The three events so far have seen three different crews at the top of the leaderboard and with two of the events being held at new venues it has been an exciting first half of the year.
The opening round at a sunny Pikes Peak in Wales saw 2010 champion Tim Dilworth take victory in what so far has been his only BCCC outing of the year. Richard Kershaw had a good return to the championship to finish second with Justin Birchall continuing the form he showed at the end of 2010 to take third.
Round two was held at Brynffynon and it was the scene of a close battle between Kershaw and Ian Rochelle in his Millington. Rochelle built up a lead of 20 seconds after day one but Kershaw fought back to lead by three seconds after the penultimate run. The scene was set for a dramatic last run and Rochelle went all out for the win, dispensing with his navigator to save some weight. Unfortunately a gearbox problem for Kershaw part way round the course denied a grandstand finish with Rochelle having a clear run to his first BCCC win. With Kershaw dropping to fifth Dan Lofthouse was promoted to second place in his new Freelander and Martin Gould took third in his Mattserati.
The crews headed to Scotland for round three at the now familiar venue of Forrest Lodge near Dalry. On a course which suited the more powerful cars Kershaw initially took the lead in his GSR 206 but by the fourth run Lofthouse had moved to the front, a position he maintained for the rest of the event to take a fine win. Rochelle had another good event to round off the top three.
Kershaw heads the championship positions going into the fourth round on 231 points, narrowly ahead of Rochelle on 223. In third place is Bob Seaman who has 198 points in his Milner R5. Seaman’s best result this year has been fourth at Forrest Lodge although he was heading for third place at the first round until a final run collision with a tree. Ian Bartlett lies in fourth after finishing in the top ten on all three rounds, a feat also achieved by Karl Gudgeon who has piloted his GSR Evo X to fifth.
In the Trophy championship Tom Hipkiss currently leads the championship from Greg Morris and Paul Myers.
Round 4 will be based at Bleddfa with the crews tackling a course using gravel tracks and off-road sections in Radnor forest. The event will start at 10am on Saturday 30th July with day two starting at 9am. For further information please visit www.marches4x4.com.
