Luck of the Irish as Carnegie takes five

Dermot Carnegie used up his lucky charms to take his fifth win of the year in the MSA British Rallycross Championship at Pembrey on Sunday (July 18). Starting the event with a new engine in his Ford Focus, Carnegie (Dublin) experienced a number of technical difficulties; a problem with the turbo boost pressure caused a turbocharger to fail, which caused a small engine bay fire. There were also driveshaft problems in each of the first two heats.

Carnegie made the best of a bad situation and hauled his car home to third place in the Supercar A Final, behind winner Mike Manning (Carmarthen) and championship points leader Lawrence Gibson (Banbridge).

Manning led again at the start of the Superfinal, but suffered a driveshaft failure in the second lap. Gibson was already lining up to try and pass Manning when the lead Escort suddenly slowed, Gibson clipped the course markers and rolled his MG Metro 6R4, causing the race to be stopped.

Carnegie¹s Focus was struck on the roof by Gibson's crashing car, but his team were able to patch up the damage sufficiently for Carnegie to be allowed into the restarted race. With Manning¹s car effectively out of the running, Carnegie immediately took the lead. Steve Mundy (Ludlow) and Andy Grant (Barnstaple) led the chase but once Carnegie had the scent of victory there was no stopping him: "We had so many problems that i really didn¹t expect the win today, but you need a bit of luck sometimes," said Carnegie.

After placing third in the hotly contested SuperModified A Final, which was won by Mike Turpin (Hereford) who fought his way up from third in the opening lap to take his second win of the year, Mike Dresser was best of the two-wheel drive SuperModified cars in the Superfinal. Dresser (Brampton) took fourth place with his Lotus Elise, ahead of Des Wheatley (Hartlepool) and Dave Bellerby (Northallerton).

Results: Superfinal (4 laps) 1 Dermot Carnegie (Ford Focus) 3m36.49s; 2 Steve Mundy (Ford Focus) 3m39.84s; 3 Andy Grant (Ford Escort) 3m48.53s; 4 Mike Dresser (Lotus Elise) 3m52.67s; 5 Des Wheatley (Rover Metro) 3m55.41s; 6 Dave Bellerby (Vauxhall Nova) 3m56.03s; 7 Mike Manning (Ford Escort) 1 lap; 8 Lawrence Gibson (MG Metro 6R4) DNS.MSA British Championship 1 Gibson 535; 2 Carnegie 500; 3 Mike Howlin (Ford Fiesta) 337.

BRDA Rallycross ChampionshipFor the first time this year there is a clear leader in the BRDA Rallycross Championship. Open to drivers from all classes, the BRDA series has been dominated by Adrian Horsley (Redcar) and John Binks (Gosforth). Racing the Stock Hatch and Minicross categories respectively, the pair were each unbeaten in the first five events and shared the championship leader going into the Pembrey event.

Binks qualified fourth on the grid and, with a close battle for the lead ofd the Minicross A Final going on ahead of him, opted for a safe points finish in fourth place rather than try and fight his way to front.

Horsley survived a crash in the second qualifying heat to secure pole for the Stock Hatch A Final in which he arced clear of second placed Julian Godfrey (Heathfield) to take his sixth win in as many starts and take the overall lead of the BRDA Championship.

Danny Budd (Aylesbury) won the Minicross A Final, his first win at this level, beating Matt Roach (Thundersley) in a close race.

Results: A Finals (all 4 laps) Supercar 1 Manning 3m36.04s; 2 Gibson 3m36.94s; 3 Carnegie 3m37.24s; 4 Mundy 3m45.36s; 5 Grant 3m47.85s; no other starters.SuperModified 1 Mike Turpin (Vauxhall Nova) 3m48.88s; 2 Bellerby 3m49.00s; 3 Dresser 3m50.20s; 4 Wheatley 3m54.89s; 5 Allan Tapscott (Vauxhall Nova) 3m58.10s; 6 Mike Howlin (Ford Fiesta) 3m59.75s; 7 John Collins (Vauxhall Tigra) 4m00.57s; 8 Chris Bellamy (Peugeot 206) 4m01.00s.Stock Hatch 1 Adrian Horsley (Citroen Saxo VTR) 4m02.26s; 2 Julian Godfrey (Peugeot 205 GTi) 4m07.40s; 3 Sean Smith (Peugeot 106 XSi) 4m08.26s; 4 Alan Thorndyke (Peugeot 106 XSi) 4m09.87s; 5 Don Shannon (Citroen Saxo VTR) 4m12.72s; 6 Rodney Green (Peugeot 205 GTi) 4m15.24s; 7 Simon White (Peugeot 205 GTi) 4m15.83s; 8 Chris Langley (Ford Fiesta XR2) 4m16.06s.Minicross 1 Danny Budd 4m14.48s; 2 Matt Roach 4m15.18s; 3 Richard Wakeling 4m16.23s; 4 John Binks 4m16.41s; 5 Ralph Budd 4m20.01s; 6 Edward Collett 4m20.22s; 7 Nigel Blanks 4m27.05s; 8 Shelley Wakeling 1 lap.Championship 1 Horsley 600; 2 Binks 585; 3 Gibson 570.

Junior Rallycross ChampionshipAfter executing a well planned over taking move, Ash Davies (Cwmbran) moved ahead of early Junior A Final leader Joe Powis to score his second win of the year and give Welsh fans a home victory to cheer.

"I raced against Joe in one of the heats and had worked out what he was doing in the corner at the end of the straight. I was sure I could pass him there if he got ahead of me in the Final and it worked, I needed the win for the championship and it¹s great to win in Wales," said Davies.

Others were less successful in the action packed Final; Ashley Simpson (York) worked his way up to third place before a broken wheel forced his retirement. Third place eventually went to Andrew Jordan (Sutton Coldfield) ahead of Glasgow's Alick Kerr who took a personal best fourth place finish.

Results: (4 laps) 1 Ash Davies 4m25.73s; 2 Joe Powis 4m27.77s; 3 Andrew Jordan 4m31.59s; 4 Alick Kerr 4m37.02s; 5 Tommi Walmsley 4m39.78s; 6 Jonny Greer 4m41.39s; 7 Jason Pritchard 4m44.32s; 8 Ashley Simpson 1 lap.Championship 1 Davies 570; 2 Greer 525; 3 Jordan 515.

Next event: Lydden August 30