Martin Gould took his second Britpart MSA BCCC victory of the season after a very tough event in Radnor forest with Justin Birchall in second and Ben Duckworth in third.
Birchall was fastest early on in his Lofthouse Freelander, with two quickest times in the first three runs. Gould was not far behind though and on run four he was 10 seconds quicker than Birchall to move into the lead in his Buxton 4x4 Rivet-BMW. At the end of the eight runs of day one Gould held a lead of 38 second over Birchall with Ryan Cooke in third in his Milner LRM-1.
Gould and Birchall were pretty closely matched on day two, with Gould's lead maintained at around 40 seconds until the final two runs. Birchall was quickest on last two to bring the winning margin down to 16 seconds.
“It was an extremely hard event,” said Gould. “The course was very rough in places and it was a real test of the cars and crews. We got our lead up to around 40 seconds with two runs to go and then we backed off a little to save the car. It’s been another good battle with Justin.”
Birchall fought back to finish just 16 seconds behind Gould to repeat the second place he achieved at round one.
“We didn’t quite have the pace to keep up with Martin, I think the extra weight of our car counted against us on the many extremely undulating sections of the course. I’m happy with second, in keeps the pressure on in the championship fight.”
After issues with his car cutting out on the first day Ben Duckworth battled back to take third in his Milner LRM-1.
"I'm really chuffed with the result after our problems at round one and during the first day here," commented Duckworth. "The course was pretty harsh with plenty of real offroad stuff but that's what it's all about. I'm really looking forward to the next round in Scotland now."
Cooke had some problems in day two and dropped to fourth with Adrian Marfell rounding off the top five in his Fouquet Nissan.
In the BCC Trophy Joe Quirk held on for the win in his Yamaha despite steering rack issues in the latter part of day two. Round one winner Paul Rowlands took his Can-Am DS to second despite a couple of maximums after engine damage. Jon Damrel overcome a run one roll to finish third of the Trophy crews in his Land Rover Tornado.
Pat Masters led the Freelander Challenge after day one but a suspected collapsed clutch release bearing caused him to take a maximum when his car stopped on the course. He then did two runs with no clutch and was rewarded with fourth place and third in the FLA class. It was Graham White who came through to take the win ahead of Michael Wilson. Alex Howard was third in his turbocharged car, winning the FLB class in the process.
Toby Jefferson won the Clubman category in his GSR 206 ahead of the Yamaha of Jason Rowlands. Sian Rogers completed the top three in her Mitsubishi Pinin.
BCCC Top 10:
1. Martin Gould/Simon Kerfoot (Buxton 4x4 Rivet) 01:33:55
2. Justin Birchall/Jonny Koonja (Lofthouse Freelander) 01:34:11
3. Ben Duckworth/Matt Cook (Milner LRM-1) 01:37:56
4. Ryan Cooke/Darren Cooke (Milner LRM-1) 01:39:40
5. Adrian Marfell/Paul Bartleman (Fouquet Nissan) 01:41:10
6. Lee Mansfield/David Roberts (Milner R5) 01:42:41
7. Mike Moran/Tony Coid (Lofthouse Evo) 01:43:06
8. Andy Degiulio/Paul Jones (Milner R5) 01:43:13
9. Steve Smith/John Griffiths (JRG Clio V8) 01:47:11
10. Rob Bool/Aaron Burch (AT Challenger) 01:51:03