FUCHS LUBRICANTS BHRC heads back to Kielder

The FUCHS LUBRICANTS MSA British Historic Rally Championship resumes with round three on the ATL Carlisle Stages (Friday/Saturday 8/9 June) as the championship contenders head back to the daunting challenge of the Kielder forest complex.

The Carlisle Stages will offer BHRC crews 45 stage miles across six stages. On Friday evening, the first crews leave Carlisle at 6pm for three stages in the Kershope region. The Category 1 and 1600cc historic crews will run first on the road in reverse order before the balance of the historic and Rally2 crews.

On Saturday morning, the crews will tackle three more stages alongside BTRDA contenders before finishing back in Carlisle from around 11am. This event will mark the first time in three years that historic crews have run at the head of the field, thanks to the recent MSA relaxation of running order rules. The Ford Lotus Cortina of Paul Mankin and Desmond Bell will be the first car through all six stages.

The battle at the head of the field is shaping up for a re-run of the fantastic contest that decided the Pirelli Rally in late April when championship leaders Paul Barrett and Dai Roberts took a narrow win over Matthew Robinson and Dave Robson. Robinson will have regular co-driver Sam Collis back this time around and will be determined to turn the tables on Barrett in what is sure to be a sporting fight.

More Ford Escort Mk2s will head the chase including Steve Bennett/Osian Owen, Rudi Lancaster/Guy Weaver and Simon Webster/Jez Rogers, while the Hillman Avenger BRM of Ieuan Rowlands/Emyr Hall showed excellent pace last time out as Rowlands got his first taste of Kielder.

Class D3, for the Pinto-engined Escort Mk2s in Category 3, is proving to be superbly competitive this season and it is Stuart Egglestone and Brian Hodgson who currently set the standard. However, chasing very hard will be the similar cars of Ben Friend/Cliffy Simmons and Josh Browne/Jane Edgington. Friend and Browne are two of the fast-rising young guns of historic rallying.

A strong Category 2 entry is topped by BDA-powered Escort Mk1s of Mark Holmes/Craig Simkiss, Chris Skill/Peter Scott and similar cars for Chris Browne/Ali Cornwell-Browne and Andrew Stokes/Adrian McNally.

Finally, class C3 promises another fierce class contest between the quick Escort Mk1s of Josh Carr/Ben Hall and Mike Simpson/Dale Gibbons. Carr has had a character-building season to date with an engine failure in Wales and gearbox failure on the Pirelli. He is hoping this will be a case of third time lucky.

Image courtrsy of Paul Lawrence.