Hurrah, the motorsport season is back! About time really as it seems to have been a particularly long off season this year, so I was rather glad to get back to Lydden for my first rallycross fix of the year. Here come the pictures…
Steve Hill was the first car out on track, alas his Evo X died before the end of the first practise session and didn’t emerge from the pits for the rest of the day. Was a shame to see a Supercar out so early, but the Supercar grid is much healthier for this year’s Championship so it didn’t affect the racing too badly.
Actually “healthier” is somewhat of an understatement, the Supercar entry is arguably the best it’s been in the British Championship for years. Reigning Championship Julian Godfrey is going to be hard pushed to hold onto the title again this year.
The RX150 buggies have been facelifted for 2015, with new engines and some revised front end bodywork.
Marc Scott had a bad start to the year in Croft last month, but he dominated at Lydden and took the RX150 “A” final win.
The Swift grids have grown again this year. It’s not the first car I think of when it comes to good racing, but they are always close and provided some entertaining moments during the day.
There were a handful of BMW MINI and Super 1600 cars which all ran together. Kris Hudson won the BMW MINI class…
…and Mike Jones the Super 1600 class (or rather Mike survived the Super 1600 class: he was the only car running at the end of the day!).
Paige Bellerby looked the quickest outright car in the Super National class, but she seemed to be getting caught out by the handling of the Lotus throughout the day. She had a cracking start in the “A” final and passed pretty much everyone off the line, but spun and left Daniel Rooke to take victory…
…I have no idea what Rooke’s AX is running engine wise, but it’s a proper little rocket on track.
The Retro Rallycross Challenge is back again in 2015. The grid looked a bit depleted at Lydden, but there was still a good fight for second, third and fourth between James Harrold (Beetle), Ray Morgan (Escort) and Lance Foster (Mini).
First belonged to Rob Gibson in his Metro 6R4, easily having the legs on everyone else in the class. There are several Group B rallycross cars out there, they need to come out and challenge Rob!
The Supercar final was a bit chaotic. Given the number of Supercars entered I was expecting two finals, but instead the 10 remaining Supercars all rolled out to the start line. 10 rallycross Supercars launching together is an incredible spectacle but, in my opinion, it’s a waste of time as a first corner smash is inevitable. It took four restarts to eventually get going and an error with the lights meant the start of the fourth run was very uncertain, which left Pat Doran and Kevin Procter sitting on the start line.
Massive shame for Pat and Kevin as they had both looked on the pace throughout the day.
Julian Godfrey led for most of the race, but suspension failure on the last lap saw Andy Scott pass him with just two corners to go.
Two wins from two races for Andy Scott in this year’s British Championship. It’s a long way from the title, but the rest of the Supercar field are going to need to get their fingers out to stop him.
The multiple Supercar final restarts were a slightly negative way to end the day, but overall it was still a great day of racing. Can’t wait for the World Rallycross at Lydden next month!