British Cross-Country Championship

Castle O'er - Round 3: June 28th-29th, 2008

Richard Kershaw extended his lead in the 2008 Britpart MSA British Cross-Country Championship (BCCC), by taking his second successive championship win in Scotland on Sunday. The Peugeot 206 Evo9 driver began the final day in fourth position, but produced a measured drive over the closing runs in wet conditions and also benefited from the retirement of Scottish overnight leader John Cockburn on Sunday morning.

Kershaw eventually finished 1m 11s clear of Holywell-based runner-up Tim Dilworth after nine timed runs through a near 10-mile special stage in Castle O'er forest, near Lockerbie in the Scottish borders. Broadbottom's Martin Gould finished third overall in his Matseratti after brother Colin had led early on Saturday.

"We are in a good position with this win and that is where we wanted to be at this stage in the season," said a delighted Kershaw. "We had a puncture yesterday and also hit a rock, but I knew that if we stayed out of trouble and didn't make any mistakes, then we had a good chance of the win."

Cockburn headed into Sunday's final four runs with a seven-second advantage, but the Scot somehow managed to get his powerful Bowler stuck and incurred a stage maximum. He duly opted to withdraw from the event to save his car for the forthcoming Scottish Hill Rally.

The second leg developed into a battle for victory between Kershaw, Dilworth and Martin Gould, with this trio pulling away from the rest of the field. Kershaw eventually pressed home his advantage to seal an excellent win, with Dilworth and Gould securing the other podium places. Deeside's Neil Davey finished fourth overall to maintain his title challenge and Clayton's Ian Bartram completed the top five.

Results

1. Richard Kershaw (Huddersfield)                        Peugeot 206 Evo9   2h 03m 20s

2. Tim Dilworth (Holywell)                                      Peugeot 206 STi      2h 04m 31s

3. Martin Gould (Broadbottom, Hyde)                      Matseratti                                2h 07m 29s

4. Neil Davey (Deeside)                                          GSR 206 Evo           2h 13m 59s

5. Ian Bartram (Clayton-le-Moors)                           Warrior Storm          2h 15m 00s

6. Ben Gott (Farnham)                                            TMC                         2h 16m 39s

7. Steve Lloyd (Ambaston, Derby)                         Milner R4                 2h 17m 12s

8. Toby Jefferson (Smithbridge, Oldham)               Peugeot 306            2h 17m 56s

9. Jeremy Fearn (Beeley, Matlock)                         Bowler Wildcat 100 2h 18m 01s

10. Alan Kirkland (Chesterfield)                              Kirkland Proto 1       2h 18m 51s, etc


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