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 9th 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.