Journalist Tom Cary's hopes of becoming an international co-driver within five short events were nearly dashed on the Tempest Rally after a late scare with a broken driveshaft.

Cary was sitting alongside Sky Sports presenter Tony Jardine in the ProSpeed-run Castrol Ford Fiesta for the event with the pair left to nurse the car to the finish after the driveshaft failed on the sixth stage of the event.

“We had been warned that the military test ground stage would be rough and full of pot holes, but we didn't realise how bad it could be as it just snapped the drive shaft,” Jardine said. “We had to pull off the track for a short while as we struggled for gears and then got going again propelled by just one drive shaft. We had to nurse and persuade the car to the finish line for the rest of the afternoon, it was a close call.”

The crux of this weekend's event lay in Cary obtaining a fifth signature which would fully qualify him as an international navigator in time for Rally Scotland in two weeks. A non-finish meant no signature for the licence and no entry into the Intercontinental Rally Championship finale in Scotland.

“It was touch and go whether we would make it,” Cary admitted. “At one point I really felt our chances of getting to Rally Scotland had been scuppered.

“We had no choice other than to nurse the car for the next 60 miles as we dropped to dead last in the event, but it didn't matter, it was about survival. We would have pushed the car to the finish if we'd had to.”