All to play for as BCCC title race heads to Scotland

Forrest Estate in South West Scotland will be the setting for round three of the 2015 Britpart MSA British Cross Country Championship next weekend. 

After two rounds it is 2014 champion Mike Moran who heads the leaderboard on 166 points, 24 points ahead of Andy Powell. There’s a very close battle for third presently with four crews separated by just five points. Mark Jacques is third going into round three on 139 points with Richard Green and Jason Sharpe on 137 and Ryan Cooke on 134.

Several crews will be hoping for better luck at Forrest Estate after suffering retirement at the previous round in Radnor forest. Paul Harris was forced out after a major gearbox oil leak but his Bristol Street Motors-supported GSR Maxilight has been repaired and is ready for Scotland. Ben Duckworth and Neil Davey, who finished first and third respectively at round one, both retired after the opening run at Radnor so they’ll be aiming to get their season back on track next weekend. 

In the Freelander Challenge Ian Linford leads the way on 116 points. After a tough course in Radnor Linford has had a lot of work to do on both his own car and that of fellow Team Sheepie driver Louisa Felice who has finished both rounds so far to lie in fourth place.

“I’ve had to put a new bumper on Louisa’s car and fix the one on mine as well as repairing the exhaust and fitting a new engine,” said Linford. “Since round two we’ve also taken both cars to a local Beavers and Cubs evening and apparently the kids haven’t stopped talking about it since. Maybe one day some of them will be competing.”

Craig Bounds is in second place in the Freelanders on 98 points with Andy Price just behind in third on 96. Price is another driver who has been busy since round two.

“I was losing a lot of power at Radnor and the engine was boiling at the end of every run,” said Price. “I thought it would be the head gasket but I took the engine apart and it was fine but I only had compression on two cylinders. I’ve changed and reseated the valves and did the head gasket as a precaution so hopefully there won’t be a repeat of our Radnor issues.”

Alastair Moore-Myers and Brian Chase from championship technical partner Ravenol will be aiming for a finish after retiring their Freelander at Radnor.

The action at Forrest Estate will start at 10am on Saturday with a full day of competition. Day two will start at 9am with the event finishing early on Sunday afternoon. The venue will be arrowed from the A713 north of St John’s Town of Dalry. A public car park is available for spectators near the event service area. Please visit www.marches4x4.com for further spectator information.  

Regs out for Forrest Estate

The regs are out for BCCC round 3 which will be held at Forrest Estate in SW Scotland. Entries are welcome from non-championship crews either for one day or the full weekend. Download the regs here:http://www.marches4x4.com/bcccregsrd32015.pdf

Photographs from BCCC 2015 R2 Radnor

Please click here to see the images.

Victory for Moran after tough Radnor event

After a gruelling two days of competition Mike Moran was victorious in round 2 of the Britpart MSA British Cross Country Championship.

It was Ryan Cooke who was the fastest driver early on, building up a lead of 39 seconds in his Milner LRM-1 after three runs. Early casualties included the crews who finished first and third at round one with Ben Duckworth damaging a propshaft on his Milner and Neil Davey suffering a burst power steering pipe on his GSR.

Moran took the lead after the fourth run as Cooke had a drivebelt problem on his car which gave him a maximum time and dropped him down the leaderboard. With Cooke out of contention it was Andy Powell who lay in second place at the conclusion of day one’s six runs with Mark Jacques in third.

A further eight runs took place on day two and, despite the very difficult course conditions, the top three had a relatively troublefree day to maintain their positions at the finish.

“It was a tough old weekend,” said Moran. “The course was extremely challenging and it was very tough on both the cars and the crews. It was a shame that Ben and Neil retired early on but Ryan and Andy were putting in some great times so it wasn’t an easy win. All credit to everyone who finished, especially the guys in the standard Freelanders.”

“My car also won the Baja event last weekend in the hands of Dan Lofthouse so it’s been a great two weeks for the Lofthouse Motorsport team.”

By finishing second Powell equalled his best ever BCCC result in his Simmbugghini.

“The event was brilliant, a proper offroad course! Congratulations to Mike on the win, I’m very pleased with second. The car performed really well, other than a slight steering issue that we resolved overnight we had no problems which was a relief after the electrical troubles we had at round one.”

Behind Jacques in fourth place was Paul Myers with Cooke putting in some very quick times to battle back to fifth, despite an off on one of his later runs. Richard Green fought back from a power steering belt problem on his first run to take sixth in his Tomcat 100 with Steve Smith in seventh after having several issues with his Clio over the weekend. Jason Sharpe was the final classified BCCC finisher in eighth. Sharpe was another driver who overcame car issues to get to the finish, including a broken suspension on his opening run.

In the Freelander Challenge Pat Masters took the win ahead of Ian Linford and Craig Bounds with Louisa Felice in fourth. Brian Chase from the BCCC’s technical partner Ravenol co-drove Alistair Moore-Myers in his Freelander but they sadly retired.

Steve Anning won the Trophy category in his GSR despite breaking a steering arm early on day one. After rally co-driver Justin Brooks set some very quick times on day one in his Polaris it was Jeff Fletcher who won the Clubman class in his Bowler Tomcat.

BCCC Results:

1. Mike Moran/Tony Coid (AT 4x4 Challenger) 02:05:58

2. Andy Powell/Phil Ibbotson (Simmbugghini) 02:11:08
3. Mark Jacques/Simon Last (3M Challenger) 02:17:20
4. Paul Myers/Martin Myers (Land Rover Tornado) 02:20:54
5. Ryan Cooke/Lee Channing (Milner LRM-1) 02:24:43
6. Richard Green/Richard Griffiths (Tomcat 100) 02:31:19
7. Steve Smith/John Griffiths (JRG Indy Clio V8) 02:51:10
8. Jason Sharpe/Ian Bevan (Isuzu D-Max) 03:09:03

BCCC crews ready for Radnor challenge

The Britpart MSA British Cross Country Championship continues next weekend with round two being held in Radnor forest near Monaughty in Wales.

The opening event in the championship, which has attracted support from Ravenol this season, saw a very close battle between 2014 champion Mike Moran and BCCC debutant Ben Duckworth. Duckworth eventually took the win by just two seconds to lead the championship on 86 points, 6 ahead of Moran. In third place, on 74 points, is Neil Davey who had a successful comeback to the championship at round one after a break of five years.

Crews hoping for better luck at Radnor include Paul Harris who had gearbox issues on his Bristol Street Motors-supported GSR Maxilight at the opening round.

“Round one didn’t go well for us at all,” said Harris. “We had to take maximum times on the first two runs and only managed to complete four runs before calling it a day. The gearbox has been changed and we’ve also worked on improving the gearbox cooling so hopefully we will have a better event at Radnor.”

In the Freelander Challenge Ian Linford leads the title battle on 61 points after continuing his 2014 form with a win at round one. Andy Price is in second on with 55 points with Craig Bounds, who is driving the ex-championship winning Nick Lines Freelander, in third on 49 points.

The championship has used Radnor forest several times in recent years with the large amount of tracks permitting various course layouts. The venue is also popular in rallying and has been a stage in the World Rally Championship. As usual a mix of fast gravel tracks and technical offroad sections will be used to fully test the BCCC crews and their machines.

The action starts at 10am on Saturday 9^th May and there will be competition until around 5pm. Day two starts at 9am with the event expected to finish at around 2pm. Spectators are welcome at the venue and the site will be arrowed from the A488, just south of Monaughty. A map showing the route in is available on www.marches4x4.com as is further spectator information.