Strong Showing for CA1 Sport with double podium
2018 FUCHS LUBRICANTS RACRMC Historic Asphalt Rally Championship
Simon and Alister Crook reigned supreme in the opening round of the 2018 FUCHS Lubricants RACRMC Historic Asphalt Rally Championship, the Rallye Salamandre in Belgium.
The top three RACRMC crews were covered by just under a minute after a first class event on closed public roads around the town of Beaumont in the south of Belgium.
Tim Freeman/David P Williams and Seb Perez/Gary McElhinney kept the pressure on the Crooks right to the end of the rally.
The FUCHS LUBRICANTS RACRMC Historic Asphalt Rally Championship is organised by the Roger Albert Clark Rally Motor Club and is a dedicated asphalt championship for all categories of historic stage rally cars. The Salamandre event marked the championship’s annual foray to Belgium and the event drew widespread acclaim from the UK crews.
It was the second year running that the Crooks have scooped maximum points in the Rally & Competition Equipment Category 3.
Freeman and Williams were pleased with second spot in their Ford Escort, while Seb Perez/Gary McElhinney had a great run to finish third, followed by Simon Tysoe/Craig Dolman 15 seconds back.
Tysoe and Dolman took Skipton Ford Category 2 from new father and son partnership Steve and Benjamin Smith.
The FUCHS LUBRICANTS RACRMC Historic Asphalt Rally Championship continues with round two, the Mini Epynt Stages, on Sunday 3 June and regulations are now available from www.herefordshiremotorclub.co.uk
MSA FUCHS LUBRICANTS British Historic Rally Championship
A fantastic entry of almost 80 cars will contest the Historic Section of this weekend’s Pirelli International Rally.
The Carlisle based event is the second round of the MSA FUCHS LUBRICANTS British Historic Rally Championship and the action is sure to be fast and furious as the crews battle for honours over four high-speed stages in the giant Kielder Forest complex.
The rally entry is dominated by Ford Escorts with the Hillman Avenger of Ieuan Rowlands/ Emyr Hall the only non-Ford amongst the top 10 seeded crews.
They will be led away by Paul Barrett / Dai Roberts, followed by championship regulars Matt Robinson/ Dave Robson, Steve Bennett/ Osian Owen and Rudi Lancaster/ Guy Weaver.
However, they will all be looking over their shoulders for next up is the hard charging Steve Bannister, a man with many Kielder victories to his name, including the 2014 Pirelli event
Further down the field, Category 1 for the older cars should see a good battle with the Porsche 911s of Rikki Proffitt and Dessie Nutt up against the Lotus Cortina of the ageless Bob Bean, while Category 2 sees the Hillman Avenger of Elliott Rettalick locking horns with the Escorts of Rob Shuttleworth and Stuart Cariss.
Steve Brown
Rochdale rally crew Steve Brown and Paul Stringer headed to Belgium last weekend for the first round of the FIRC championship where they won their class in 2016.
On this occasion the FUCHS supported crew were debuting their classic Mini Cooper S, but unfortunately luck was not on their side as the gearbox failed on stage three.
Until then the pair were enjoying the challenge on the wet tarmac and were also getting to grips with the hordes of spectators all intent on getting a closer look at their eye-catching machine.
Steve said: “We started quite slowly on the first stage because it was pouring with rain and we had an intermittent fault on the wipers – which was not good.
“But our times improved as we got used to the car and I was really enjoying making Paul’s notes fit the road in the wet, then we got stuck in fourth and that was it – game over.”
It is now a race against time to get the gearbox repaired and the car ready in time for the Mini Challenge on the Epynt military ranges this weekend.
CA1 Sport
FUCHS supported rally team boss Martin Wilkinson and his crew are in the middle of one of their busiest fortnights ever.
Last weekend, one service crew travelled to Elgin for the Speyside Stages rally where David Bogie and Rhys Yates were the two drivers they were looking after, both in Skoda Fabia R5s, whilst a second crew travelled to Clacton in Essex to service for Tom Preston (also in a Skoda Fabia R5) on the Corbeau Seats Rally.
David Bogie and co-driver john Rowan were defending the title David won last year, and had a trouble free run to prime position again on a fine but cloudy day which meant the gravel stages were in mint condition. Also enjoying the day was Rhys Yates (with co-driver Alex Lee), and they completed a CA1 Sport podium double by securing 3rd position.
Meanwhile, the second crew in Essex were servicing the Skoda of Tom Preston on the first closed road rally in England held under the new closed road legislation. The three loops of five stages each were a challenge for all the crews as even the slightest slip could means losing several places, and the final results showed that some positions were decided by mere tenths of seconds after 45 miles of competition. Tom and co-driver Carl Williamson were pleased with their 5th overall from a very strong entry of over 100 cars.
The CA1 Sport team now have their work cut out getting all three cars re-prepared for the Pirelli rally (with stages all in Kielder Forest) this coming weekend.
Freddie Housley
Elsewhere, karting sensation Freddie Housley was busy last week testing at PFI Circuit in Lincolnshire Tuesday, followed by testing in Wigan on Friday.
Fred started to run mid-pack times with confidence in Wigan and started to shine amongst 20 cadets, most of whom were two or three years his senior.
Freddie and his dad then drove to Larkhall Circuit in Scotland for his first time at the track in a cadet kart.
Freddie started at the back in heat one but finished fifth and followed that up with a P4 in heat two.
The youngster then delighted the team by winning heat three, topping it off with the fastest lap.
He started sixth for the final and pushed up to fourth straight away before taking a hairpin a little too aggressively and ending up the gravel. A lengthy 20 seconds passed before he eventually resumed the race, and he came home in P6.
Gavin Murray
Gavin Murray of Murray Motorsport was forced into early retirement in the Hot Rods European Championship after finishing P10 and P4 in the qualifying heats.
Ashleigh Morris
Ashleigh Morris has got her racing season up and running in Knockhill.
After qualifying in P13 in the first round of the Celtic Speed Scottish MINI Cooper Cup, Ashleigh picked up a trophy in race one for being the first lady over the line – and 10th overall.
Race two finished in a very respectable P14, followed by a P11 in the final outing of the day.
Ashleigh said: “I know my 2018 race season is only just beginning, but I can’t complain about how it started! Roll on the next round in May.”
Finally
Adam Morgan is back in action this weekend as the BTCC heads to Donington Park.
