on stage three by stalling before setting the fastest time on the remaining three stages to beat Steve Perez’s similar Focus by 27 seconds.

“It was a busy weekend for us what with my team racing at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone and me competing on the Woodpecker, so hopefully I gave the boys some inspiration,” said Bird. “The championship is still within our grasp so I'll hopefully be able to keep this run of wins going.”

Bird is now fifth in the points before dropped scores heading to the penultimate round, the Trackrod Rally in Yorkshire, on September 27.