Mr Humphreys was woken around dawn yesterday to be told his race-prepared Subaru Impreza had been stolen.

He said: “To get woken up at 5am to hear the car and trailer have gone was a big shock. It’s one of those things you think will never happen to you.”

Police have launched a search for the grey, white and black car and the trailer. They are looking for a blue Citroen Belingo van seen in the area

CCTV footage shows a blue van unhitching the trailer from the rally team van and making off.

A woman who was in the car park gave police a blue van’s registration which detectives are tracing.

DUP MLA for Mid Ulster Ian McCrea urged anyone with information on the trailer or the rally car to contact police immediately.

He said: “Obviously these people are coming over to take part in the rally.

“It is a high profile event for people who come over and invest in cars and sponsorship and overnight stays.

“I don’t know what benefit it [taking the car] would be to anyone as it can’t be sold on the open market.

“It doesn’t bode well, at a time when people from the mainland can come over without intimidation and threats of violence – now they can’t come over without a car being stolen.”

Mark Taylor, British Rally Championship spokesman, said: “We feel desperately sorry for the team. It must be devastating to get this far to the Ulster round of the British Rally Championship and to not be able to start the rally.”

Co-driver Robb Fagg said the team were devastated.

“This was the last thing we needed,” he said.

He added that it was not just about the value of the car, some of which can be retrieved via insurance, but about pleasing sponsors – “and the fact that the season championship for us is over and money will be hard to find for next year”.

“Inside the car is kit worth over £2,500,” he said.

The Welsh drivers are with documentary makers, family and friends who have travelled at expense.

“We have a hire car, we bought tyres for the rally and we have fuel paid for which we can’t use,” he said.

The team is determined to search for the car in the hope they may continue the season’s remaining rounds of the championship.

Lord Morrow, DUP peer and Mayor of Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council, described the theft of the car as “deplorable”.

He said it also throws a challenge for police, given that Coalisland police station was closed over two years ago.

“It certainly does not raise confidence in the community,” he said.

He appealed to the public to help police in any way they can to find the vehicle and have it returned.