DANIEL Barritt has spoken of his shock after rally rivals Mark Lovell and Roger Freeman suffered a fatal accident while competing in the American Rally Championship.

The Hapton navigator and his Isle of Man-based driver David Higgins were just five minutes behind Lovell and Freeman on the first stage of the Oregon Trail Rally.

But what should have been a weekend of celebration for Higgins and Barritt, after the pair picked up their fourth straight win of the series, turned into tragedy when they discovered their counterparts had died after their Subaru Impreza hit a tree.

"We were still waiting to set off when the accident happened," Barritt said. "There's a two-minute gap between each car setting off and we were about five minutes behind them when news came in of the accident.

"We were re-routed to a different part of the track without knowing the full extent of what had gone on. We thought they were injured but carried on thinking they would be okay.

"But then we had a feeling the accident had been quite serious because they don't send helicopters in and ambulances for no reason."

Former British rally champion Lovell, aged 43, and his co-driver Freeman, aged 52, were prounounced dead at the scene of the accident and the first stage was subsequently cancelled.

A number of cars pulled out of the Rally but the majority carried on, with Higgins and Barritt winning but Barritt said: "It wasn't a good rally but we had to carry on and, after what had gone on, it was one of the hardest things I've had to do.

"We used to see them at every rally and, although we didn't see them that much socially, I got to know them fairly well over the last 18 months or so on the rallies.

"In fact, we spoke to them five minutes before the accident happened.

"The whole team was gobsmacked, and it wasn't easy for me and David to get back into the car and try to perform after that."

He added: "We won, but the win didn't mean anything.

"We just wanted to get to the end with as little trauma as possible, get away and come home."