TV pundit Tony Jardine and Daily Mail motor racing correspondent Jonathan McEvoy are closing in on their goal of competing on Wales Rally GB in just under a month's time, after the duo finished first in class – their second victory in three events – on the Tempest Rally at the weekend.

Their third rally together proved to be a real challenge for the media pairing as the unique mix of stages – covering 75 miles across army land – took them and their Sportinglife.com-backed Ford Fiesta through forest, tarmac and military roads – a real obstacle course with short, sharp stages and hazards along the way.

“It's such a difficult event because the stages are so short which makes it hard to get into a rhythm,” Jardine remarked. “We were off the pace in the morning and neither of us was happy with our performance until later on in the afternoon.

“What makes it even harder is that it's not just pure forest but a combination of surfaces – on stage 12 we came out of the trees, over a crest, through a gate and straight on to the slippery tarmac of a military road where we had to watch out for all the obstacles – gate posts, kerbs, lamp posts and tank traps!”

At the end of one of the afternoon stages, one of the re-inforced Kumho tyres on the Castrol Fiesta suffered a puncture as the team caught the edge of a tank trap, which meant Jardine and McEvoy had to perform a quick tyre change in a field, managing it in less than four minutes before heading back to service.

An extra challenge for McEvoy then came with each checkpoint. The timings between stages were so tight that crews were in arrears all day, with McEvoy and other navigators having to use all their skills of negotiation to plead with the organisers against penalties for lateness.

“Jon was like Socrates with his abacus,” Jardine added in admiration. “We were chasing our tails all day and he did well to get us through with no time penalties, especially as the time control after special stage 12 was wrongly marked in the road book and he still managed to swiftly guide us to where we needed to be.”

The final drama of the day for the team was on the last forest stint when a branch struck the drivers door window and a shower of broken glass fell on the duo. In the style of a seasoned navigator, though, McEvoy didn't miss a beat with the pace notes.

“I didn't realise what was happening,” he admitted afterwards. “I just thought some gravel had come in through the window and then at the end of the stage I looked down to see glass had shattered all over us. Even though we couldn't see where we were going at that point - as we had no lightpod on the car - we were still keeping up a good pace and the British army would have been proud of the way we tackled their obstacle course!”