Putting the engine problems that curtailed his run in round one of the championship behind him, title holder Dermot Carnegie won the second round of the MSA British Rallycross Championship at Nutts Corner on Sunday.
While Carnegie (Dublin) had a trouble free run through the second day of the Stena Line Ulster Rallycross Festival, the technical troubles that blighted Pat Doran (Maidstone) in the previous day¹s first round, refused to go away and after finally getting to the bottom of the turbocharger malady in his Ford RS200, it was a dejected Doran who retired from the Supercar A Final with a propshaft failure.
Round one winner Will Gollop started his day with fastest time in the first heat, but head gasket failure put his Ford Focus out of the running after the second heat. And when John McCluskey crashed out of the A Final, it was left to Lawrence Gibson (Banbridge) to chase Carnegie home.The high failure rate among the Supercar entries played into the hands of the two-wheel drive SuperModified cars, of which Swede Urban Bergstrom was again the best.
Made to work harder at Nutts Corner than in the previous day¹s Kirkistown event, Bergstrom gained the upper hand and sprinted away to take the SuperModified win before going on to take third place overall behind Carnegie and Gibson.
Dave Bellerby (Northallerton) was best of the British competitors, working his way past the Lotus Elise of Mike Dresser (Brampton) to take second place in the SuperModified A Final before going on to collect fourth place in the Superfinal ahead of Allan Tapscott (Umberleigh).Des Wheatley (Hartlepool) had been third in the SuperModified A Final but retired from the Superfinal when his engine failed in the third lap.
Superfinal (6 laps)1 Dermot Carnegie (Ford Focus) 3m43.685s; 2 Lawrence Gibson (MG Metro 6R4) 3m52.862s; 3 Urban Bergstrom (Volvo S40) 3m59.214s; 4 Dave Bellerby (Vauxhall Nova) 4m09.352s; 5 Allan Tapscott (Vauxhall Nova) 4m13.043s; 6 Eamon McAleenan (Peugeot 306) 4m15.798s; 7 Mike Dresser (Lotus Elise) 4m24.679s; 8 Des Wheatley (Rover Metro) 3 laps. Championship 1 Gibson 190; 2 Bellerby 175; 3 Bergstrom 155.
BRDA Rallycross ChampionshipAdrian Horsley (Redcar) and John Binks (Gosforth) continued their winning ways in the Stock Hatch and Minicross classes of the concurrent BRDA Championship, each taking a pair of wins from the opening two events of the championship.
Sean Smith (Marlow) bounced back from a poor round one performance and finished second in the Stock Hatch A Final after spending the whole race battling with Julian Godfrey (Heathfield).
There was a personal best fourth place for Ian Horn (Middlesbrough) and a spirited drive to fifth place for 16-year-old Grant Rees (Llanybydder).Binks was the clear Minicross winner, Matt Roach (Thundersley) unable to match his rival¹s pace and having to settle for second place ahead of Edward Collett (Coughton) who achieved a personal best finish in third place.
A Finals (all 5 laps)Supercar 1 Carnegie 3m13.785s; 2 Gibson 3m16.862s; 3 McAleenan 3m41.810s; 4 Pat Doran (Ford RS200) 4 laps; 5 Will Gollop (Ford Focus) DNS; 6 John McCluskey (Peugeot 306) DNS. no other starters. Championship 1 Gibson 185; 2 Gollop 180; 3 McCluskey 175SuperModified in association with K&N Performance Filters 1 Bergstrom 3m24.902s; 2 Bellerby 3m27.052s; 3 Wheatley 3m31.149s; 4 Dresser 3m36.362s; 5 Allan Tapscott (Vauxhall Nova) 3m37.554s; 6 Joe Cahill (MG Metro) 3m42.415s; 7 Gerhard Volzer (Opel Kadett) 1 lap; 8 Mike Sellar (Renault Clio V6) DNS. Championship 1 Bergstrom 200; 2 Bellerby 185; 3 Wheatley 185.
Stock Hatch in association with Yokohama 1 Adrian Horsley (Citroen Saxo VTR) 3m40.093s; 2 Sean Smith (Peugeot 205 GTi) 3m41.706s; 3 Julian Godfrey (Peugeot 205 GTi) 3m41.991s; 4 Ian Horn (Vauxhall Nova GTi) 3m46.561s; 5 Grant Rees (Suzuki Swift GTi) 3m48.019s; 6 Chris Cake (Peugeot 205 GTi) 3m49.828s; 7 Don Shannon (Citroen Saxon VTR) 3m57.246s; 8 Alan Thorndyke (Peugeot 205 GTi) 3m57.246s. Championship 1 Horsley 200; 2 Godfrey 185; 3 Smith 165.
Minicross in association with Yokohama 1 John Binks 3m45.979s; 2 Matt Roach 3m49.448s; 3 Edward Collett 3m49.771s; 4 Martin Yates 4m02.287s; 5 Nigel Blanks 4m02.983s; 6 Andrew Smith 4m09.748s; 7 Shelley Wakeling 4 laps. no other starters. Championship 1 Binks 200; 2 Roach 190; 3 Yates 170.
Junior Rallycross Championship in association with YokohamaThe Junior championship front runners produced the closest fought Final of the afternoon. Ash Davies (Cwmbran) took the win and moved into the championship lead after making a second lap pass on Jonny Greer (Belfast).Greer slipped back to fourth place after Andrew Jordan (Sutton Coldfield) challenged for second place but, in an excellent recovery driver, Greer passed both Jonny Block (Kings Lynn) and Jason Pritchard (Builth Wells) to take second place.
A Final (5 laps) 1 Ash Davies 3m59.531; 2 Jonny Greer 4m01.832s; 3 Jason Pritchard 4m02.293s; 4 Jonny Block 4m2.725s; 5 Andrew Jordan 4m03.443s; 6 Ashley Simpson 4m06.230s. Championship 1 Davies 195; 2 Greer 185; 3 Jordan 165.
Next round Lydden April 12
