British Rallycross R8/British Rallycross Grand Prix 2013 – Croft
 

My last motorsport picture thread for 2013, this time from the frozen North of England. I’ve never been to the Rallycross Grand Prix before and, with it taking place on the same weekend as the final round of the British Rallycross Championship, it seemed worth the trek to check out.

Here are a few of my fave pictures from the final round of the British Rallycross Championship, as held on the Saturday…

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The first corner at Croft is a tricky one in the dry. When it rains though, it becomes even more difficult, so a lot of cars made a visit to the gravel trap.

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2013 RX150 Champion Marc Scott made the jump to Supercars for the weekend, at the wheel of the most successful car in British Rallycross history.

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The Supercar grid was also bolstered by a few European drivers, including Anton Marklund in his (very cool looking) Volkswagen Polo.

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Jon B Hrolfsson had been hugely entertaining in the wet conditions at Lydden back in March, so I was looking forward to seeing him in action at Croft. Alas his car had other ideas and he made a smoky exit from proceedings before the end of the first heat.

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Pat Doran had an even shorter day of racing. His car developed a fault in the first practise session and his team spent the rest of the day waiting for a replacement part to arrive.

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Todd Crooks, taking the scenic route round the corner.

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Charlie Bean won the Swift Junior final: and the 2013 Junior Championship.

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There were some good scraps in the Swift Seniors as well. Graham Rodemark and Tristan Ovenden continued their season-long duel. Rodemark was faster in the heats…

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…but Ovenden found a way past in the final to take the win.

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There were some very cool additions to the Super Modified class, including Dave Ewin in his Evo powered Fiesta…

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…Starobrat Witold in his M3-esque E30 BMW…

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… and Todd Crooks in his supercharged BMW MINI…

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…none of them could touch Ash Simpson in his Lotus Exige though. He was utterly dominant throughout the weekend.

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Simpson had a decent lead before the end of the first lap of the final, leaving the rest of the pack to fight for second, a battle Gary Dixon won.

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After bogging down at the start of the Supercar final, Anton Marklund dropped to third before being punted off by Julian Godfrey (you can see the pair of them going off-road in the background!).

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That left Andy Scott free to take the win, with Kevin Procter in second and Marc Scott in third. Godfrey managed to move back to fourth after his off road excursion with Marklund; I suspect he would have taken third if he had another lap to pressure Marc Scott.

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That’s it for the racing on Saturday. Will post up a few pictures from the British Rallycross Grand Prix once I have finished sifting through them!

Superb pics as per normal:10:

Great pics as always

Cracking snaps fella :) always a pleasure to see!

As the guys have already said cracking photo`s once again :doubleup:

Thanks guys! :)

Hoping to sort through the pictures from the Rallycross Grand Prix over the weekend.

Forgive the double post but, as promised, some pictures from the British Rallycross Grand Prix, which took place the day after Round 8 of the British Rallycross Championship.

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In a nod to the Rallycross Grand Prix’s of old, this year’s event saw the multiple classes being dropped in favour of a single Grand Prix class for everyone; Supercars, Super National, Hot Hatches, BMW Minis… all running together in mixed grids.

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The only exceptions to this rule were the RX150’s and Retro Rallycross classes which ran for their own respective Grand Prix titles.

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Andy Scott began his first heat in exactly the same fashion as he had the previous day; a trip to the turn one gravel trap…

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…he managed to power through with a heavy application of right foot this time: but absolutely pelted me with gravel in the process! :lol:

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After spending Saturday as a spectator, the replacement component for Pat Doran’s DS3 had arrived and he was back in action.

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TV star Kelvin Fletcher (apparently he’s in Coronation Street?) made his rallycross/gravel trap debut. He didn’t make the finals, but actually did pretty well for his first time out.

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As the heats reached their mid-point the track started to suffer, with the penultimate turn becoming increasingly rutted. Initially it was only the unmodified cars that were giving clues as to the deteriorating condition of this corner.

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But by the time we had reached the finals even the bigger, most technically advanced cars, were having a rough ride over this section.

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It wasn’t just the track that was suffering after a weekend of racing. Most of the Marshall posts were steadily accumulating a pile of parts, though the post on the loose section seemed to have the best haul.

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An engine and some wheels and the Marshalls will be ready to enter their own car!

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In the RX150’s, Jake Harris had been pushing hard through the heats – a little too hard at times – in an effort to repeat his Saturday victory. The RX150 field were all close, but James Grint established himself as the man to beat, taking the win in the final.

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Rob Gibson led the way in the ’82 – ’87 Retro Rallycross heats…

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…and the final. I can understand why Rob wouldn’t want to risk his iconic Metro 6R4, but it would have been fantastic to see him fighting in the “main” Grand Prix class with the modern supercars.

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The pre-82 Retro Rallycross class was won by Barry Stewart at the wheel of his flame spitting Porsche 911.

After a weekend of anticipation, it was finally time for the Grand Prix A final. With a 10 car grid I was sure that there would be first corner carnage as no one would be prepared to yield but, to everyone’s relief, the whole pack made it around turn one.

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In a repeat of Saturday’s final, Andy Scott headed the field as they headed onto the dirt for the first time, with Kevin Procter in hot pursuit.

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After two laps of close racing, Scott ran slightly wide and left the door (half) open for Procter. Procter braked slightly later into the final turn, edged his way up the inside and nosed Andy Scott out wide.

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Despite the best efforts of Andy Scott, Procter seemed to have fractionally more pace and began to pull away. Behind Andy Scott was Pat Doran, who had also passed Julian Godfrey and was beginning to close down Scott.

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There was some committed driving from Steve Mundy, but he was unable to duplicate his B final success and finished tenth, behind the venerable Escort Cosworth of Derek Jobb.

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Crossing the line ahead of both the Fords was Ash Simpson in his Lotus Exige: a brilliant result as he was the only 2WD car to make the final.

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It was a great race and a brilliant way to round off the weekend. Sadly my last motorsport fix for 2013 though: roll on next year!