VETERAN rally ace Arthur Senior used his latest race to pay a debt of gratitude to the heart specialists who saved his life.

The daredevil pensioner, still going strong 18 years after a bypass operation, criss-crossed the country in the Rally of the Tests, a re-enactment of RAC rallies of more than 40 years ago.

With his co-driver Tony Mason, he won both his class and the team prize in the rally, which started in Blackpool and finished at Brighton.

The pair are two of Britain's most experienced competitors but, despite belonging to the same Morecambe car club, they had never competed together before.

Mr Senior, a 72-year-old retired garage owner, from Etherley Grange, near Bishop Auckland, drove Jaguar and works Austin and Reliant models in the 1950s and enjoyed successes in RAC, alpine and Monte Carlo drives.

Mr Mason, from Banbury, Oxfordshire, was an outright winner of the RAC rally before going on to appear on Top Gear and now Sky TV.

Their rally success followed a last-minute race against time to get Mr Senior's maroon Riley 1.5 ready for the road.

Mr Senior said: "It took me the first half of the rally to get used to the car and we were nearly out of it but we worked our way up through the field."

Since he suffered a heart attack while rallying in 1982, Mr Senior and his wife Dorothy have supported the British Heart Foundation.

The rally effort raised £950 in sponsorship which was presented to Jack Fowler, treasurer of the charity's Bishop Auckland branch.