Round 1: Pikes Peak, 11-12 April

Ben Duckworth won the opening round of the Britpart MSA British Cross Country Championship after a weekend-long battle with Mike Moran.

Moran set the pace on early on day one, opening up a lead of 21 seconds after three runs in his AT 4x4 Challenger. Duckworth was in second place on both his first BCCC round and the first event in his Milner LRM-1. The pair were evenly matched over the remainder of day one, with Moran leading by 24 seconds going in to day two.

The lead was to change after the first run of day two, with Duckworth completing the course 30 seconds faster than Moran. The pair exchanged fastest times over the day and with one run to go Duckworth was 10 seconds up. In a tense finish Moran made up eight seconds on the final run but victory went to Duckworth. “It was a brilliant course, we kept it consistent in the quick bits and tried not to lose much time in the off-road sections,” said Duckworth.

Results1 Ben Duckworth / Matthew Cook (Milner LRM-1) 01h46m54s2 Mike Moran / Tony Coid (AT 4x4 Challenger) +02s3 Neil Davey / Tony Barley (GSR 206 Evo 8)