"Static cam" action from Bovington

Gould battles to Bovington BCCC win

Martin Gould overcame several problems with his Buxton 4x4 Rivet to take his fourth Britpart MSA BCCC win of the season.

The event was held at the Bovington MoD tank training facility and, as usual, a very challenging course awaited the crews.

Gould was quickest on the opening run but he faced tough competition with Ben Duckworth, Justin Birchall and Andy Degiulio all challenging for the top spot. Degiulio's victory hopes were ended with broken front diff on his Milner R5 but the battle between Gould, Duckworth and Birchall continued with just 29 seconds separating the top three positions after day one's eight runs.

The course and the conditions proved to be very difficult and the attrition rate was high. Amongst those not making it to day two were Adrian Marfell who had gearbox problems on his Fouquet and Mike Moran who had a power steering pump failure on his Lofthouse Evo.

Birchall was fastest on the first run of day two to move into second place but he was then forced into retirement after a sensor broke and a replacement couldn't be sourced. With Duckworth having fuel pressure problem on his Milner LRM-1 Gould was able to extend his lead to over three minutes at the conclusion of the event.

"It was a very difficult event and we had our fair share of problems including oil issues and a broken gearstick linkage," said Gould. "I really wanted to win this one so we threw everything at it. I'm very happy with the result, lots of crews didn't finish and the venue is extremely tough on the cars so getting to the end is a big achievement."

Duckworth's second was his best BCCC result of the season: "I'm happy with that, we tried really hard and it was good to be challenging for the win. We had fuel pressure and charging issues which held us back a bit but we overcame those. I really enjoyed the event, it was a brilliant course - our car went well in all the rough sections. Thank you to all the organisers."

Mark Jacques was another driver getting his best result of the season, taking his Lofthouse Freelander to third. Rob Bool was fourth and Britpart's Paul Myers overcame a broken track rod end to finish fifth. Steve Smith was sixth and Ryan Cooke was seventh after a tough event which included a maximum after losing a wheel in the "Alpine" section of the course. Rounding off the BCCC finishers was Richard Coleby who battled suspension problems on his Polaris RZR.

In the BCC Trophy it was Paul Rowlands who took the win in his Can Am DS as his main rivals both retired, Jon Damrel's Tornado stopped at the end of the opening run with a waterlogged Tornado and Joe Quirk was forced out with a broken engine in his Yamaha.

The Freelander Challenge saw Pat Masters and Mike Wilson finish on exactly the same time after 14 runs of the course. Graham White finished in third place.

Jason Rowlands won the Clubman category in his Yamaha YXZ SS with a time that would've placed him third overall had he been doing the BCCC.

BCCC Results:
1 Martin Gould/Simon Kerfoot (Buxton 4x4 Rivet) 01:55:14
2 Ben Duckworth/Matt Cook (Milner LRM-1) 01:58:18
3 Mark Jacques/Adam Nicholson (Lofthouse Freelander) 02:03:39
4 Rob Bool/Aaron Burch (AT Challenger) 02:12:16
5 Paul Myers/Martin Myers (Land Rover Tornado) 02:26:04
6 Steve Smith/John Griffith (JRG Clio V8) 02:26:47
7 Ryan Cooke/Darren Cooke (Milner LRM-1) 02:36:13
8 Richard Coleby (Polaris RZR XP Turbo) 02:40:47

Images from Britpart MSA BCCC Bovington 2017

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BCCC title contenders set for penultimate round

The penultimate round of the Britpart MSA British Cross Country Championship takes place in Dorset next weekend and the title race is still wide open.

Justin Birchall heads the championship leaderboard on 323 points after a win, two second place finishes and a third so far this year. Adrian Marfell, contesting his first BCCC season, is in second with 305 points ahead of Ryan Cooke on 277.

The next four crews are separated by just 10 points with Steve Smith on 265, Richard Coleby on 262, Martin Gould on 259 and Mike Moran on 255.

In the National B BCC Trophy championship a second place finish last time out in Ceri saw Jon Damrel take the lead in the title battle with 306 points. Joe Quirk is in second on 257 following his round four win and Paul Rowlands is in third with 247 points.

2016 Freelander Challenge champion Pat Masters continues to head the leaderboard as he attempts to defend his title. Masters has 221 points with Ian Morson in second on 176 and Graham White in third on 171.

At the time of writing there are three crews scheduled to start the Clubman class, Steve Llewellyn in his Tornado, Paul Harris in his GSR Maxilight and Jason Rowlands in his Yamaha YXZ SS.

The event will be held at the Bovington MoD tank training facility with the action starting at 10am on Saturday. Day two will start at 9am with the action expected to finish at around 3pm. Unfortunately spectators are not permitted at the venue.

Please visit www.facebook.com/msabccc for post-event photographs.