MOTORSPORT: Surprise Peugeot 205 Rally Championship leader Matt Barker makes his first foray into forest rallying at Swansea Bay this weekend.

Barker starts the next round as the leader despite being originally seeded at 61 and is now current favourite to possibly take the title.

And the West Midlands Motorsport team man will be ready for the Welsh challenge after a productive day testing at Sweet Lamb forest, Aberystwyth.

The car covered over 100 miles, while Bewdley-based Barker also spent time with National Rally Championship class winner Nigel Griffiths.

And Griffiths admitted: "I got up at six o'clock in the morning to tell the team the car is spot on and Matt certainly knows what he's doing in the car. I could have stayed in bed!"

Barker was happy testing and said: "The problem with a rally is that you don't get time to see if a change has made an improvement but on a full test you can see the changes and the effects made."

But the weekend will be a tall order with plenty of more experienced opposition.

An interesting battle is opening up with Irish team-mate David Crossen who is second in the championship in West Midland Motorsport's second car.

Crossen has been competing in local rallies and will start at car number two in Swansea.

Bewdley's Ben Colley is also proving to be competitive in the championship at just 19.