Whilst half the team were having a boozy weekend away (working, honest!) at Ultimate Street Car, our intrepid photographer, Coop, decided his weekend would be best spent at Mallory Park; allowing Garage Awesome to give you coverage of the MSA British Rallycross Championship
With Rallycross action from the Supercars, Supermodified, Suzuki Swifts and RX150’s to name but a few, Mallory goers had plenty of action to watch throughout the day. However, the action didn’t get off to the smoothest of starts, with over a 2 hour delay awaiting medical coverage, meaning the heats were cut from 3, down to 2 to keep things on schedule.
As we start with the Supercars, it’s useful to note that these custom-built monsters run the best part of 700bhp and make the switch from the smooth tarmac sections, to the rough and rocky dirt areas of the course with ease. They really are some of the quickest, most impressive and best engineered machines that you will find in UK motorsport. If you’re reading this in the USA, I’m aware it’s just starting to filter over there too, making international events either side of the pond an option for the future!
The Supercar heats were pretty much dominated by one man; Pat Doran, who I’m sure, if you’re a fan of motorsport in general but especially Rallycross, his name will have cropped up. Pat took both heats 1 and 2 in his mighty Ford Fiesta. Not all the competitors had an easy time however, the 2 Subarus of Kevin McCann and Simon Horton both developed problems during practice and failed to return in the subsequent heats. Simon Hill’s Mitsubishi Evo X also had problems, this time making it through the heats but failed to make the Supercar final.
It’s no surprise that the winner of the Supercar final was Pat Doran, over a hard charging Andy Scott in the Peugeot 306 and the final podium spot went to the slightly second hand looking Citroen Xsara of “Mad” Mark Watson.
Onto the Super Modified class, and it was the Toyota MR2 of Jamie Lea that took the 1st heat, making the most of championship front runner Julian Godfrey’s absence, due to competing in Belgium as part of the European Championship. Nick Priddy and his Vauxhall Tigra took the second heat to set up an interesting final, a final which VW Golf driver Phil Chicken failed to make due to a rather impressive fire after the heat stage!
With a tough final ahead, eventually Wrexham driver Jamie Lea took the class victory, ahead of Mike Howlin and Gary Dixon driving a Fiesta and Vauxhall Astra respectively.
Onto the one-make, Suzuki Swift Championship, and yet another action packed race was ahead! Steve Hill, who was driving the Evo X in the Supercar class, also had his Swift involved, to much better effect and clinched 3rd place in the final, just behind car 290 of Tony Lynch. Top honours eventually went to Dave Bellerby after a small stop in proceedings due to Ryan Lawford’s Swift ending up on its roof on the barrier at Edinas.
With the final and main race saved until the end, in the form of the Super Final, and the main chance for the drivers to score points towards the British Rallycross Championship, we saw yet another top podium place for that man Pat Doran in the Fiesta, with a second, second place for Andy Scott. The final podium place went to another Andy, this time Andy Grant driving the Ford Focus that now rising British Touring Car star and Pirtek Racing driver Andy Jordan won the title in a few years back!
With action in between from the RX Buggies, a packed out day at Mallory was done, using right up to their curfew limit! If you have not been to see a Rallycross event, or are into rallying and circuit racing; then this is going to be right up your street for future events. The sheer driver control and vehicle engineering is something to behold, not to mention the super close-contact racing action and the sound of these 700bhp beasts, and with 3 rounds left to run, you have every chance to experience the action yourselves.
www.rallycrossuk.com
Pic Credits – Rich Cooper
GARAGE. AWESOME. 