British Rallycross Round 3: Croft
Paige Bellerby takes podium place at Croft
The third round of the MSA British Rallycross championship ran on May Bank holiday Sunday at a sweltering Croft circuit, which was in stark contrast to the Artic conditions the competitors endured at Silverstone in March.
Paige endured a torrid time in the three heats of the Supernational class as she battled her way through handling problems. In the first two heats she was placed 7th, then 8th in the Vauxhall VX220, so minor adjustments were made to the suspension setup. This improved the handling and she finished 5th in the third heat, thus ensuring her a place in the semi-finals, although she was not in a good mood. “I should be better than this, I’ve done three events in the VX, but I’m just not quite on the pace; the suspension isn’t riding the bumps on the back straight. Kevin (my mechanic) is making some more adjustments before I go out in the semi, so hopefully I can make it work better than this morning.”
Her time was good enough to bag 3rd place on the front row of the grid behind Darren Scott and Guy Corner, and a lightning start blasted her into 2nd before the end of the first lap, a position which she held for the full six laps. “That was loads better, big thanks to Kevin for that” she beamed afterwards.
Paige lined up 4th on the grid for the Final, and again a blistering start saw her power past Craig Lomax, although she could do nothing about the power of Tristan Ovenden in the Renault Clio and Guy Corner in the Peugeot 206 who finished ahead of her. This fine 3rd place saw her leapfrog Craig Lomax in to 2nd position in the championship table, with 70 points.
The next round of the championship is at Pembray in south Wales on June 23rd/24th when Paige hopes that her Lotus Exige will have finished it’s rebuild.
Drew Bellerby in fight back at Croft
Drew came to Croft on Sunday hoping for better results, after suffering various mishaps in the first two rounds and only scoring 30 points, leaving her in 11th place in the championship standings.
However, her day did not get off to a good start when in the very first practice she hit the tyre wall, bending the TCA, and damaging the steering rack and a front hub.
A herculean effort from service crew Kevin and Thomas saw her make the first heat with nearly all the front end changed. Although not driving confidently in the first two heats she nevertheless managed to set 7th and 5th fastest times. Then in the third heat, she was overtaking Andrew Hawkes in the chicane, when his front end made considerable contact with her nearside and she spun out from 4th place on to the grass and out of the running. The Clerk of the Course deemed Hawkes to be at fault after viewing Drew’s in-car video, and Hawkes was disqualified from the results of the heat and had three points put on his licence.
Whilst Kevin and Thomas set about straightening the Mini again, Drew simmered and stewed; “I feel terrible, but I’ve spoken to Paige and she’s helped me a lot”.
In her semi-final Drew had a clear run to finish 3rd, and from a grid slot of 5th in the Final she blasted off the line then drove a storming race to finish a mere 0.8 of a second from a podium place. “It was a tough race but I’m so much happier now, I’m driving much better and with more commitment” commented Drew afterwards. This fine run means that Drew has moved from 11th in the BMW Mini championship to 7th with 53 points, giving her a six point advantage over Kris Hudson.
