Cambrian Rally

With a host of extras out testing from the WRC, as well as all the titles still to be decided, the 2009 Cambrian Rally promised to be something special. Taking the victory laurels were Mads Ostberg & Jonas Andersson in the final works specification Impreza S14 WRC after a scintillating drive, swapping times with the 0 car of Mikko Hirvonen. Everyone else was battling for second place overall and initially Andy Burton & Shelley Rogerson (Peugeot Cosworth) held that place, even beating Ostberg by one second on stage 2, a fair achievement for the home built car now over 12 years old! It all came to nought on stage 4 though with retiremnet in Penmachno North. 2008 Cambrian Rally winners Hugh Hunter & Andy Marchbank (Focus WRC) had edged in front of Steve Perez & Paul Spooner (Focus WRC) to hold second place at the end of stage 4. A small slide on the final stage for Perez ensured the 2008 BTRDA Gold Star champions finished with second place overall.

Rally GB

It all came down to the final round where it was winner take all between Mikko Hirvonen (Focus WRC) and Sébastien Loeb (C4 WRC). The Frenchman took the lead early on and two crucial stages on the Saturday morning loop saw his lead grow to almost half a minute, then when the bonnet flew open on the Finn’s Focus WRC on Sunday morning, Hirvonen had a fight on his hands to take second place let alone the win he needed. Congratulations to Sébastien Loeb & Daniel Elena on their sixth consecutive World Championship title. Mikko Hirvonen & Jarmo Lehtinen were runners up for the second year in a row in the title race and took second on Rally GB by just a second from Dani Sordo & Marc Marti (C4 WRC) who impressed with a good result on the gravel and mud.

Tempest Rally

Our annual trip to the Aldershot/Farnborough area saw us take in the 2009 Tempest Rally. Now in it’s familiar format of two rallies, one for 4WD and one for the 2WD crews, we managed to take in several stages. In the 4wd rally Will Nicholls & Nick Broom (Impreza WRC) took a comfortable victory once the attentions of Marcus Dodd & Alun Cook (Accent WRC) disappeared with retirement at the mid-point of the event. It was the Focus WRC pairings of Andrew Barnes & Guy Simmons along with John Lloyd & Adrian Cavenagh who took second and third respectively.

Volkswagen to defend Dakar honour with five Race Touaregs

Volkswagen will field five Race Touaregs as the team bids to defend one of the most challenging international motorsport events, the Dakar Rally.

Taking place across the South American continent for the second consecutive year, the 31st ‘Dakar’ Rally will see the five Volkswagen teams encountering some of the most demanding terrain on the planet.

Racing fan celebrates UK F1 champions with baby Jenson Lewis

A West Midlands motor racing fan is to name his baby boy after new Formula One World Champion Jenson Button and former world champion Lewis Hamilton.

Trevor Sutton and partner Mandy Smith, from Wyken in Coventry, are expecting the arrival of baby Jenson Lewis on 22 November. As huge fans of the two world champions and in celebration of Button’s title and their new arrival, they decided this would be a great way to celebrate the achievements of the two British drivers.

Bernhard Ten Brinke spectacular champion

Dutch Champion Bernhard Ten Brinke (32) drove together with Hans van Goor a superb rally in the Dutch Euregio Rally with the Van Merksteijn Motorsport run Ford Focus WRC and won the Dutch Rally championship. It is a unique situation that a newcomer in the rally sport wins in his first year the Dutch title which illustrates the enormous talent Ten Brinke has for the sport.

Two in a Row for Pearson

Duns rally driver Garry Pearson racked up his second class win on the bounce on Saturday’s Kingdom Stages Rally. The Peugeot 205 GTi driver and Ancrum navigator Dave Robson finished the Crail-based tarmac rally first in the 1.6-litre section of the Brick and Steel 205 Ecosse Challenge.

Successful debut for the John Danby Racing run Sixth Sense-ESP Honda NSX

The John Danby Racing run Sixth Sense-ESP Honda NSX made a successful debut at the weekend’s Britcar ‘Into the Night’ race at Brands Hatch in Kent.

The unique Honda NSX made its racing debut in the hands of owner David Fenn and guest driver Vicki Butler-Henderson at the final round of the popular Britcar Production Championship.

Blomqvist storms to double victory as Tincknell wraps up Winter title

Fortec Motorsport’s Tom Blomqvist, son of rally legend Stig, produced two faultless drives in the 2009 Michelin Formula Renault UK Winter Cup at Northamptonshire’s Rockingham Motor Speedway on Saturday, 7th November to become the youngest ever winner in the championship. The 15-year-old from Sweden, who joined the series late, took a clean sweep of the points with two wins and two fastest laps in the final rounds (three and four) of the one-make series.

Lloyd secures Winter cup title by narrowest of margins

Total Control Racing’s Daniel Lloyd (Huddersfield) secured the 2009 ELF Renault Clio Winter Cup with Michelin title by a margin of just one point in a thrilling final round at Northamptonshire’s Rockingham Motor Speedway on Saturday, 7th November. The 17-year-old who finished 11th in the 2009 season took two second places over the weekend but it was the two bonus points awarded for setting the fastest lap of the race which was key to him finishing one point ahead of team-mate Sam Tordoff (Leeds).

Pritchard takes Tempest victory

Builth Wells based MSA British Rally Elite member Jason Pritchard took a stunning victory on last weekends South of England Tempest Two wheel drive Rally, the first outright win of his young but impressive career.

Moore takes best ever gravel result on Tempest 2 rally

Janice Moore had her best ever overall gravel rally result on Saturday (7th November) when she co-drove Mark Gamble to second place on the Tempest 2 rally in a Citröen C2R2 Max.

With Gamble using the car for the first time on gravel the crew made a cautious start to the Aldershot-based event, lying 11th overall after the opening two Yateley Wood and Warren Heath stages.

Brick and Steel 205 Ecosse Challenge – Kingdom Stages Report

Garry Pearson/Dave Robson and Euan Duncan/Jake Dickie were the top performers as the Brick and Steel 205 Ecosse Challenge signed off for 2009 on the Kingdom Stages at Crail in Fife. The Aberdeenshire crew of Duncan and Dickie finished an impressive nineteenth overall out of one hundred starters in their 1.9-litre Peugeot, whereas Pearson and Robson clinched their second 1.6-litre Challenge win in succession.