RISING York rally driving starlet Ashley Slights has discovered a winning formula.

The 16-year-old took the chequered flag in the first event of the newly-formed Junior Formula 1,000 Rally Championship.

Slights steered his one-litre Toyota Yaris to a ten-second victory in round one in the Roskirk Stages at the Three Sisters Kart Circuit, near Wigan.

Sutton-on-Derwent-based Slights, a member of York Motor Club, was assisted by navigator Jemma Bellingham, of Lincolnshire.

The second of the six championship rounds will be held at Lee Holland, in Anglesey, next month.

The championship was formed following a change in racing rules which allowed 14 to 17-year-olds to drive rally cars.

Slights is following in the footsteps of his father, Peter, who drives a works Ford Escort in the Historic Rally Championship.

The pair work on the Yaris at Peter’s Pigeon Cote Garage, at Monks Cross, in York.

Said Slights senior: “Ashley drove really sensibly in difficult weather conditions at Wigan. He really did us proud.”

Slights left Pocklington’s Woldgate School last year and is currently studying for a diploma in mechanical engineering at the Oxford and Cherwell Valley Motorsport College, in Oxfordshire.

His dad added: “Building a car and driving in championships is expensive and Ashley is finding it useful going to college so he can understand how everything works and do some of the work himself.”