DANIEL Barritt guided Phillip Morrow to victory in the Mitsubishi Ralliart Evolution Challenge at the Swansea Bay Rally and admitted it was a long time coming.

The Hapton co-driver, who has partnered Ireland's Morrow for the last 18 months, has endured a torrid time in the passenger seat.

But the Welsh win has banished all the bad results and Barritt admitted he's now looking forward to the rest of the season.

He said: "I've been co-driving for Phillip for 18 months and that was about the first really good result we've had.

"We've had a lot of problems with the car and he always seemed to win a rally when I wasn't co-driving.

"His brother has been doing a few rallies because of other commitments I've had, but he wasn't available this time so I was given the chance."

The duo will now be sharing the job until the end of the season.

Having won the previous round, Morrow carried on from where he left off and was the fastest of the Evo crews on SS1, a 12.5 mile run through Margam Park - albeit with a slow puncture.

At the first service halt, after crews had completed three stages, Morrow's lead had decreased to eight seconds from Julian Reynolds, with David Bogie a further 50 seconds behind in third.

Stage four was the longest of the rally at 17 miles and where Morrow stamped his authority on proceedings by setting a time 20 seconds quicker than any other Evo Challenge competitor. His advantage was increased when a transmission shaft broke in Reynolds' car, who took over two minutes longer than the young Ulsterman to complete the stage.

The final stage was another run through Margam Park, by which time Morrow had amassed an 80-second lead and therefore opted for a steady run to ensure he made it to the finish.

And it was Morrow's day, as his performance also saw him win the event's Production Class, claim an overall position of fifth, score maximum points towards the PIAA Junior Award - and, most importantly, places him in a commanding position in the race for the Evo Challenge title and the first prize of a Mitsubishi works drive.

Barritt said: "It was difficult because of all the rain but he knew what he had to do. He went out to drive as fast as he could and then just see what happens and he was lucky that the people we were racing against had problems."