Weekly Motorsport Round-Up #15

FUCHS-supported rally driver Kim Gray was delighted with her performance on the Greystoke stages rally in the Lake District last weekend.

Kim and regular co-driver Tom Murphy took maximum Northern Historic class championship points after six classic Lakes stages.

The pair got off to a slow start on the first stage, losing seven seconds to their closest class rival, but built confidence through the day and ended well by taking three, then five seconds from him to finish triumphant.

The starter motor failed early in the day, but they were able to bump start the car when necessary so it didn’t cause too many problems.

Afterwards Kim said: “I was pleased with the way the day went, but I’ve got to improve my driving on the opening stage so I’m not playing catch-up all day.”

Also taking part in the rally was Kevin Franks, who is normally to be seen with a spanner rather than a steering wheel in his hand.

Kevin is the ex-Prodrive mechanic who looks after the cars of FUCHS sponsored Paige and Drew Bellerby in the British Rallycross Championship, but on Saturday he took to the cockpit himself in his own normally aspirated Ford Escort Cosworth for his first forest rally on gravel roads.

Afterwards, he described the occasion as “interesting” and “full of challenges”, but was pleased to make it to the finish line with the car in one piece and not in last place.

Last week also saw the running of the fifth round of the British Rally Championship on the two-day Nicky Grist Stages rally organised by Quinton Motor Club.

This event was held on the gravel roads of the forests in mid-Wales for Leg 1 on Saturday, before moving to the tarmac and concrete roads of the Epynt military ranges for Leg 2 on Sunday.

The Saturday stages were held in hot, arid conditions which caused a problem all day for the Fabia crew of Fredrik Ahlin and Torstein Erikson as they were constantly catching the dust from Osian Pryce and Dale Furniss in their Ford Fiesta R5 who were running in front of them. Apart from that, Fredrik and Torstein had a trouble free run, and went into the night halt in second place overall behind Osian Pryce.

Jamie Anderson with co-driver Ross Whittock in the Ford Fiesta R5 had problems with gear changes on the early stages, necessitating a gearbox change for the CA1 service crew at the first service halt. After that, Jamie drove comfortably to end the first day in the top 10.

As the rally moved to the Epynt Ranges on Sunday, the CA1 Sport service crews had to change the complete suspensions of both Fredrik Ahlin’s Skoda Fabia R5 and Jamie Anderson’s Ford Fiesta R5 to tarmac spec, and did so in record time during the evening service halt in Builth Wells, and had both cars safely booked in to Parc Ferme for the night halt with more than an hour to spare.

The 12 Sunday Stages were largely uneventful for the CA1 crews - Fredrik took over the lead after Pryce went out on stage 12 with a fuel pump problem and he was then able to control his lead from the front. Jamie Anderson had a similar untroubled run, moving up from seventh overall to fifth by the end of the 20 stages.

Afterwards Fredrik said: “A result like this this was just what I needed and now I can look forward to the next round in Ulster which is also on tarmac.”

David Bogie was forced to miss the event as the parts necessary to rebuild his car after his Belgian accident did not arrive from the factory in the Czech Republic in time. He is now considering his options for the rest of the season, after his last two non-scoring events.

Elsewhere, FUCHS SILKOLENE kart racer Freddie Housley maintained his fine form with an amazing clean sweep at Rowrah, winning qualifying, both heats and the main final.

Freddie is off this week as he prepares for the British Championship at Fulbeck the following weekend.

Glyndwr University’s racing team, Together We Progress Racing, returned to their home circuit in Anglesey for what transpired to be an amazing three-hour Cartek Club Enduro race with the 750 Motor Club.

Stuart Brittle got the team off to a flier in the Mk1, overtaking a Ferrari two classes above and seeing Class P1, before heading to the pits after one hour 22 minutes, to be replaced by Will Earp in the new Mk3.

However, a major incident saw Will stuck behind the safety car at 60kph before Nick Doughill took over. P6 soon became P4 and with 20 minutes to go TWP Racing Mk1 moved up to third in class. Nick showed great composure to drive cleanly and take the class podium and 10th overall out of 34 strong competitors.

It was another cracking weekend for FUCHS-backed Shaun Tarlton in the Mini 7 Racing Club S Class Championship.

Shaun managed two wins, two poles fastest lap, only 0.700 off the overall fastest lap and a highest finish of eighth overall out of 34.

Elsewhere, Gavin Murray and Murray Motorsport completed 75 laps in the Hot Rods World Final and crossed the line in P8.

After struggling in the Betfred trophy race, Gavin lined up in fifth in the Nick Thomas Memorial Race and finished second.

Neil Kirkham, FUCHS supported rally driver, was invited to display his Gartrac G3 Ford Escort at the recent Goodwood Festival of Speed, and also took part in the rally stage events which were held on both days.

Following many admiring comments about his immaculately prepared Escort, Neil then ventured onto the rally stage and was delighted to post a competitive time, less than a minute off the pace of the current British Rally Champion in one of the latest R5 cars.

Afterwards, Neil explained: “We were really pleased with our time, then on the next stage, we ran just a little bit wide off the track, and caught the grass verge on the outside. It tipped us up, and then I was just a passenger. Fortunately, the car is very strong, and it was more my pocket that was hurt rather than either of the crew.”

On two wheels, FUCHS SILKOLENE-backed Revolution Speedway have signed USA star Gino Manzares. Gino arrived in the UK at the end of June to meet the team and check out his brand new equipment.

Image courtesy of CA1 Sport.