Justin Birchall won his second Britpart MSA BCCC event of the season as Martin Gould finished third to retain the championship title.
With the crews facing horrendous weather conditions it was Birchall who was quickest on the first run, completing the course 18 seconds ahead of Andy Degiulio with Mike Moran in third. Drivers not fairing so well included Ben Duckworth and Richard Coleby who both retired after stopping on the first run
Birchall continued to build a lead throughout the six runs of day one despite having to change the gearbox on his Lofthouse Freelander. Degiulio maintained his second place and Gould, who needed to finish in the top nine to guarantee the title, was in third.
Conditions improved for day two and the crews faced another five runs of the course. The top three held their positions to the end although the day was not without drama for Birchall, his car snapping a propshaft a mile into one run which meant he had to complete the course in front wheel drive.
"We've had a tough year but it's great to end with a win," said Birchall. "We had a gearbox issue on day one and fortunately we had a spare so the team were able to change it. We lost some time on day two with the snapped prop but we had enough time in hand to hold on to the win. I thoroughly enjoyed the event, I love the tracks at Walters,"
After he was denied a potential win at the last round Degiulio was happy with second place, his best result of the season: "It was nice to get to the finish, especially after our Bovington retirement. It was a good course and the car went very well. The organisers deserve a medal for keeping the event going in the awful conditions on Saturday."
Gould rounded off the top three to give him the championship win: "We had a lot of work to do on the car after Bovington and, as usual for us, it was very last minute to get the car ready for Walters. The course was quite different to last year, it was a proper offroad course. We pushed enough to maintain concentration but, with the championship at stake, we reigned in our pace a bit to make sure we finished. I'm delighted to retain the BCCC title."
In the BCC Trophy Paul Rowlands took another win in his Can Am DS to win the Trophy championship. Jon Damrel, whose Insanity Racing team had to fit a new engine to the Tornado after Bovington, finished in second.
Michael Wilson won the Freelander Challenge event ahead of Graham White and Ian Morson. 2017 Freelander Challenge champion Pat Masters rolled his car early on day one.
In the Clubman class Jason Rowlands took his Yamaha to victory with Phill Bayliss in second in his Land Rover 90.
1 Justin Birchall/Jonny Koonja (Lofthouse Freelander) 01:44:02
2 Andy Degiulio/Paul Jones (Milner R5) 01:46:32
3 Martin Gould/Simon Kerfoot (Buxton 4x4 Rivet) 01:47:36
4 Richard Wynne-Williams/Matt Lowe (Lofthouse Freelander) 01:51:36
5 Mark Jacques/Adam Nicholson (Lofthouse Freelander) 01:52:53
6 Rob Bool/Aaron Burch (AT Challenger) 01:56:07
7 Paul Myers/Martin Myers (Land Rover Tornado) 01:58:13
8 Steve Smith/John Griffith (JRG Clio V8) 02:27:13
9 Ian Bartlett/Gary Bartlett (3M Challenger) 02:30:00
