British Rallycross

British Rallycross Round 4 – From Rain to Dust

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British Rallycross Championship 2013
Juian Godfrey wins round 4

As the British Rallycross championship makes the half way mark. It makes it second visit to the beautiful Mallory Park in the Leicestershire countryside. Mallory has no joker lap so its all about flat out racing!

Mallory has a reputation for being very hard on the cars and this time was no exception. Cricket sized boulders were common place on the loose sections, imagine one of those hitting your windscreen at speed!

Round 4 was the first rain free round of this year, but this itself posed a whole new set of dusty problems and a lot of it!

British Rallycross Championship 2013

Dust was a real problem!

Without a doubt Icelandic driver Jon B. Hrolfsson had his best performance yet in his first full season in the championship. With two third places and a first place in heat 3, which placed him in a very respectable second place on the grid for the A-Final behind Pat Doran who seemed not to be able to put a foot wrong with two fairly unhindered first places and finishing just half a second behind Hrolfsson in the third heat.

British Rallycross Championship 2013

Icelandic driver Jon B. Hrolfsson

Mad Mark Watson was looking to make it two in a row at Mallory but unfortunately pulled up on the second lap in the first heat in a cloud of smoke, a blown head gaskit was to blame and signalled the end of Marks day.

Doran made a great start from pole and had championship leader Julian Godfrey hard on his bumper with Andy Grant getting a great start from the second row as was in a very close third place at the first corner. Hrolfsson had a frustrating start and let all his great work in the heats fade away getting last off the line.

By the end of the first lap Godfrey had taken the lead and put in a trademark consistent performance running each of the four laps at 50 seconds to claim victory. Doran ran in second and Andy Grant Claimed third place.

The Supernational A final saw no less than half of the field as either DNF or as NS without a doubt the most spectacular exit was Paul Wakling when the drive shaft on his MG ZS spectacularly broke on the long loose section sending the car into near vertical! Other caualties of the ‘Mallory Effect’ were B Final winner David Ewin, Gary Simpson and Stuart Emery.

Ashley Simpson lead the race from start to finish without too much trouble. Gary Cook came form the back row of the grid to claim second place with Todd Crooks in third

In other classes saw Andy Gwynne claim the top spot in the Super 1600 class in only his third Rallycross event. Mark Scott seems to be making the RX150 championship his own this year making it four in a row for him. Brothers Kris and Keifer Hudson took the one, two in the BMW Mini’s with Tony Lynch in third. In the highly competitive Hot Hatch class John Lyne claimed his first class win with current champion Craig Lomax in second and the ever present Slawomir Woloch third.

British Rallycross Championship 2013

The finish of the Hot Hatch final was close!

Kevin Hansen increased his strangle hold on the Junior Swift Championship, with yet another trademark near perfect day. However current champion James Ross took one of the heats and Charlie Bean kept Hansen honest.

British Rallycross Championship 2013

Suzuki Swift saw close racing

In the Suzuki Swift final it was yet again a tight start with Graham Rodemark in the lead at the first corner with Chris Mullen close behind on the outside and Phil Sherwood close behind. For the first 2 Laps there was nothing between the first 4 drivers. Sherwood was involved in an incident in the now infamous Gerrards on Lap 3 which saw him retire from the race. An incredibly close finish which saw Rodemark just hold off Mullen for the top spot. Tristan Ovenden claiming the third spot and Aiden Hills in 4th. However after post race scrutineering Mullen was disqualified which saw Ovenden awarded the second spot and Hills third. Not a bad comeback race for Hills after an absence of 9 months.

The championship will now head over the channel to Massmechelen in Belgium for round 5

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