Mark Greenham successfully defended his McRae Motorsport Rallysprint title, after winning the last heat of the series at Perth Motorplex.

Greenham went into the final round of the series with just a one point lead over rival Will White.

But the championship battle was short lived.

White crashed his Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX MR in the first stage putting him out of action for the rest of the night.

Knowing that he needed to post some fast times to finish ahead of Greenham, the Dardanup business man was using the full capacity of his 2.3-litre stroker engine.

But coming into the first corner into the keyhole he missed his braking point and ran into one of the three concrete barriers.

While he was able to keep damage to a minimum, it was bad enough to put him out of contention for the 2014 championship title.

Greenham, who has been the driver to beat for the past two seasons, went on to win the heat and retain his crown.

With either his brother, Andrew or sister, Sarah, in the co-driver’s seat he finished the five-race series with two wins and three seconds to finish with a score of 47 out of a possible 50.

Greenham said the competition was a lot tougher this year.

“We were pushed a lot harder this year. I think everyone keeps improving and there were more powerful cars competing.

“Paul Lowry looked like he was going to be the one to beat after winning the first round but then for various reasons he was not able to compete in the rest of the series and guys like Will White with his new car pushed us pretty hard.”

Greenham is now hoping to compete in the Killarnée Targa South West in May but said he was hoping to attract some more sponsorship to help offset the cost.

Jamie Lister, in his 2000 Subaru Impreza WRX STi finished second overall in heat five and jumped into second place overall for the series with 39 points, finishing three ahead of White who did not add to his tally of 36 from the first four heats.

The remarkable thing about Lister’s performance is that he competes in Class III (Tarmac 4WD up to 3.5-litre) while Greenham and White both drive cars with bigger, more powerful engines.

Despite the handicap, Lister was able to finish in the top four overall in each of the five rounds.

His performance also secured him the Class III title with three firsts and two seconds.

Troy Wilson, who won the two heats where Lister finished second, recorded the second fastest time of the night in his first run but could not maintain that pace due to a gearbox problem and finished the night in fifth place overall. He also finished the series in fifth place overall with Dennis Heller (driving a 2004 Mitsubishi Evo VIII MR) in fourth place.

In Class I (Tarmac 2WD up to 2.0-litre) Duane Jourbert completed a perfect series with five consecutive wins in his 1983 Toyota Sprinter AE86.

The clean sweep had him finishing an incredible 27 points ahead of Daniel Webb (2003 Ford Focus ST170) and Paul Helm (1970 Ford Escort MkI RS2000) who both finished the series with 33 points.

The Class II (Tarmac 2WD over 2.0-litre) title was won by Glen Renshaw (2008 Holden VE SSV Ute) while Scott McKenzie (1994 Subaru Impreza WRX) won the Class V (Gravel 2WD and 4WD) title with a perfect score of 50 points from his five rounds.