But we loved it as usual, and took yet another win - that made seven consecutive wins in the championship. Nobody has ever done that before in China, and it felt great.

Also it was our first gravel rally since the Pirelli back in April, so it was great to get back on that surface - we won every stage of the event in our WY team Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9.

Sadly we were unable to take that run of wins any further though, because the next event in China clashed with Trackrod Rally Yorkshire, and the BRC is our priority for the year. So the WY rally team had to find a new crew to get team points for them in China, while we made the much shorter trip to Yorkshire for the Trackrod.

It was a strange day out to say the least. Actually, it was a weird week leading up to the event. As you probably know, I teach at the family Forest Experience rally school most days. So a week before the Trackrod it was business as usual as I headed up to teach a new batch of students. But then one of them rolled the car, while I was sitting alongside them - as I mentioned at the start of this column - and that's when the muscle ripped away from my bones.

Too much information? Sorry, but it is well on the mend now - which is good because Wales Rally GB might be a while away, but we're off back to China at the end of the month.

Anyway, back to the Trackrod. We had problems with a broken driveshaft and ended up driving for almost four full stages with it.

Then the FX Motor Sports team had to perform a quick gear change in the lunch time service, which meant we got to the end - just as another shaft broke - but we were still third fastest in that last stage!

We took third placed BRC points, which we felt was good considering we'd had so much trouble.

But after the event, news spread that Guy Wilks had been excluded at post-event scrutineering for technical reasons. That moved us up to second overall.
The results remain provisional for now after Mitsubishi appealed Guy's exclusion, I think the situation will probably go on for some time.

Whatever happens, it looks like my brother Mark and I will be fighting for the British title on Rally GB. We've both been British champions before and both desperately want to be champion again - and there's no rivalry like sibling rivalry!