Ben Duckworth took his second Britpart MSA British Cross Country Championship win of the season in his Milner LRM-1 after a weekend-long battle with the similar car of Ryan Cooke at round 5 of the series, which has technical support from Ravenol.
Mike Moran was quickest on the first run but by run three Cooke had taken the lead.
At end of the 10 runs of day one Cooke held a 19 second lead over Duckworth with Moran in third.
Cooke’s lead was lost on the opening run of day two as he hit a rock which punctured the car’s floor. The Milner duo swapped fastest times throughout the day but it was Duckworth who claimed the win.
“It was a great fight with Ryan, the two of us were very close all event,” said Duckworth. “I’m very happy with first place, the team have been working hard to develop the car and they were even tweaking it at the event with some suspension changes to help it ride the bumps better so thanks to them for all their efforts.”
Cooke was very satisfied with second place after a season of mixed fortunes. “I’m really pleased with the result although it’s obviously disappointing not to win but all credit to Ben, he turned the screw on day two to get ahead of us.”
“It was a tough course on the car but we finished so I think we’ve turned the corner with the reliability. I’ll keep trying and pushing hard and we’ll see if we can get a win at the next round. Thanks to all my team and sponsors, without them I’d not be here racing.”
With Cooke in second it was Moran who brought his AT 4x4 Indy Challenger home in third, a result which was good enough for him to retain his BCCC title.
Moran commented: “It’s been a great weekend. Congratulations to Ben and Ryan, their pace was incredible and they must’ve been taking some big risks to set the times they were doing! With the championship up for grabs we played it safe to make sure we got the car to the end.”
“The course was hard on both car and crew, we had a few issues over the weekend including two broken alternators. Third place means we cannot be caught in the title race now, it’s good to have wrapped it up with one event to go. Thanks to Lofthouse Motorsport for preparing the car.”
Paul Myers finished fourth in his Land Rover Tornado ahead of Steve Smith’s JRG Clio and Mark Jacques’ 3M Challenger.
In 7th was Neil Davey who had fuel tank problems on day one while John Thorne returned to the championship with 8th in his Arctic Cat Wildcat.
Jason Sharpe was 9th in the Isuzu D-Max after front differential problems forced him to run in 2WD for most of day two and Paul Harris rounded off the top 10 despite a run one maximum when the electrical cut off switch snapped while trying to reset the car after it went into limp mode.
In the BCC Trophy Nick Pritchard won in his Goka Buggy ahead of Steve Anning. Jon Damrel was third in the Insanity Racing Tornado even though his event was hampered with fuel starvation and electrical problems.
Ian Linford drove to another win in the Freelander Challenge with Andy Price in second and the Race2Recovery car of Grant White in third.
Ian Bartlett took his Bowler Tomcat to victory in the Clubman class.
BCCC Results:
1. Ben Duckworth/Matt Cook (Milner LRM-1) 02:24:03
2. Ryan Cooke/Chris Cooke (Milner LRM-1) 02:24:583. Mike Moran/Tony Coid (AT 4x4 Challenger) 02:31:01
4. Paul Myers/Martin Myers (Land Rover Tornado) 02:35:19
5. Steve Smith/John Griffiths (JRG Indy Clio V8) 02:36:43
6. Mark Jacques/Simon Last (3M Challenger) 02:37:29
7. Neil Davey/Tony Barley (GSR 206 Evo 8) 02:44:49
8. John Thorne/ (Arctic Cat Wildcat) 02:48:04
9. Jason Sharpe/Richard Lester (Isuzu D-Max) 02:58:29
10. Paul Harris/Karina James (GSR Maxilight) 03:14:17