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Victory for Moran after tough Radnor event.

After a gruelling two days of competition Mike Moran was victorious in round 2 of the Britpart MSA British Cross Country Championship.

It was Ryan Cooke who was the fastest driver early on, building up a lead of 39 seconds in his Milner LRM-1 after three runs. Early casualties included the crews who finished first and third at round one with Ben Duckworth damaging a propshaft on his Milner and Neil Davey suffering a burst power steering pipe on his GSR.

Moran took the lead after the fourth run as Cooke had a drivebelt problem on his car which gave him a maximum time and dropped him down the leaderboard. With Cooke out of contention it was Andy Powell who lay in second place at the conclusion of day one’s six runs with Mark Jacques in third.

A further eight runs took place on day two and, despite the very difficult course conditions, the top three had a relatively troublefree day to maintain their positions at the finish.

“It was a tough old weekend,” said Moran. “The course was extremely challenging and it was very tough on both the cars and the crews. It was a shame that Ben and Neil retired early on but Ryan and Andy were putting in some great times so it wasn’t an easy win. All credit to everyone who finished, especially the guys in the standard Freelanders.”

“My car also won the Baja event last weekend in the hands of Dan Lofthouse so it’s been a great two weeks for the Lofthouse Motorsport team.”

By finishing second Powell equalled his best ever BCCC result in his Simmbugghini.

“The event was brilliant, a proper offroad course! Congratulations to Mike on the win, I’m very pleased with second. The car performed really well, other than a slight steering issue that we resolved overnight we had no problems which was a relief after the electrical troubles we had at round one.”

Behind Jacques in fourth place was Paul Myers with Cooke putting in some very quick times to battle back to fifth, despite an off on one of his later runs. Richard Green fought back from a power steering belt problem on his first run to take sixth in his Tomcat 100 with Steve Smith in seventh after having several issues with his Clio over the weekend. Jason Sharpe was the final classified BCCC finisher in eighth. Sharpe was another driver who overcame car issues to get to the finish, including a broken suspension on his opening run.

In the Freelander Challenge Pat Masters took the win ahead of Ian Linford and Craig Bounds with Louisa Felice in fourth. Brian Chase from the BCCC’s technical partner Ravenol co-drove Alistair Moore-Myers in his Freelander but they sadly retired.

Steve Anning won the Trophy category in his GSR despite breaking a steering arm early on day one. After rally co-driver Justin Brooks set some very quick times on day one in his Polaris it was Jeff Fletcher who won the Clubman class in his Bowler Tomcat.

BCCC Results:

1. Mike Moran/Tony Coid (AT 4x4 Challenger) 02:05:58

2. Andy Powell/Phil Ibbotson (Simmbugghini) 02:11:08
3. Mark Jacques/Simon Last (3M Challenger) 02:17:20
4. Paul Myers/Martin Myers (Land Rover Tornado) 02:20:54
5. Ryan Cooke/Lee Channing (Milner LRM-1) 02:24:43
6. Richard Green/Richard Griffiths (Tomcat 100) 02:31:19
7. Steve Smith/John Griffiths (JRG Indy Clio V8) 02:51:10
8. Jason Sharpe/Ian Bevan (Isuzu D-Max) 03:09:03 

BCCC crews ready for Radnor challenge

The Britpart MSA British Cross Country Championship continues next weekend with round two being held in Radnor forest near Monaughty in Wales.

The opening event in the championship, which has attracted support from Ravenol this season, saw a very close battle between 2014 champion Mike Moran and BCCC debutant Ben Duckworth. Duckworth eventually took the win by just two seconds to lead the championship on 86 points, 6 ahead of Moran. In third place, on 74 points, is Neil Davey who had a successful comeback to the championship at round one after a break of five years.

Crews hoping for better luck at Radnor include Paul Harris who had gearbox issues on his Bristol Street Motors-supported GSR Maxilight at the opening round.

“Round one didn’t go well for us at all,” said Harris. “We had to take maximum times on the first two runs and only managed to complete four runs before calling it a day. The gearbox has been changed and we’ve also worked on improving the gearbox cooling so hopefully we will have a better event at Radnor.”

In the Freelander Challenge Ian Linford leads the title battle on 61 points after continuing his 2014 form with a win at round one. Andy Price is in second on with 55 points with Craig Bounds, who is driving the ex-championship winning Nick Lines Freelander, in third on 49 points.

The championship has used Radnor forest several times in recent years with the large amount of tracks permitting various course layouts. The venue is also popular in rallying and has been a stage in the World Rally Championship. As usual a mix of fast gravel tracks and technical offroad sections will be used to fully test the BCCC crews and their machines.

The action starts at 10am on Saturday 9^th May and there will be competition until around 5pm. Day two starts at 9am with the event expected to finish at around 2pm. Spectators are welcome at the venue and the site will be arrowed from the A488, just south of Monaughty. A map showing the route in is available on www.marches4x4.com as is further spectator information.