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The opening round of the 2008 Rallycross
Open Championship gets underway at Croft Circuit near Darlington this
forthcoming Sunday where local driver, 'Mad’ Mark Watson from nearby Barnard
Castle will begin the defence of his Division 1 crown.
The event which
also includes the fourth running of the English Rallycross Masters, will see
four of the 2007 Division 1 Champions go head to head.
'Mad Mark' came
out on top by a single point in a two way shoot-out with fellow local driver,
Tony Bell from Ferryhill during the final round of the Championship at Croft
last October, but Bell won the English Rallycross Masters title last season and
hopes the Toyota Corolla will produce the goods once again as he bids to become
the first driver to win the English Masters title on more than one
occasion.
Speaking prior to
the PSM Motorsport-organised event, Watson
commented:
"Our main aim for the season is to retain
our title in the Rallycross Open Championship. It will be a very competitive
season especially with British Champion, Ollie O'Donovan, contesting the
Championship with his Peugeot 306. There should be four Champions at Croft with
Tony Bell and Derrick Jobb also, so combined with the additional TV coverage on
Channel 5 and Motors TV, the Open Championship looks set for a bumper
year".
2007
MSA
British Rallycross champion, Ollie O'Donovan will start as one of the pre season
title favourites at the wheel of his Tony Bardy Motorsport prepared Peugeot 306.
After missing out on the inaugural London Masters title, at London ExCeL last
December following contact with Swedish Rallycross legend Per Eklund, the
Irishman is aiming to start the season on a high and could prove to be a
difficult man to beat at Croft.
Irish Champion,
Derrick Jobb (Ford Escort RS2000) returns to Croft looking to emulate his 40th
anniversary of Rallycross victory, which he recorded just over a year ago. 2007
was Jobb's first in a top flight Division 1 car, which saw him make an immediate
impact on the sport taking a debut win at Mondello
Park. A win in the third round of the Open Championship at
Blyton last season put him in a strong position to challenge for the title, but
problems at Lydden Hill dropped him out of contention leaving the battle to be
fought out for the Championship between Mad Mark and
Bell.
Mitsubishi Lancer
drivers Steve Hill (Evo 9) and David Binks from Gosforth (Evo 7) both have a
strong chance of taking the overall Championship title of the season. Binks has
been busy over the winter rebuilding the Division 1 Mitsubishi Lancer and is in
a confident mood ahead of the Championship opener.
Terry Briggs,
returns with his unique Renault Clio which showed plenty of potential at the
London Masters, while Bob Gooding will start the season in his Ford Escort prior
to switching to a new unique car in time for the fifth round of the Championship
at Blyton in September. Super National competitor, Aidan McCullagh moves up to
the Division 1 category after upgrading his Peugeot 206 throughout the winter
period.
The 2008 English
Masters Rallycross title will be decided during the special one-off non
Championship "Showdown" race at the end of the day at Croft. The top ten fastest
drivers during the finals will compete for the trophy that was first won by
Irish Rallycross legend and multiple British Rallycross Champion, Dermot
Carnegie, back in 2005. Polish driver Jacek Ptaszek became the first European
driver to win it during 2006 with his Toyota Corolla, before Tony Bell became
the first Englishman to win the title last season.
In addition,
there will be classes for Super National, Procar 2000, Junior, Procar 1600,
Revivals and Minicross in an action packed day and to add to the entertainment,
the organisers have invited renowned circuit and television car racing
commentator David Addison, to work alongside Croft’s regular Rallycross
‘mike-man’ Larry ‘Scoop’ Carter, who also is the voice of the pit lane in
British Superbikes, as part of the commentary team.
English Masters
Rallycross Champions
2005 - Dermot
Carnegie (IRL) - Ford Focus
2006 - Jacek
Ptaszek (PL) - Toyota Corolla
2007 - Tony Bell
(GB) - Toyota Corolla
The action gets
underway at 9.30am on
Sunday with adult admission costing just £10 per person and accompanied children
aged 15 and under admitted FREE.
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