Justin Birchall
returned to the Britpart MSA British Cross Country Championship in
style as he took a win in the opening round at Pikes Peak.
Blue skies and sun
greeted the crews as they got their cars ready on Saturday morning
but by the time run one started snow was falling around the course.
It was Birchall who set the fastest BCCC time on the opening run in
his Lofthouse Freelander, three seconds ahead of the Milner LRM-1 of
Ryan Cooke. In third was Ben Duckworth who was using a Milner R5 as
his usual LRM-1 was not ready.
Birchall continued
to set the pace throughout day one and he held a lead of over two
minutes overnight.
Other BCCC crews
didn’t fare so well on day one. Steve Smith, who had flown in from
Dubai the day before the event, didn’t even make the start on run
one after problems with his Clio. Richard Coleby rolled his Polaris
out of the event mid-way through the day after setting some quick
times. Martin Gould, whose Buxton 4x4 Rivet was not ready in time,
broke a shaft on his Polaris.
Cooke’s hopes of
challenging for the win on day two were dashed when he was forced to
stop his car on the third run. With a good lead Birchall backed off
slightly but in doing so he broke a propshaft on the penultimate run.
The shaft was replaced and Birchall completed the final run of the
event to win by over three minutes from Duckworth.
“I’m very happy
with the result,” said Birchall. “It was a fantastic course and
the very changeable weather made it extremely challenging. I think we
broke the propshaft by going slower in one of the rutted offroad
sections so we went back up to normal pace on the last run.”
In third place was
Colin Gould on his first event in his Clio V8. Gould commented “I’m
extremely pleased with third, I’m still learning the car and we’ll
get quicker – the car has the pace, the driver needs to improve a
bit! It looks like it will be a good championship, there are some
very talented drivers and quick cars out this season.”
Mark Jacques’
Chevy-powered Lofthouse Freelander was fourth with Andy Powell, who
had a new engine in his Simmbugghini, was fifth despite suffering
brake problems on day one.
In the BCC Trophy
Phill Bayliss enjoyed a successful first event as he took the win in
his Land Rover 90 ahead of the Tomcat 100 of Ben Clay. Steve Anning
was third.
2014/15 Freelander
Challenge champion Ian Linford had suspected head gasket problems on
the recce lap so decided not to start. Brian Chase was leading the
Freelanders after day one but electrical problems dropped him to
third behind Graham White and Pat Masters.
Chris Bird led the
Clubman category after day one and he was setting times which
would’ve seen him leading the event overall. He didn’t contest
the second day so it was Toby Jefferson who was the first Clubman
home. In second was Phil Ibbotson who was using his Metro 6R4 for the
first time since 2013. Jonny Koonja was third, driving on his first
event for around ten years after spending recent years in the
navigator’s seat.
1. Justin
Birchall/Louise Birchall (Lofthouse Freelander) 01:39:39
2. Ben
Duckworth/Mathew Cook (Milner R5) 01:43:073. Colin Gould/Aaron Burch (Clio V8) 01:48:24
4. Mark Jacques/Simon Last (Lofthouse Freelander) 01:50:48
5. Andy Powell/Evalda Kazla (Simmbugghini) 01:51:18
6. Richard Wynne-Williams/Ian Jones (Lofthouse Freelander) 01:54:56
7. Neil Davey/Tony Barley (Yamaha YXZ1000R) 01:57:55
8. Richard Green/Richard Griffiths (Tomcat 100) 02:00:25
9. John Thorne/ (Yamaha YXZ1000R) 02:01:41
10. Paul Harris/Karina James (GSR Maxilight) 02:08:53
