The closing weekend event of the British Rallycross calender held at Croft Circuit in Yorkshire. The Saturday saw the final round 8 of the British Championship taking place and the Sunday the fabled Rallycross Grand Prix.
Saturday started windy and wet but this didn’t seem to detract from the racing. There were still champions and championship places to decide.
The Supercar entry was to field not only all of the season regulars but entries from all over Europe. Mike Manning was behind the wheel an awesome fire breathing Ford Puma.
Among the unfortunate retirements was Icelandic ace and season regular Jon B. Hrolfsson with a catastrophic engine failure. Spectator favoirite Pat Doran was also confined to the pits with engine troubles
European RX regular Anton Marklund was also present in his awesome VW Polo Supercar. He also proved the car to beat as he claimed pole in the A-Final.
Local favorite Kevin Procter was on form as well and drove his way to the second grid position in the A-Final
Andy Scott claimed the last place on the front row of the grid for the A-Final. Even after a coming together with Belgian Jos Jansen at the first corner in the first heat.
In his debut Supercar appearance Marc Scott claimed not only a win in the third heat but a very well done second row for the final. along side this years champion Julian Godfrey.
After a thrilling final which saw the pole sitter Marklund not finish due to engine troubles. Scott senior took the win with Procter claiming second and Marc Scott taking third and also the fastest lap of the final!
The remaining two classes that would decide their champions in this final round were that of BMW Minis and Hot hatch.
The two title contenders in BMW Mini were Tony Lynch and David Bell. Both started on the front row of the grid for the final, it was Bell, however that got the better start as both he and Lynch passed the pole positioned Keifer Hudson. Bell lead for the majority of the race but due to the dogged tenacity of Lynch he managed to pass him on the penultimate lap and claim not only the win but also the Championship.
The Hot Hatch championship was also a two driver race between John Lyne and Craig Lomax. Lomax however found the going tough and unfortunately had to retire in the final due to a broken gearbox. So the title went to Lyne. But the final was an all Polish affair with Tomasz Wielgosz taking the win with Tomasz Marciniak and Slawomir Woloch claiming the remaining spots.
In the other classes newly crowned champion Ashley Simpson looked like he was in a class of his own all day easily brushing aside all other competition. Gary Dixon and Malcom Boyd picked up the remaining podium places. It was great to see Michael Boak make a welcome return in his diesal Audi TT.
Jake Harris took the win in the RX 150’s with Kevin Feeney and Brett Harris taking the other spots. Giving Feeney the runner up position in the championship for the year.
In the Swift Championship the final win went to Tristan Ovenden clinching the lead on the very last corner of the last lap of the final. Second place went to this years champion Graham Rodemark and returning driver Darren Scott picked up third place.
So that was the end of the British Championship for 2013. But not the end of Rallycross for the weekend the Sunday was to see the running of the fabled Rallycross Grand Prix. See part 2 for more on that.
