Weekly Motorsport Round-Up #7

Glenn Irwin continued his scintillating start to the new racing season with victory in the feature superbike race at the International North West 200 on Saturday.

It was Irwin’s maiden International road race win.

Riding the Ducati Panigale R, the FUCHS SILKOLENE-backed 27-year-old was involved in a terrific five-rider battle and was delighted to roar home to victory in Ireland.

Glenn said: “I really wanted that one and I’m absolutely delighted so a big thanks to all the team and the organisers who did a brilliant job and put on a great meeting.”

The triumph comes after a great start to the British Superbikes season which sees Irwin in fifth place in the standings.

Irwin and teammate Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne have been testing at Knockhill this week and recorded some impressive lap times despite poor weather.

Moving on to four wheel action, and Welshpool was the administrative venue for the Plains rally, the third round of the BTRDA rally championship on Saturday May 13th, before the 126 crews then headed out to tackle the eight special stages located in the mid-Wales forests of Gartheiniog, Cwmcelli and Dyfi.

Hoping for a good result on stages he and his co-driver Graeme Wood know reasonably well was FUCHS supported driver Ian Joel. But luck was not on their side as they lost some of the turbo boost on Gartheiniog 1, only managing 15th fastest time.

This put a severe crimp on their speed due to the mainly uphill nature of the stage, but Ian was able to drive round the problem on the remaining three morning stages, and their service crew was able to fix the problem at Service in Dolgellau, before sending the pair out for the second loop of stages.

Better times in the afternoon were a just reward for the pair’s efforts, only for mechanical gremlins to strike again when Ian felt the brake pedal go long and the clutch mechanism failed on the last stage.

Nevertheless, the determined pair were able to nurse the car through the remainder of the stage and make it back to the final control in Welshpool, where they were rewarded with a fine 13th place overall, and third in class B13.

Also out on the same event were FUCHS-backed team CA1 Sport with crews Jamie Anderson/Ross Whittock in their Ford Fiesta R5, and Tom Preston/Andrew Roughead in Tom’s Skoda Fabia R5.

Martin Wilkinson and his service team had a trouble free day looking after both crews, with Jamie and Ross finishing third and Tom and Andrew in ninth.

Martin said: “We had a test day on Thursday, and were able to sort out a couple of little niggles left over from the Pirelli which meant that both Tom and Jamie were able to concentrate on their driving, and get ready for the next round of the British Rally Championship which starts in Lockerbie this coming weekend.“

Meanwhile, it was a great weekend for ShaunTarlton Racing at the Snetterton Mini Festival. Shaun managed a double victory in the Mini7 S Class category after some close racing. Shaun heads to Donington next for rounds five and six.

And in the National Hot Rods in Aldershot, Gavin Murray finished fourth in the final after two P9 finishes in the heats.

There is more FUCHS-backed racing to look forward to this weekend, not least Adam Morgan in BTCC action at his home track, Oulton Park. Meanwhile, CA1 Sport are heading north to Lockerbie with their four crews, including championship leader Fredrik Ahlin and leading Scottish driver David Bogie, competing on the Scottish Rally on 19th/20th May. www.scottishrally.com.uk