Victories and podiums for FUCHS sponsored riders at Snetterton
FUCHS Lubricants MSA British Historic Rally Championship
Championship leaders Paul Barrett and Will Rogers face a race against time to be ready for round four of the FUCHS Lubricants MSA British Historic Rally Championship this weekend.
The hotly-contested championship continues with the superb Red Kite Stages in South Wales.
As well as being the fourth of eight BHRC rounds, the Red Kite Stages is also the fourth round of the BHRC Forest Challenge and the new BHRC2.
Barrett currently tops the Rally and Competition Equipment Category 3 and is working hard to repair his car after a major engine fire last time out on the Carlisle Stages.
One of Barrett’s biggest rivals will be his younger brother Ryan and co-driver Rory McCann. Like many crews, the Northern Ireland brothers have little knowledge of these stages but will both be stunningly quick.
So too, will be the Hillman Avenger BRM of Ieuan Rowlands/Emyr Hall, which matched the Escorts last time out in Kielder before sliding off the road. Rowlands will be ferociously quick back in Wales and this could be the breakthrough event for the project headed by Barry Jordan.
A strong Skipton Ford Category 2 entry is topped by BDA-powered Escort Mk1s of Mark Holmes/Craig Simkiss and Chris Skill/Tom Murphy as well as similar cars for Chris Browne/Ali Cornwell-Browne and Andrew Stokes/Adrian McNally.
Finally, class C3 promises another fine contest between the quick Escort Mk1 of local crew Mike Simpson/Dale Gibbons, the similar car of Josh Carr/Ben Hall, the Hillman Avenger of Barry Jordan/Paul Wakely and the BMW 2002 of Terry Cree/Richard Shores.
A great field of cars will line-up for the fourth round of BHRC2 and it is the class C2 Escort Mk1s that should set the pace in the hands of Robin Shuttleworth and Ronnie Roughead, husband and wife crew Stuart and Linda Cariss and Vince Bristow/Derek Adams.
British Superbike Championship
FUCHS Silkolene sponsored Be Wiser Ducati rider Glenn Irwin was joined in round 4 of the BSB championship at Snetterton by his brother Andrew Irwin, who replaces the injured champion Shane Byrne.
Taking the lead spot in the team, Glenn had a fantastic opening race, taking second and some valuble points. A collision in race two saw his weekend over however brother Andrew rode well to claim tenth.
Performance of the weekend has to go the double victories of JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s Leon Haslam who extended his championship lead after two commanding rides.
Joe Collier
Riding for the EHA Racing team Joe managed to secure his first win of the season after having a fantastic battle with Billy McConnell.
Freddie Housley
Freddie Housley travelled to Scotland on Father’s Day for his first race without his novice plates having completed six races as a cadet, meaning he no longer needs to start at the back of the grid.
Saturday practice went well in the rain but the nerves kicked in for Freddie on Sunday as he lined up third on the grid with some of the best cadets in Scotland.
Freddie showed excellent driving skills to finish 12th out of 19 before registering a P16 in heat two – and he followed that up by climbing seven places in heat three to finish 11th.
The heat results put him 16th on the grid for the final – and he drove well, passing four karts to come home in 12th.
Next up is another big grid of nearly 30 at Fulbeck Lincs in the NKF Championship.
Paige Bellerby
The British Rallycross Championship resumes this weekend with the hotly-anticipated doubleheader meeting at Pembrey Circuit.
Paige Bellerby is being reunited with her Lotus Exige and is looking forward to experiencing the extra performance from the engine upgrade, as well as other minor modifications.
Pembrey Circuit is unique in that the rallycross track runs in the reverse direction on Sunday from that used on the Saturday.
Speedway of Nations
Great Britain Speedway Team came within inches of pulling off a sensational victory in the inaugural Speedway of Nations tournament only to be denied by Russia in the final heat.
GB put on a stunning performance in Wroclaw, Poland and actually headed the leaderboard at the end of the 42 qualifying races, meaning they went straight through to the all-or-nothing final against either Russia or Poland.
It was a brilliant display from Tai Woffinden and Robert Lambert that got them there, with Woffinden in spectacular form – he dropped just a single point from 13 races over the course of two days.
Russia edged out Poland in the semi-final to seal their place in the showpiece race, and their partnership of Artem Laguta and Emil Sayfutdinov narrowly held off Lambert to seal a 3-3 and overall victory.
It was a heartbreaking way to lose out on gold, with Britain actually scoring the most points over the 44 races, but captain Tai Woffinden was proud of the team’s performance and feels positive about the future.
FUCHS Silkolene was delighted to be an official partner of this fantastic competition.
Steve Brown
FUCHS-backed Rochdale rally driver Steve Brown has announced that he has entered the 59 ConXioN Omloop van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders) on August 31-September 1.
He will compete in his Mini as part of the Mini Sport Cup.
Lara Small
It’s great to see friend of FUCHS Silkolene Lara Small back on a bike again following injury.
Lara injured her arm and wrist last year, but she was back in her leathers again on the weekend after being invited by John Jay to ride his Team CBA bike.
Lara likened the '99 Kawasaki ZX6R to “riding a fast armchair”!
Kershaw Racing
FUCHS Silkolene-backed Kershaw Racing enjoyed a fantastic weekend at Snetterton with a pole and two wins.
The success extends Steve Kershaw and Stuart Clark’s lead at the top of the British Sidecar Championship to 40 points heading into Cadwell Park this weekend.
And finally…
Preparations are in full swing for the Vitus Pro Cycling Team as they get ready to take on the Tour of the Reservoir this weekend in the North East this weekend.
The Vitus team are huge advocates of the FUCHS Silkolene cycle range, which includes oils, lubricants and cleaning products.
