Bellerby Motorsport Secured 2nd places despite the conditions
Rallycross marshals and spectators at Croft enjoy tea and cake at the FUCHS LUBRICANTS Hospitality Unit, taking refuge from the Met office's latest severe storm warning for the whole of Britain due to 'Storm Brian's' exceptionally high winds and very heavy rain with possible flooding. The scene was set for the final round of the British Rallycross Championship 2017.
The Series Finals on Saturday was the culmination of the 9 round Championship, and class contenders Paige and Drew Bellerby went into their last rounds of the year each in second place.
In the three morning heats, Drew had played herself in steadily on the slippery dirt sections of the mixed surface rallycross track after a night of heavy rain, although she had to battle particularly hard in the second heat when she lost power steering on the second lap of the three lap heat, and lined up sixth on the Finals grid. In pole position was previous champion David Bell (Northallerton) with series leader Martin Hawkes (Stockton on Tees) in his John Cooper Works-engined BMW Mini also on the front row. Drew knew she had to win the Final, and have Hawkes finish no higher than sixth if she was to steal the title, but also knew that crossing the finish line was sufficient for her to seal 2nd in the Championship.
Hawkes duly triumphed by a single second over David Bell after the slippery six laps. Drew ran as high as third going into the last lap, but a small slide wide on the last hairpin had the spectators gasping before she pulled it together to get over the line to secure her well deserved runner-up slot in the Championship.
Paige had an equally busy run through the three qualifying heats – in Q1 she was drawn on the back row of the grid but not only raced through the traffic to finish second in the heat, but also set the fastest flying lap time. Q2 she got off to a slow start, but again drove steadily to another 2nd place. In Q3, Paige got past series-leader Ovenden (Renault Clio) on the exit of the first part of the chicane, but then got clipped on the rear wheel exiting the chicane. This resulted in a broken bolt in the Track Control Arm leading to atrocious handling and eventual brake failure.
Even with this DNF she had done enough to make it through to the semis, but it took sterling work by Kevin and Thomas in the pits, before she was able to take her place on the front row of the grid for her semi-final. By now it was properly pouring down, so Paige’s take on her 3rd place in the semi final was interesting ‘I just aquaplaned it through the whole lot – it was like being in a submarine in the standing water going into Clervaux!’
The final saw Paige take a position on the second row of the grid, with Ovenden on pole joined on the front row by previous champion Ash Simpson from York in his 2.3 litre Honda-engined Lotus Exige, and Guy Corner (Peugeot 206).
These three formed the podium, with a well-deserved victory going to Ash Simpson, Corner securing second, and Ovenden taking it steady to third place as all he had to do was keep ahead of Paige to take the title. A fourth place was enough for Paige to take the Championship runner-up spot, which was an achievement given the ‘evil’ handling of her car during the six lap final.
