Walters win for Cooke and title triumph for Gould

Ryan Cooke took victory at a dramatic final round of the Britpart MSA British Cross Country Championship with Martin Gould wrapping up the title win.

With four wins already this season Gould required one more finish in his Buxton 4x4 Rivet to take the championship crown. His weekend got off to a bad start when his car stopped on the recce lap after an alternator problem and he suffered further problems on run one with a faulty clutch master cylinder. Meanwhile Justin Birchall, who was in line to win the championship if Gould failed to finish, was forced out of the event with a damaged engine.

Colin Gould, in his Clio V8, led the BCCC crews throughout day one with Cooke taking his Milner LRM-1 to second ahead of Richard Coleby’s Polaris. A broken balljoint ended Colin’s hopes of victory on day two and Cooke continued to show consistent pace to take the win.

“I’m really really chuffed with the victory,” said Cooke. “It’s been a long time coming and it’s taken a lot of hard work by everyone involved in the team. It was a great event and, other than a driveshaft problem, the car has been trouble-free. Consistency has paid off and, for once, lady luck was on our side.”

“I’d like to thank everyone involved in putting the events on and all of my team. I’d also like to thanks Fuchs, Land Rover and Paintstore of Leamington who have supported me through thick and thin.”

Coleby took his best result of the season in second: “I’m very pleased with the result, we’ve worked hard to improve reliability so it’s great to end the championship with a good finish. The course was fantastic, it really suited the UTV-style cars. Thanks to my sponsors, I’d not be able to race without their support. Hopefully we will be back next year to build on this weekend’s result.”

Despite his initial problems Martin Gould came through to finish in third and, in doing so, claimed the championship win. Gould commented: “The car had a lot of work done to it after Bovington and with the problems we had early on we decided to drive for a finish although we didn’t want to reduce our pace too much and risk losing concentration. We got the result we needed and it’s great to finally win the title after many years of trying.”

Paul Harris finished fourth in his GSR Maxilight, a puncture on day two was his only real problem. Mark Jacques took his Lofthouse Freelander to fifth ahead of two Yamaha crews, John Thorne and Neil Davey. Andy Powell overcame a day one driveshaft problem to finish eighth in his Simmbugghini with Alan Thomas and Jonny Koonja rounding off the top ten.

Ben Clay won the BCC Trophy class after a troublesome event for his rivals. Trophy champion Phill Bayliss retired following numerous issues including a broken alternator, fuelling problems and a broken halfshaft while Nick Pritchard’s car suffered a fire which put him out of the event. Jon Damrel survived an off on day two to finish second behind Clay.

Alex Howard won the Freelander Challenge class ahead of Michael Wilson and Ian Morson. Although he finished seventh at Walters it was Pat Masters who took the Freelander Challenge championship title.

In the Clubman category Chris Bird won in his Milner R5 with a time that would’ve won the event overall had he been registered for the championship. Darren Johnson took his Yamaha YXZ 1000R to second and Sian Rogers was third in her Mitsubishi Pinin.

BCCC results:

1. Ryan Cooke/Darren Cooke (Milner LRM-1) 02:42:46
2. Richard Coleby/ (Polaris RZR XP Turbo) 02:43:47
3. Martin Gould/Simon Kerfoot (Buxton 4x4 Rivet) 02:46:40
4. Paul Harris/Karina James (GSR Maxilight) 02:49:06
5. Mark Jacques/Simon Last (Lofthouse Freelander) 02:49:29
6. John Thorne/ (Yamaha YXZ1000R) 02:53:32
7. Neil Davey/Tony Barley (Yamaha YXZ1000R) 02:55:07
8. Andy Powell/Evalda Kazla (Simmbugghini) 02:59:04
9. Alan Thomas/Robert Moulding (Warrior Indy) 03:15:19
10. Jonny Koonja/Matt Lowe (Simmbugghini) 03:24:00