Strong showing from FUCHS supported crews at the Cambrian rally

Rochdale rally driver Steve Brown will aim to put the disappointment of last season behind him as he plans to return to the sport with an interesting mix of events and cars for his 2018 campaign.

After a turbulent and rather sporadic year which saw him take to the wheel of a Honda Civic and Mitsubishi Lancer, FUCHS TITAN Race-backed Brown will embark on an assault on the Flanders International Rally Challenge (FIRC) in his popular Nissan Micra Kit car which has undergone a series of developmental improvements during 2017.

His season in Belgium will be complemented with selected outings back in the UK, contesting the HRCR Mini Sport Cup, behind the wheel of a FUCHS Lubricants supported classic Mini. If his year was not looking packed enough, Brown has also been invited to compete in the Rallye Festival Trasmiera with the Micra which takes place near the Spanish city of Santander.

The 29-year-old, a former class title winner in the National Asphalt Championship, said: “It really felt like I couldn’t do anything right last season and we had some really wicked bad luck.

“I knew I had to develop the Micra Kit Car further but didn’t want to take a whole year out so was grateful for the support I got from people who loaned me cars to enable me to compete, but we just couldn’t pull it all together and not doing a full championship wasn’t much fun.

“So now the Micra is back on the road I`ll be heading back to Belgium and see what we can do with chasing down the two-wheel drive and class honours. We will mix that with the invitational outing in Spain which I`m really looking forward to. It's going to be a fun year I hope!”

The Cambrian rally in North Wales last weekend saw the opening round of the BTRDA championship take place over seven tricky stages where FUCHS-supported crew Ian Joel and Graeme Wood in the Ford Escort Cosworth took both a hard-earned top 10 overall placing, and the award for second in the hotly-contested and well supported B13 class.

“It was consistency that won the day,” explained Ian afterwards. “We know some of these stages reasonably well, so although they weren’t in great condition, we were able to drive smoothly where the stages were cut up then push on a bit where we knew we had solid track under the wheels.”

The crew were never placed lower than 13th out of the 99 starters, then gained places steadily throughout the day to record an excellent ninth place, given that the rest of the top 10 were either in modern R5 cars like winner Ollie Mellors in the Proton Iriz R5, or World Rally cars.

Pat Naylor also competed at the Cumbrian Rally, finishing a fantastic 11th overall, 2nd in class, despite his Gp N car having to compete against so many World Rally, R5 and GP A cars.

Also in action last weekend, but this time on the second round of the World Rally Championship in Sweden, was Fredrik Ahlen, run by the CA1 Sport rally team under the direction of team owner Martin Wilkinson.

The team had spent three weeks in Sweden, testing on snow and ice, and also competing on the opening round of the Swedish championship, which Fredrik won. He is hoping to take part on most rounds of the Swedish championship this year.

Excitement is building ahead of the start of the FUCHS LUBRICANTS MSA British Historic Rally Championship and the 2018 FUCHS LUBRICANTS RACRMC Historic Asphalt Rally Championship.

Members of the Roger Albert Clark Rally Motor Club will be with the FUCHS team at Race Retro on Friday and Saturday, where championship registrations can be taken.

Two of our four-wheel racing aces have starred on radio recently.

Award-winning rallycross driver Paige Bellerby appeared on Ribble FM talking about what it takes to win big in motorsport.

Freddie Housley, meanwhile, was on CBeebies Radio talking about karting and his dreams of becoming a F1 champion.

Well done to both!

FUCHS TITAN Race and FUCHS Silkolene have confirmed more exciting sponsorships for the 2018 season.

FUCHS Silkolene has joined forces with a third British Superbike Championship team, having been named technical partner to the JG Speedfit Kawasaki team.

JG Speedfit Kawasaki won the team trophy in last year’s BSB championship and will be gunning for glory again this season with riders Leon Haslam and Luke Mossey.

Meanwhile, FUCHS Silkolene has announced a new partnership with an ambitious road cycling team headed up by ex-Tour de Feminin competitor Cherie Pridham.

The leading lubricant manufacturer will be a key partner of the Vitus Pro Cycling Team throughout 2018.

It has also been revealed that FUCHS Silkolene has been named as the official cycle lubricant partner for a series of four sportives organised by RidesStaffs. The season gets underway on 4th March with the Primavera at Sugnall Walled Garden near Eccleshall.