ACCRINGTON'S Heather Johnson swaps seats when she makes her rally driving debut this weekend competing in the Wigan & District, PROCARE Stages Rally at Three Sisters race circuit.

The 20-year-old is the daughter of SD34 champion Steve and normally sits alongside dad as his co-driver, but Saturday will see her competing against her father on equal terms, as well as 60 other drivers at the event.

After attending Clitheroe Royal Grammar School, Heather is now studying psychology in Manchester, but still finds time to indulge in her passion.

She has been involved in motorsport for 10 years, marshalling and co-driving at events, and she has also competed as a driver in Autotests and Autosolos, which test the driver's skill around a short course.

This weekend, however, is rather different as she will have to contest a number of stages in the fastest possible time.

Heather will be taking to the stages in a Nissan Micra, competing in the Formula 1000 class, and will have the experience of Dave Barratt in the co-driving seat.

Dave was last year's Class A, SD34 Co-Driver award winner and will guide Heather around the stages throughout the day.

Father Steve said: "It will be great to see Heather out there.

"I am sure she will be very capable and no doubt we shall be checking each other's times and sharing information."

The event gets under way at around 10am on Saturday.