BELBROUGHTON rally ace Steve Deeley leads his class in the REIS BTRDA Rally Championship with just one round remaining.

Deeley is in first place in the Gold Star Class B10 drivers points table with the final round, the Cambrian Rally, this Saturday.

It is Deeley’s first year as a competing rally driver having spent the previous 20 years as a co-driver.

Together with his current co-driver, Alan Proudman, they admit that the Cambrian is going to be a difficult one.

Nathan O'Connor, currently lying second in the class in a Citroen C2, has now found his speed and reliability and with O’Connor’s car pushing 180 bhp, compared to Deeley’s Peugeot 205 GTi’s standard 105 bhp, the Stourbridge man is up against it.

The Class Awards, however, see the balance in Deeley's favour for the season's championship win as 20 points are awarded to the highest placed registered driver in each class, 18 points to the second, 17 points to the third and so on down to two points to the eighteenth placed driver.

Should O’Connor win the class on the Cambrian, Deeley would need to finish the rally no lower than 8th to finish top by one point.

Deeley currently has 99 points to O’Connor’s 90.

He said: "He's pushing hard (O’Connor), my plan is to give it maximum and try to finish high enough to clinch the win, it would be a shame after having the lead all season to let it go now, I've got to do enough to win the class but not enough to risk damaging the car with an entry to Wales Rally GB confirmed for three weeks later."