Weekly Motorsport Round-Up #8

A loose stone cost CA1 Sport a precious 1-2 at the Scottish round of the British Rally Championship.

After a fantastic day-long, ding-dong battle between the team’s leading two crews, CA1 Sport held the top two places going into the last stage.

That was until a stone popped up and punctured Fredrik Ahlin’s radiator just two miles from the finish line.

“That was just really unfortunate,” said team boss Martin Wilkinson.

Ahlin was paired with Torstein Erikson in their striking black and gold liveried Skoda Fabia R5, while David Bogie and Kevin Rae were in their Skoda Fabia R5.

Early leaders Tom Cave and James Morgan were sidelined on stage three, leaving Ahlin and Erikson to surge ahead with a faultless drive. But Bogie and Rae relentlessly closed the gap and by the end of stage six just four seconds separated the two crews.

The lead swung back and forth between Ahlin/Erikson and Bogie/Rae until stage 10, when both opted for a steadier pace to get home safe.

That was until Ahlin’s Fabia kicked a stone up into the radiator and all his good work was undone, leaving Bogie and Rae to cruise to victory. Afterwards Bogie explained: “That was the hardest part of the rally, driving to the end after seeing Fredrik. But I wanted the win, rather than second, so I couldn’t be happier”.

The third CA1 Sport crew of Jamie Anderson/Ross Whitock in their Ford Fiesta R5 were placed seventh overall. The CA1 team have maintained their lead in the BRC Teams Cup.

This weekend Rochdale driver Steve Brown heads back to Belgium for the ORC Canal Rally – and this time he is at the wheel of the Honda Civic he was due to debut at the start of the season.

All of the mechanical issues have now been resolved in Brown’s Honda, so he will take the car across the Channel to contest round two of the FIRC. Steve and co-driver Paul Stringer have managed to bag some points in the borrowed Nissan Micra and will be hoping for a solid haul of points in Oostrozebeke to assist their championship aspirations.

“I’m delighted to finally be able to take the Honda to Belgium,” said Steve.

After a strong start to the BTCC season, it was a weekend to forget for FUCHS-backed Adam Morgan at Oulton Park. Disappointing qualification was followed by Adam being forced off the road in race one and his car suffering geometry damage and a slow puncture.

He finished that race in 28th. Worse was to come, though. On the race two pre-race warm-up Adam’s Mercedes burst into flames, ruling him out for the rest of the day.

Ciceley Motorsport’s Commercial and Marketing Director Norman Burgess said: “We will bounce back and I know that Adam wants the next memory of him to be in a blaze of glory.”

Meanwhile, Adam has agreed to become a patron of the FUCHS-backed TWP Racing team.

TWP Team Principle Jon Earp said: “Today has been the culmination of two years work. The support of the Ciceley Motorsport family has opened doors to us that 12 months ago we could only dream of.”

In the world of motorbike racing, excitement is building ahead of the Isle of Man TT 2017. Warrian Enterprises, longstanding FUCHS SILKOLENE authorised distributor in Australia, are proud to be the major sponsor of Oilee Racing and Joe Akroyd in their quest for success.

Other racers who will be competing in the TT with SILKOLENE include David Johnson (Norton Racing), Steve Mercer (Devitt RC Express), Ivan Lintin (Devitt RC Express), Peter Hickman (Smiths Racing), Dan Hegarty (Top Gun Racing), Michael Rutter (Bathams SMT Racing), Dan Cooper (Dan Cooper Racing), Matt Rees (via Rob Hunter) and SMT Superbikes.