The Motorsport Season Is Back In Full Swing

The motorsport season is now back in full swing, with action for many of our sponsored racers and riders.

Top of the billing last weekend was FUCHS-backed Adam Morgan in the BTCC, who got his season off to a flying start with a P2 finish in race three at Brands Hatch Indy.

Further P6 and P13 finishes were enough to put him third overall in the embryonic standings.

Adam told FUCHS: “One of the most interesting facts for me from Brands Hatch was that the three races threw up nine different drivers standing on the podium.

“I think that sets the tone for the rest of the season. The gap between the front and back of the grid has reduced significantly over the winter and I don’t think anybody is going to be running away with the title.”

Team-mate Tom Oliphant opened his BTCC account by finishing 16th and 20th, with a DNF sandwiched in between.

Next up for the Ciceley Motorsport team is a trip to Donington Park on April 28/29.

FUCHS Silkolene-backed Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne is back in action this weekend as he heads to Brands Hatch in the Bennetts British Superbike Championship.

He got his season off to a good start last time out by finishing second in race one and fifth in the second race.

Six-times BSB champion Shakey has 31 points after the opening weekend in Donington, enough to put him second in the standings.

Shakey said: “You can’t win the championship at the first round, but you can lose it and to end the weekend second overall with some good points isn’t a bad place to be in."

Young gun Bradley Ray got his season off to a flier with two wins.

Elsewhere, Shakey’s PBM Be Wiser Ducati BSB Race Team teammate Glenn Irwin Racing recorded a solid P6 and P7 and BMW Smiths Racing’s Peter Hickman, another Silkolene ambassador, was eighth in race one before crashing out in the second.

As for the Silkolene-backed JG Speedfit Kawasaki team, Luke Mossey Racing was fifth and eighth while Leon Haslam is eighth in the overall standings after a second-place finish in race two.

There were mixed results for Team Bellerby at Lydden Rallycross on Easter Monday.

FUCHS-supported sisters Paige and Drew were both looking forward to the event, after a less than happy opener at Silverstone in March. 

At the test day on Saturday, Paige had another engine in her loan Vauxhall VX220 after her unfortunate shunt at Silverstone and found the car challenging, but fun.

“It’s really pushing on into the corners with this new engine,” explained Paige after the test.

“I’ve got to control it really hard when I brake because it just wants to go with all the extra power.  It gets a bit lairy sometimes, but it’s great having so much power under your right foot when you want it.” 

Drew was equally upbeat after a successful test. “We’ve really got the brakes sorted now, after talking to Ken Hudson, and he’s been great.” She said. “It doesn’t snap out at the back now when you just look at braking for a corner. And this practice has made me feel much better about tomorrow.”

Drew continued her upbeat mood through the first round heats on Monday, finishing with a time that was less than half a second adrift of fifth place.  But disaster struck off the start line of heat two as, when she was at maximum throttle off the line and into the lead, an electrode detached from it’s spark plug and caused terminal damage to number four piston.

“I felt terrible when it happened” explained a downcast Drew. “The day was going well and I really like this fast, flowing track.  I was hoping for good championship points to set me up for the rest of the season.  But now these first two events will have to be my lost scores, and I’ve got to really knuckle down and make every round count from now on. My thanks to FUCHS Lubricants, Yokohama, and Mad4Minis for their support and patience.”

Meanwhile, older sister Paige was having a better day as she led home her first heat, then did well enough in heats two and three to find herself in 2nd place on the grid for the second semi-final.  Her time of 3min 25 secs was enough to secure her a decent second row placing in the Supernational final, and a clean start saw her lying second after the first lap.  A succession of blistering 50 second laps then saw her take the lead, before she dropped back to second on the fifth lap after taking her joker, a position she held to the chequered flag.

“That result is such a relief after Silverstone,” said Paige after her podium ceremony.  “And big thanks to my sponsors FUCHS Lubricants and Christopher Ward Watches for believing in me and supporting Drew and me after that first round.”

The 2018 ATL Carlisle Stages regulations have been launched and entries have now opened for the Roger Albert Clark Motor Clubs event, which will run to a new format in the forests of Kershope and Newcastleton on June 8/9.

The event welcome’s the FUCHS LUBRICANTS MSA British Historic Rally Championship competitors to the event for the first time using a hybrid of the new Rally 2WD format. This part of the event will be for 2WD vehicles only, and the event also welcomes the Motorscope Northern Historic and Rally2WD Challenge competitors to this split Friday evening 23-mile element, which then concludes on Saturday morning for a further 21 miles of single use stages aligned with the BTRDA Crews with a noon finish.

The special award winners from the opening round of the 2018 FUCHS Lubricants MSA British Historic Rally Championship, Rally North Wales have been announced.
 
Ken Davies and Alan Jones collected the award for the ‘Best Improvement on Seeding’, which is a set of axle brake pads from Mintex. They had a good run in their Volvo Amazon to finish 43rd among the historic finishers.
 
The ‘Spirit of the Rally’ product award from FUCHS LUBRICANTS went to Paul Barrett and Dai Roberts, who finished third overall despite a frantic rush to get their freshly built Ford Escort Mk2 to the rally. The car was just ready in time to be driven onto the Dublin-Holyhead ferry on Thursday night and then suffered clutch problems during a shakedown test on Friday morning.
 
Finally, Adam Milner won the ‘Hard Charger’ award of a 20-litre jerry can from Green Valley Industrial Supplies. Milner and co-driver Roy Jarvis turned in a spectacular performance to win Category 2 in their 1600cc Ford Escort Mk1 and finish in the top 10 overall against far more powerful cars.

Over the Easter weekend Freddie Housley competed in round one of the NKF Karting Championship at Glan Y Gors circuit in Wales.

This was his first race against a far more experienced field, with most drivers in the Class being up to three years older than eight-year-old Freddie.

He had to start at the back of the field of 21 entrants but managed to get up to 15th in heat one before being punted off on the last lap.

Freddie crossed the line in P15 in heat two but was pushed off again in heat three, re-joining to finish 20th.

Starting 20th in the 18-lap final, Freddie was concerned whether he would be able to survive the duration, but he drove well to finish 19th and post his fastest time of the weekend, finishing with a huge grin on his face.

Elsewhere, Murray Motorsport are fifth overall in the National Hot Rod World Series after round 10 in Ipswich. The team are now preparing for the European Championship at Lochgelly Raceway on April 21/22.

FUCHS supported Ashleigh Morris has excitedly revealed her new 2018 Celtic Speed Scottish MINI Cooper Cup car.

We caught up with Martin Wilkinson, boss of FUCHS supported rally preparation team CA1 Sport, as he and his team were preparing for a hectic April off the back of a continent-wide winter rally season.

The team had started their 2018 campaign with two weeks testing and competition for David Bogie and Fredrik Ahlin in Sweden on the Swedish WRC event, before heading to the Azores with three cars.  Fredrik continued his Swedish success with a second place in the U28 ERC category on the FIA event, and Rhys Yates had a fine 3rd place in the same category.

Martin and his mechanics are now back at base in Carlisle, preparing cars for a multitude of different events – the McDonald and Munro Speyside Stages, the Corbeau Seats, rally, the Pirelli rally, and then the Rally Barbados – all before the end of April!

The first of these events is the Corbeau Seats rally to be held in Essex on April 20th.  This will be the first rally to be held in England under the new closed-road legislation which recently became law.  The event will be hosted in Clacton on the seafront, and consists of three loops of five tarmac stages totalling 45 stage miles and 100 road miles.  The roads used for the stages will be closed to public access for the duration of the rally.  More information is on the event website at the web address below.

Tom Preston is contesting this event in his Skoda Fabia R5, then the car will be re-prepped and crated up to be sent to the West Indies for Rally Barbados in June.

From Clacton to Elgin, Martin will have another service crew in action on April 21st when David Bogie defends his title on the Speyside Stages rally, the second round of the Scottish championship, with Rhys Yates using the same event to prepare for the opening round of the British Rally Championship, the Pirelli stages the following weekend .  This rally is Martin and his team’s local event, based as it is in the Cumbrian city of Carlisle.  Martin and his crew will be looking after 3 cars on the Carlisle event.

FUCHS Lubricants supply the CA1 team with their lubricant and fluids requirements.

More information on these rallies on the events websites below.

www.corbeauseatsrally.co.uk

http://www.rallybarbados.bb/news-articles/sol-rally-barbados-2018-dates-announced

http://www.speyside-stages.co.uk/ 

http://www.pirelliinternationalrally.co.uk/

Good luck to all those flying the flag for FUCHS and FUCHS Silkolene.