Nail-biting battle in Wales for cross country racers
publication date: Sep 17, 2009
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author/source: Peter Hughes
| After two days and nearly 100 miles of competitive
motoring, just 12 seconds separated the winners from the runners up in
the latest round of the Britpart MSA British Cross Country
Championship. Glorious sunshine welcomed the competitors to the Sweet Lamb Rally Complex near Llangurig in Mid Wales. The Flintshire pairing of Tim Dilworth and Anthony Brinkman made the most of the dry and dusty conditions as they claimed multiple fastest times. But a broken driveshaft on the 5th run of the event dropped them out of contention for overall victory and they were eventually forced to settle for 8th place in their Peugeot 206. The Welsh team’s misfortune left reigning champions Richard Kershaw and Graham Broadbent leading the event on Saturday evening. But they too hit mechanical problems with a misfire on their GSR 206 Evo9 slowing their pace for most of Sunday’s runs. That set up a Battle of the Roses against the Lofthouse Proto LD4 of Dan Lofthouse and Jonny Koonja, with the Preston duo eventually moving ahead of Huddersfield ’s Kershaw and Broadbent. They finally cured their misfire problem by borrowing coil packs for the final run of the day. But it was too late to recover the time that they had already lost and so Lofthouse and Koonja emerged victorious despite having completed most of Saturday without a functioning clutch pedal. Third place went to the Mattserati of Martin Gould and Simon Kerfoot although the driver professed himself unhappy with his own efforts. There was a class win for fourth placed father and daughter pairing Justin and Louise Birchall after a succession of dramas in their Peugeot 206 including 3 punctures and a leaking steering rack. This made it a baptism of fire for Louise on her first co-driving experience after stepping in at the last minute for her mother, who had been taken ill. The next round of the championship will take place on October 10/11 but with the originally scheduled venue in North Wales not ready for this event, a replacement venue will be announced by the organisers in the next seven days. | |