Carnegie's joy of six
MSA British Rallycross Champion Dermot Carnegie continued his outstanding run of success in the 2004 championship by recording his sixth successive victory at Lydden on Monday (August 30).
As has been the case in his previous five event wins, the path to glory was not easily travelled. In the first qualifying heat a driveshaft failure forced retirement and left Carnegie (Dublin) needing to finish both of his remaining heats in order to qualify for the Final.
A safe run to fourth place in the second heat was followed up with fastest time in the third heat, results which not only brought an A Final start but got Carnegie onto the outside of the front row of the grid.
A heavy rain shower before the A Final made the going slippery, but Carnegie made a perfect start and led the race from start to finish. Pole position starter Mike Manning (Carmarthen) ran second through the first lap before a spin dropped him from contention and handed second place to Will Gollop.
His Ford Focus plagued by a persistent misfire, Gollop (Canterbury) managed to extract just enough speed from his car to finish second ahead of championship points leader Lawrence Gibson (Banbridge).
In the Superfinal Carnegie again led from the start, Gollop running second until the misfire returned half way through the first lap, which allowed Gibson to sweep past into second place. Gollop called it a day at the end of the second lap, during which Pat Doran (Milstead) had moved ahead to grab third place with his Escort. Settling into his new Escort WRC as the day progressed, Doran had made a good start to the Superfinal to put himself in touch with the leading group and now joined closed Gibson who was hounding Carnegie in his pursuit of the lead.
The three remained close until the end, Gibson running Carnegie close with Doran taking an excellent third place. "I didn't expect to win again today," said Carnegie, "Lawrence made it hard work, it was the toughest race of the year."Andy Grant (Barnstaple) took fourth place and climbed from ninth to fifth place in the championship. Dave Ward (Braintree) was third in the SuperModified A Final but improved to be best of the two-wheel cars in the Superfinal where he finish fifth, ahead of the A Final winner Gordon Rogers (Winkleigh).
Results:
Superfinal (5.5 laps)
1 Superfinal (5.5 laps) 1 Dermot Carnegie (2.0t Ford Focus) 4m14.96s; 2 Lawrence Gibson (3.5 MG Metro 6R4) 4m15.47s; 3 Pat Doran (2.0t Ford Escort WRC) 4m16.68s; 4 Andy Grant (2.0t Ford Escort WRC) 4m31.09s; 5 Dave Ward (1.6 Vauxhall Corsa 16v) 4m32.01s; 6 Gordon Rogers (2.0 Vauxhall Corsa 16v) 4m34.05s; 7 Dave Bellerby (2.0 Vauxhall Nova 16v) 3 laps; 8 Will Gollop (2.0t Ford Focus WRC) 0 laps.
MSA British Championship 1 Gibson 620; 2 Carnegie 600; 3 Bellerby 395.
BRDA Rallycross ChampionshipChampionship leader Adrian Horsley survived a dramatic day to maintain his unbeaten run in the concurrent BRDA Championship and further extend his points lead.
Horsley (Redcar) qualified on pole position for the Yokohama Stock Hatch A Final but, after crashes involving Chris Cake (Dover) and Alan Thorndyke (Southend) the race needed three starts before it ran full distance. In the third start, Horsley led from the off and took his seventh win of the year.
The race for second place was close, Rodney Green (Bromley) eventually landing the place ahead of Grant Rees (Llanybydder).
Horsley¹s closest rival in the championship remains Yokohama Minicross points leader John Binks (Gosforth) who placed second in the A Final behind Danny Budd (Aylesbury). Winning his second event in succession, Budd has climbed from fifth to third in the Minicross class battle.
Supercar racer Lawrence Gibson remains third overall in the BRDA series while Allan Tapscott (Umberleigh) hung on to his lead in the K&N Filters SuperModified category even though he was unable to better 12th in the class at Lydden.
Results:
A Finals (all 4.5 laps)
Supercar 1 Carnegie 3m42.13s; 2 Gollop 3m48.96s; 3 Gibson 3m49.59s; 4 Grant 3m55.46s; 5 Doran 3m58.23s; 6 Steve Mundy (2.0t Ford Focus) 4m03.69s; 7 Mike Manning (2.0t Ford Escort) 4m06.05s; 8 Kevin McCann (2.0t Subaru Impreza WRC) 4m15.20s.
SuperModified 1 Rogers 3m55.52s; 2 Bellerby 3m57.58s; 3 Ward 3m58.33s; 4 Mike Turpin (1.8 Vauxhall Nova 16v) 4m01.89s; 5 Des Wheatley (2.0 Rover Metro 16v)4m03.66s; 6 Phil Collard (2.0 Ford SportKa) 4m08.41s; 7 Mike Dresser (1.8 Lotus Exige) 4m08.41s; 8 Mike Howlin (2.4 Ford Fiesta 16v rwd) 4m17.83s.
Stock Hatch 1 Adrian Horsley (1.6 Citroen Saxo VTR)4m06.11s; 2 Rodney Green (1.6 Peugeot 205 GTi) 4m08.02s; 3 Grant Rees (1.3 Suzuki Swift GTi) 4m08.61s; 4 Sean Smith (1.6 Peugeot 106 XSi) 4m11.11s; 5 Julian Godfrey (1.6 Peugeot 205 GTi) 4m14.77s; 6 Chris Cake (1.6 Peugeot 205 GTi), Alan Thorndyke (1.6 Peugeot 106 XSi), Simon White (1.6 Peugeot 205 GTi) DNS
Minicross 1 Danny Budd 4m14.75s; 2 John Binks 4m15.68s; 3 Ed Collett 4m16.19s; 4 Matt Roach 4m16.72s; 5 Ralph Budd 4m18.10s; 6 Dan Balster 4m21.59s; 7 Tristam Barden 4m24.50s; 8 Mark Collard 0 laps.
Championship 1 Horsley 700; 2 Binks 680; 3 Gibson 660.
Junior Rallycross ChampionshipCompetition among the Junior racers was again close, Ashley Simpson, Joe Powis and Jonny Greer each setting a fastest time in the qualifying heats before Powis (Hereford) put his name to pole position.Powis led the Final from the start, Simpson (York) running second until losing the position to Jason Pritchard (Builth Wells). A lap later Ash Davies (Cwmbran) climbed from fourth to third place. Simpson now fell back a little as the top three fought among themselves. When Pritchard launched one last attempt on Powis¹ lead in the last bend, Davies spotted his chance and jumped up to second place behind race winner Powis.
Results: (4.5 laps) 1 Joe Powis 4m22.53s; 2 Ash Davies 4m22.78s; 3 Jason Pritchard 4m23.43s; 4 Ashley Simpson 4m23.56s; 5 Jonny Greer 4m24.19s; 6 Andrew Jordan 4m24.58s; 7 Lewis Hopkins 4m27.18s; 8 Graeme Nesbitt 4m30.62s.
Championship 1 Davies 665; Greer 605; 3 Powis 590.
Next event: Rounds eight and nine Mondello Park (IRL), October 9 and 10
