Podium Hat-Trick At Thruxton for Honda

Honda (UK) took a podium hat-trick across the Supersport, Superstock 1000 and Superbike classes at today’s fourth round of the BSB Championship at Thruxton.

HM Plant Honda’s Steve Plater qualified fifth on the grid in the Supersport class on his CBR600RR, before being elevated to the front row for the re-started race following a two-rider crash and red flag on the opening lap. A first lap tussle saw Steve lose four places, before expertly slicing his way back through the field to claim second at the race finish. The Lincolnshire man now heads back to the Isle of Man to continue with this week’s TT practice sessions, ahead of the first TT race next Saturday.

Audi driver Timo Scheider takes DTM lead

- Mattias Ekström clinches podium result for Audi
- Fifth place for title defender Scheider at the EuroSpeedway
- Mike Rockenfeller scores points in year-old car

With a fifth-place finish at the EuroSpeedway title defender Timo Scheider took the lead in the DTM standings. 75 000 spectators (throughout the weekend) at Lausitz witnessed a turbulent race packed with collisions in which Mattias Ekström, in third place, clinched a podium result for Audi. With Mike Rockenfeller in seventh place, an Audi driver of a year-old car scored points as well.

Oulton Park proves biggest challenge this season for VX Racing

Oulton Park proved to be one of the biggest challenges of the season so far for VX Racing. The fourth round of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship at the popular track brought each of the drivers a podium finish today. However all three had to fight hard every lap of every race to produce these strong results. Fabrizio Giovanardi notched up his 100th BTCC race at the Cheshire circuit, competing in his fourth season of the championship.  Andrew Jordan was delighted to take his third podium finish of the season so far. Matt Neal, with a third, a fourth and a seventh place retains his Drivers’ Championship lead, but only by two points.  VX Racing continued to accumulate points to retain the lead in both the Teams’ Championship and the Manufacturer/Constructor title chase. 

Mini Epynt Stages

Two rallies in two days on two different surfaces as we watched the inaugural running of the Mini Epynt Stages. The entry contained a lot of Epynt novices as this event was very much geared towards the clubmen driver. With a field largely composed of two wheel drive machinery it was the TVR Tuscan of David Bishop & Simon Crew who took a memorable victory, from being seeded number 23. Just behind them in second place, but running directly in front as car 22, were Paul Fowden & Paul Wakely in their Impreza. Completing the top three, after the demise of Jason Pritchard’s C2R2 with a broken driveshaft on the final stage, was our driver of the day Ed Lloyd. He certainly entertained in his TR8 always visibily closing on the car in front, on every stage we saw.

Dodd claims late win on Severn Valley National Rally

Defending champions Marcus Dodd and Andrew Bargery claimed maximum points in round five of the 2009 Pirelli MSA Gravel Rally Championship with an extremely narrow victory in yesterday’s (30 May) Severn Valley National Rally.

In their Hyundai Accent WRC car, the pair left it late to secure the win on the Builth Wells-based event as they finished just 0.6 of a second ahead of the Subaru Impreza of Roger Duckworth and Mark Broomfield, who are not contesting the ANCRO series this year, after edging ahead on the seventh and final stage.

Two current World Champions head up list of over 75 star drivers and riders confirmed for the 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed

With just five weeks to go until the 2009 Festival of Speed (3-5 July), Goodwood can already confirm that over 75 of the greatest motor racing drivers and riders will be present at the world’s largest celebration of motoring culture, with more big names expected to follow over the coming weeks. 

For the first time in its 17 years history, the Festival of Speed will be attended by both the reigning Formula One and WRC World Champions. Formula One ace and Goodwood regular Lewis Hamilton will be on hand to entertain the Festival crowds, as will five-times WRC champion and Festival rookie Sebastian Loeb.  The current 2009 season Formula One championship leader Jenson Button is also confirmed for Goodwood, as are fellow F1 drivers Mark Webber and Timo Glock.  In all six of the current-season F1 teams are scheduled to attend the Festival, including McLaren, Ferrari, Williams, Toyota and Red Bull, plus the new Brawn GP team.

Fabrizio Giovanardi set to celebrate 100 BTCC races tomorrow

The VX Racing drivers contended with high track temperatures in qualifying for the fourth round of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship at Oulton Park circuit in Cheshire today. Fabrizio Giovanardi will start in sixth place for the first of the three races tomorrow,  as well as celebrating 100 races in the championship. Andrew Jordan will be behind him on the grid in eighth place and Matt Neal, directly behind his younger team mate in tenth position.

Severn Valley Rally

Dust, dust and more dust but it wouldn’t be a Severn Valley without it! In the Nationals there wasn’t much between the top two as Marcus Dodd & Andrew Bargery took their Accent WRC to 0.6s victory over the Impreza WRC of Roger Duckworth & Mark Broomfield, who had led from stage 1 of the event until the start of the last stage. Completing the podium, and heading up the Evo Challenge runners in third place, was the Evo IX of Daniel Barry & Martin Brady with yet another cracking performance.

In the Clubmen event Nigel Griffiths & Jon Scott took a start to finish victory in their Impreza from the Focus WRC of Michael O’Brien & Ian Allsop. It had been a close run thing with less than 10 seconds separating the top two all event and the final victory margin falling to just 3.8s. As the front two pulled away it was the Escort MkII of Henri Grehan & Chris Ridge that took 3rd place, winning their class, and beating a significant amount of 4WD machinery in the process.

Subaru dealer supports Rally Show

Subaru dealer, Europa, today announced it will be supporting the Chatsworth International Rally Show, June 6-7, 2009.  

This unique motorsport experience is set in the spectacular grounds of Chatsworth House, in the heart of the Peak District National Park and incorporates part of the former RAC Rally stage. Comprising a 3.7mile stage, using some of the gravel roads on the hill behind Chatsworth House the stage finishes on the tarmac roads familiar to Rally Show visitors.

Nichol leads Swifts from start to finish

Local driver Gordon Nichol and co-driver Emma Morrison sealed their first victory in the British Rally Championship’s 2009 Swift Sport Cup, the Jim Clark International Rally last weekend.
 
Their one and a half minute winning margin does not do justice to the competitiveness of the event though, since four of the six crews set fastest times on the 150 mile event.