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Kumho Tyres MSA British Rallycross Championship, Lydden Hill 23/24
March.
The British Rallycross Championship gets underway this Easter
weekend at the 'home' of Rallycross at Lydden Hill with a prestigious list of
contenders who will pave the way for the 2008 title storyboard.
Headlining the event is the 2007 champ Ollie O'Donovan with his
Peugeot 306 T16 who will be doing his utmost to protect his crown - O'Donovan
commented " We haven't made many changes to the car as we have taken the
approach that it is still highly competitive, same car, same driver and the same
team with Tony Bardy Motorsport, we are talking to a potential new sponsor and
this could mean some big changes during the 2008 season, in the short term we
will focus on retaining the title"
The 2005 British Champion Pat
Doran has thrown down the gauntlet and is also aiming high for the 2008
title in conjunction with Team Duo Racing, Doran said " For a starter we have
bought our RS200 back from George (Tracey) and I can confirm that Liam will be
piloting her hopefully at every round of the MSA Championship.The RS200 will be
decalled with the new Hydrex/Duo Rallycross Team livery as will the Fiesta which
has taken a complete rebuild over the winter break to make it lighter and we
have found more power too"
New Team Duo colour scheme unveiled at todays
press day at Lydden Hill
Muliple British and Irish Champion Dermot Carnegie also intends to
put a spanner in the works with his Fiesta ST Supercar with many changes made
over the winter utilising his recent Irish Championship title winning campaign
to further develop the car to be a real contender and also intends to tap in to
the Belgium and Holland rounds of the European stage.
'Mad' Mark Watson is
returning with his Citroen Xsara to further build on his successes of last year
where he was leading the MSA title early on only to be set back by a
"frustrating" mechanical failure. Watson completed his 2007 hopes with a title
victory in the Rallycross Open Championship, intends full title attacks again
this year and will also be venturing in to Europe at the French round in
May.
Lawrence Gibson is another Championship hopeful and will be
returning to the BRC with his Metro 6r4 after a major engine failure at
round one of 2007, Lawrence Gibson from Bandridge Northern Ireland who
specialises in performance car
sales said " We are really excited to be back, our 6R4 will be carrying
number 16 for the 2008 season and I really intend to push hard and show the guys
in the modern machinery what we are all about. Lydden is my favourite circuit
and I will do my best to put on a show for the Metro fans"
Steve Hill
(Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9), David Binks
(Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 7), Andy Grant (Ford Escort Cosworth), Mike Manning
(Ford Puma), Steve Mundy (Ford Focus) and Tommy Graham (Ford Escort Cosworth)
are all potential event winners and will be ones to watch to upset the
applecart with the headlining previous Championship winners, as will too the
European Supercar entrants of Ron Snoeck who will debut his VW Golf and Koen
Pauwels piloting his proven Ford Focus.
The Supermodified Category has a 16 strong field
with regular hopefuls such as Jamie Bird (Renault Clio V6), Mike Howlin (Fiesta
ST), Don Shannon (Volvo S40), John Collins (Vauxhall Tigra) and Alan Tapscott
(Vauxhall Corsa).
Ben
Power (Ford KA) will be hoping to push his newly installed 2.3 engine to
higher levels and to further improve on his solitary Supermodified round win
over three time champion Dave Bellerby last season. Bellerby is currently
building an S2 Lotus Exige and it is unlikely that the car will be ready in
time, however his dominating S1 Exige is now at the grasp of George Tracey JR
who has graduated from the Junior category and looks set to take charge of his
new mount.
Another one to watch out for will be Mike Turpin who will be
debuting his highly anticipated Vauxhall VX220.
Joining the Supermod's will
be European guests Luc Maris with his awesome Volvo 242 and Johan Jacobs with
his Ford Mondeo.
The Stock Hatch Category will be treading in new
territory with the inclusion this year of the Kumho controlled tyre and the new
16 Valve category. Tina Scott will be unveiling her brand new Citroen C2 and
will be joined by Michael Jones with his Citroen Saxo VTS.
Joe Cunningham
(Peugeot 106) will be upgrading to the Stock Hatch category from the Juniors
where he remained consistently toward the front of the field during
2007.
Tony Lynch has sold his 2008 title winning Peugeot 205 to Bob Hardie
who will be sampling Rallycross for the first time and is entered in to the
BTRDA (clubmans) Championship. Lynch and 'Team Geriatric' have prepared a fresh
205 for his 2008 campaign and will be carrying the number '8' which demonstrates
how high his successes reached in the 2007 MSA BRC
The Bill Gwynne Junior Rallycross Category will
be strengthened throughout 2008 with new contenders who will meet the minimum
age requirement of 14 as the season progresses. Likely event winning hopefuls
are Samatha Thom who
created a stir last season displaying ultimate talent in her 1000cc Mini and Dan
O'Brien who is showing constant improvement in the Juniors and aims for title
silverware. O'Brien will be debuting the 'Maximum Motorsport' team with
fellow competitor Matt Thompson.
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