The championship lead changed hands in
the fourth round of the Kumho Tyres MSA British Rallycross
Championship at Croft. Rallycross events more often take place
outside of the summer months at Croft, but while the July date
may have been unfamiliar, the weather conditions were more in
line with what competitors may expect in a winter event, heavy
rain making the track conditions slippery and muddy for much
of the day.
Untroubled by the conditions, Lawrence Gibson won
the Superfinal on a day when his title rivals hit problems and
moved up from fourth place to take the championship lead with
three rounds remaining.
Supercar
Round three
winner Steve Hill set the early pace in the event, the
Mitsubishi driver fastest in the first qualifying heat.
Unfortunately for Hill his car suffered engine failure in the
second heat and his day was over, five bonus points for
setting the class FTD being of little consolation. Andy Grant
and Liam Doran also exited the event early, Grant halted by
rear different failure in his Escort while Doran withdrew
after a second heat crash in his RS200.
Enjoying better
fortune, reigning champion Ollie O'Donovan had been second
fastest to Hill in the first heat and then set fastest time in
the second and third heats to secure pole for the Supercar A
final. Gibson and Tommy Graham completed the front row
starters and it was Gibson who led the race almost from the
off. O'Donovan was second in the first lap, but soon in
problems as his Peugeot 306 lost its front-wheel drive. While
Gibson sailed serenely away to victory, the order behind him
was constantly shuffled as drivers struggled in the
conditions. Eventually it was Graham who emerged with second
place ahead of david Binks and O'Donovan who nursed his car to
the finish. Chris Langley had run in second place, but then
slipped to fifth while Kevin McCann retired his Subaru with
power steering failure and Simon Horton parked his similar car
after an incident inflicted some panel damage.
Result (4
laps): 1 Gibson 3m40.838s; 2 Graham 3m55.331s; 3 Binks
4m01.143s; 4 O'Donovan 4m09.844s; 5 Langley 4m27.780s; 6 Kevin
McCann (Subaru Impreza) one lap; 7 Simon Horton (Subaru
Impreza) one lap.
SuperModified
In a
similar pattern to the Supercar category, the fastest driver
in the SuperModified class established the class FTD in the
first heat, but then ran into problems later in the event. The
first heat, Ben Power claimed the five bonus points for
setting the fastest time, but was involved in a crash in the
second heat and had to work hard to make it back to the track
in time for the third heat, in which he was third fastest,
enough to qualify him second for the A final. Pole position
was taken by double class champion Dave Bellerby who was
fastest in the second and third heats, the front row completed
by James Bird.
Bellerby led the final from the start and,
with the advantage of a clear track ahead of him, was able to
move clear of the rest of the field. Mike Turpin moved up to
run second in the first lap, but quickly displaced by Bird who
then held second place to the end. When Turpin then spun in
the third lap, Power was forced to take avoiding action and
also lost time. Michael Boak moved into third place with Power
regaining the road in fourth with Turpin finishing sixth ahead
of Gareth Wood who worked hard to complete the event after
losing the use of third and fourth gear in his Fiesta. Bruce
Bamber qualified sixth for the final in his Honda Civic, but
was a non-starter while Don Shannon was non-qualifier after
finishing only one heat in his Volvo s40.
Result (4 laps):
1 Bellerby 3m57.370s; 2 Bird 4m04.783s; 3 Boak 4m13.322s; 4
Ben Power (Ford Ka) 4m13.716s; 5 Mike Turpin (Vauxhall VX220)
4m28.112s; 6 Gareth Wood (Ford Fiesta) 4m35.311s; 7 Bruce
Bamber (Honda Civic) did not start.
Stock Hatch
Julian
Godfrey set fastest times in the second and third qualifying
heats to secure pole position for the Stock Hatch A final, but
missed out on the five bonus points for the class FTD which
was established by Tony Lynch in the first heat.
Lynch was
second fastest to Godfrey for the rest of the day and started
from the centre of the front row of the A final grid, Phil
Chicken completing the order with his VW Lupo GTi.
The
first attempt to start the race was halted in the first lap
after Craig Brown went off the track in the first corner.
Chicken had led in the first start and went ahead again in the
second. Godfrey ran second until Lynch passed him part way
through the first lap. Godfrey later spun and slipped to last
place, although he managed to climb back to fifth place by the
end of the race. Lynch tried everything to catch Chicken but
ended up sliding off the track, allowing Ryan Lawford to take
second place. Lynch recovered to finish third, ahead of Mike
Jones. Godfrey was helped in his recovery when Tina Scott
suffered a last lap spin in her Citroen C2, something that
also helped Don McLeod who finished sixth. Darren Grimston and
Paul Smith qualified in eighth and ninth places but neither
appeared in the final.
Result (4 laps): 1 Chicken
4m05.635s; 2 Lawford 4m08.964s; 3 Tony Lynch (Peugeot 205 GTi)
4m11.491s; 4 Mike Jones (Citroen Saxo VTS) 4m29.205s; 5 Julian
Godfrey (Peugeot 205 GTi) 4m29.515s; 6 Don McLeod (Citroen
Saxo VTR) 4m36.278s; 7 Tina Scott (Citro?n C2 VTS)
4m42.599s.
Superfinal
O'Donovan's
determined effort to finish the Supercar A final had been just
enough to get him on to the Superfinal grid in eighth and last
place, but as his team then worked hard to try and fix the
car, timed ebbed away and he was denied a start after arriving
at the grid too late to be admitted to the race.
Already
the clear favourite for the race, Gibson was now in a position
to take the championship and produced an intelligent drive
from the front of the field to do just that. "It was a good
day's work," he said afterwards. "My aim was to try and move
up the points chart a bit at Croft and I certainly achieved
that. It was not a matter of speed, it was day when you needed
to be easy on the right foot."
Behind Gibson, Langley and
Binks emerged from the muddy race with second and third
places, each achieving a personal best finish. Boak got the
better of Bellerby to finish fourth and be top two-wheel drive
while Chicken ended his fine day with a strong sixth place
ahead of Lawford and Graham, the latter a lap down but
battling to the finish in his Escort which had mechanical
problems.
Result (5 laps): 1 Lawrence Gibson (MG Metro 6R4)
4m28.398s; 2 Langley 4m41.633; 3 David Binks (Mitsubishi
Lancer E7) 4m50.115s; 4 Michael Boak (Audi TT) 4m52.745s; 5
Dave Bellerby (Lotus Exige) 4m54.186s; 6 Phil Chicken (VW Lupo
GTi) 4m54.186s; 7 Ryan Lawford (Peugeot 205 GTi); 8 Tommy
Graham (Ford Escort WRC) 4 laps.
Championship 1 Gibson 101;
2 O'Donovan 96; 3 Steve Hill (Mitsubishi Lancer E9) 78; 4
Dermot Carnegie (Ford Fiesta ST) 77; 5 Tony Lynch (Peugeot 205
GTi) 60; 6 James Bird (Renault ClioSport V6) 59.
Bill Gwynne Rallyschool Junior
Rallycross Championship
The top qualifier was
Conor Flynn who also claimed the five bonus points for FTD.
The Derby-based youngster was unable to reproduce his form in
the final however, his team having searched in vain for a
problem it felt was causing a loss of power. Daniel O'Brien
and Samantha Thom, the latter fastest in the second heat,
shared the front row of the grid with Flynn and played the
starring roles in the final.
Thom led from the start and
was able to maintain a small advantage ahead of Matt Thompson
until the third lap when O'Brien passed Thompson for second
place and closed quickly on the leader.
What had been a
good race ended in tears as O'Brien challenged for the lead in
the last lap. The two front running cars made contact and both
went off the track, which left the way open for Thompson to
take the lead and the race win. Keifer Hudson had been fastest
in the third heat and now took the chance to grab second place
with Jess Gwynne moving up to third and Flynn fourth. Thom
recovered to finish fifth ahead of O'Brien. The last two
places were taken by championship newcomer Brad Bailey and
fellow first year racer Kelly Bird.
Result (4 laps): (all
Mini) 1 Matt Thompson 4m16.679s; 2 Keifer Hudson 4m17.713s; 3
Jess Gwynne 4m18.133s; 4 Conor Flynn 4m21.103s; 5 Samanth Thom
4m21.523s; 6 Daniel O?Brien 4m23.590s; 7 Brad Bailey
4m28.352s; 8 Kelly Bird 4m44.178s.
The event will be broadcast by Motors TV at
2200 on Friday July 18. Please see programme guides for
repeats.
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