Sponsored teams get ready for the upcoming season
Greg shines in front of 10,000
It was second on the night for Greg Aranda of FUCHS Silkolene-backed Kawasaki Team Green in the latest Arenacross.
Birmingham was the venue for the latest round of action – and a record crowd of more than 10,000 enjoyed the thrilling spectacle.
After a poor start, Greg managed to come through the pack and grab enough points to ensure he still holds the red plate going into the final rounds in Sheffield in two weeks’ time.
It’s going to be a close one!
Drew collects Outstanding Performance award
FUCHS-backed rallycross driver Drew Bellerby was the winner of the Outstanding Performance of the Season award at the British Rallycross Awards evening, held at the Hilton Hotel Coventry last Saturday.
The awards committee nominated Drew for her outstanding drive at Pembrey circuit when she scythed through the field from last position to finish second in her Final.
Steve Brown Joining Bellerby motorsport team
Rochdale rally driver Steve Brown is adding another motorsport discipline to his repertoire for 2019 when he joins rallycross Team Bellerby to contest the British Rallycross Championship in a BMW Mini.
His first competitive event will be the season championship opener at Silverstone in March, but he is looking to do a shakedown of the car at Blyton Park circuit on February 17.
He will continue to be backed by FUCHS Lubricants for the season.
Steve, 31, has been a regular contender in the Flanders International Rally Championship.
Now, thanks to the support of Tom Watson at 710 Oils and the Bellerby RX outfit, Steve will enjoy a full assault on the eight-round British Rallycross Championship.
“This really is an amazing opportunity and one I really couldn’t pass up,” said Steve.
“My outing in 2017 was really supposed to be a one-off but we managed to broker a deal to return last year as well and it just mothballed from there.
“It was amazing fun and thanks to FUCHS Lubricants and 710 Oils I can really get stuck into a full season.
“It’s a huge step up from the BTRDA series that was part of my last drive, but sometimes in at the deep end is the best way to learn.”
Mini Challenge launch this weekend at Blyton Park
The first event of the FUCHS Lubricants-sponsored Historic Mini Challenge is the Jack Neal Memorial rally which is being held this coming weekend at the Blyton Park circuit in Lincolnshire.
Championship organiser Chris Woodhead is looking forward to launching the Challenge and said: “We’ve got some great crews lined up, and the competition between them is going to be fierce.”
Hectic weekend for CA1 Sport team
Martin Wilkinson, boss at FUCHS-backed rally team CA1 Sport, and his team are getting the 2019 season off to a flying start with two events in two countries this coming weekend.
Their first event, on Saturday, takes the team to Inverness in Scotland to look after the Skoda Fabia R5 of David Bogie on the Coogie Urquhart Snowman rally.
This is the first round of the Scottish rally championship which Bogie and co-driver John Rowan are doing as part of their shake-down for the British rally championship. Further details at https://www.snowmanrally.co.uk
After a full day’s rallying in Scotland, the team then return to the Yorkshire Dales for the Riponian rally on Sunday, when Tom Preston and co-driver Andrew Roughead will compete in Tom’s Skoda Fabia R5.
The event starts from Thirsk and has a full entry of 90 cars for the stages in the forests of north Yorkshire.
Further details at https://www.rmsc.org.uk/riponian-stages or the Ripon club’s Facebook page.
2019 BHRC event information revealed
More details on the events in the 2019 FUCHS LUBRICANTS Motorsport UK British Historic Rally Championship have been announced for a seven-event calendar covering both gravel and asphalt events.
Five top quality gravel events, covering Wales, Kielder and Yorkshire along with the closed-road challenge of the Ulster Rally and the asphalt roads of the Epynt ranges on the Harry Flatters Rally make up the nicely-spaced calendar.
The full schedule is:
Saturday March 30: Rally North Wales (gravel)
Saturday April 27: Pirelli Rally (gravel)
Saturday June 8: Carlisle Stages (gravel)
Sunday June 23: Red Kite Stages (gravel)
Sunday July 28: Harry Flatters Rally (asphalt)
Saturday August 17: Ulster Rally (asphalt)
Fri/Sat September 27/28: Trackrod Historic Cup (gravel)
2019 ATL Carlisle Stages is unveiled
The wraps have come off the 2019 ATL Carlisle Stages (Saturday June 8), which brings together the FUCHS LUBRICANTS Motorsport UK British Historic Rally Championship and the Motoscope Northern Historic Rally Championship.
As well as catering for the two historic championships, the ATL Carlisle Stages will be an ideal event for those competing in modern cars, both two-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive. All two-wheel-drive cars, both historic and modern, will run at the head of the field, with the two-wheel drive field running in reverse order to give the older and less powerful cars the very best road conditions.
In addition, the event is a perfect warm-up rally for the Roger Albert Clark Rally as the November rally will use stages in the same forest complex. The date also offers Scottish crews a rare chance to tackle these border stages.
