A TALENTED youngster has scooped an award for designing the livery of a rally car in the run up to this week's Dayinsure Wales Rally GB.

Kirsty Campbell, of Dorin Park Specialist School in Chester, won a nationwide schools competition organised by the Welsh Government and Toyota to design the livery for a Toyota GT86 rally car.

Although the car won't compete, it will be on show in the free-to-enter Rally Village in Deeside for spectators to admire her artistic work.

The car was presented to Kirsty and all those at Dorin Park last week and there were smiles all round as the car cover was removed from the hood.

Jane Hughes, headteacher, said she is "immensely proud of Kirsty" even more so as this isn't just a special school category that she's won.

The competition was open to all students and judged blind without judges knowing which schools pupils attended.

Mrs Hughes added: "It's a fantastic achievement and it's an absolutely beautiful design – it looks great. It's her last year at school and the confidence this will give her to go on and do something in art and design is immeasurable. After all, how many kids can say that they have done something like this?"

Kirsty said: "Wow – seeing it on paper and now seeing it in real life is overwhelming. I was born in Chester and live in Ellesmere Port but most of my family are Welsh and this design has allowed me to express my Welsh side.

"I have included lots of scales for the Welsh dragon and a Welsh castle like the one that I see where we visit my nan in Wales. I also wanted to include an advertisement for Toyota on the bonnet to advertise it. Art and design is a very part of me and this is just awesome."

Becky Joyce, Kirsty's form tutor, said she worked incredibly hard on the project over the summer, spending several lessons creating the design and researching which elements she could include.

Ms Joyce added: "Kirsty thought about how she could combine the brick work of the castle with the scales of the dragon to make it relevant to Wales. When we sent it off she was very hopeful but I don't think for minute that she thought she might win.

"She may go on to to do a foundation arts course at a local college when she leaves us as it's definitely where her talent lays. Seeing it on the car, it looks so professional and yet it is still very much Kirsty's original individual design - you can see the strokes of her crayon on the car and it's beautiful."