Glastonbury racing driver Paul Lund has opened his 2009 season with a class win in the French Rallye Tout-Terrain Championship at Soissons, just east of Paris.

It came in the Jean De La Fontaine event, which was the fourth round of the French Off Road Rally championship. Lund had intended to make an earlier start to this year's campaign but has been concentrating on his business.

He said: "I'd love to do a full season, although that's easier to say when things are going well.

"The economy hasn't really allowed me to do much more but I really wanted to get out there for this one."

The event was held over 13 stages, seven of which were on Saturday with the remaining six on Sunday covering 127km of special stages and 124km of liaison.

The first two stages on Saturday are classification stages and Lund, with regular co-driver Ross Gill, came out of them leading the two-litre production class and fifth in the unlimited production class.

For the rest of the weekend Lund and Gill pulled away from the rest of the two-litre production class and started to climb up the unlimited division. Some solid driving and navigating saw them take victory in the Productions and also take a superb second place in the unlimited runners.

"We had a few offs over the weekend – going straight through a barb wire fence and crashing into straw bales twice on chicanes – but apart from that it all went OK," Lund said.

"Everyone said it was a really tough rally. Ninety started and I think 34 finished, it really is a case of trying to keep everything together as one slip and you head to the trees and out of the rally."

Lund and Gill compete in a Toyota RAV4 that runs in the production class for cars up to two-litre.

He said: "The RAV has all the usual bits and pieces – it's built to FIA rally rules but also has a UK MSA rally log book.

"It's got an engine that was built by Bob Hawkins at Hawkinsport in Horley, Surrey, and has been re-mapped to around 180bhp."