STEVE Entwistle scored a unique hat-trick as he won his class on the RAC Rally of The Tests for the third year running.

The highly-rated Mini man from Rishton also finished third overall on the gruelling four-day event.

Entwistle and navigator Ali Procter, from Newcastle, were piloting six EMO, a Mini Cooper S.

The duo spent the entire event locked in a three-way battle for victory with Paul Wignall and Mark Appleton in an Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint and the Volvo PV544 of Dan Willan and Martyn Taylor.

So close was the result that less than a minute separated the top three crews after 33 tests, 20 regularities, including two timed-to-the-second control sections, spanning 750 miles across England and Wales.

And Entwistle and Procter were in brilliant form, leading after the first and second legs, only slipping to third place on the last day.

Despite the disappointment, Entwistle was still happy with the result.

“Changes to the regulations this year meant that, for the first time, cars built before 1968 were eligible for overall results and I really wanted outright victory,” he said.

“ But once I’d realised that I wasn’t going to win, I consoled myself with the fact that I was beaten by two of the best historic crews out there – and we did get our class win.”

Entwistle and Procter signalled their intentions in the prologue in Harrogate, finishing third overall.

Day one saw the pair continue their fine form, starting with a second place at the Harewood hillclimb course near Leeds and fastest overall at Fulbeck kart circuit.

That left them leading the field by a slender nine seconds going into day two.

Again, Entwistle and Procter were quickest out of the blocks, posting the fastest time at Curborough sprint course.

But then they had a setback at the next test with a loose front wheel hub costing them time, but they bounced back to finish in the top three of five of the day’s remaining seven regularities.

The leg culminated in a timed-to-a-second section in the dark at Caerwent military camp. The pair finished a minute quicker than the rest of the field which saw the Mini men take a four second lead over Wignall and Appleton into the final day.

But at Worthy Farm, home to Glastonbury, Entwistle and Procter saw their lead slip away as they dropped to third.

But the duo did end on a high as they clinched the fastest time on the last test of the rally.

Entwistle is already preparing for next year, adding: “A third class win and third overall is a really good result but I think we still have unfinished business.”