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.

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.

Gareth Hall Memorial Rally

Not too bad a day up at Trawsfynydd this year which saw the second running of the Gareth Hall Memorial Rally, as a stage event. After the overnight dampness passed by the broken tarmac dried up and the crews could really attack the stages. Gavin & Aled Edwards took victory by 25 seconds in their Escort MkII, with Ken Pugh & Gwawr Hughes second in their Lancer Evo 3. Completing the podium, just a further two seconds back, were Richard Lewis & Emma Davies (Escort MkII).

Britcar 500

Another trip to Silverstone in the space of a month, what is going on? This time we were taking in the Britcar action and whilst the format had been changed from a 24 hour race to just 6 hours, the action was just as intense and exhilarating to watch. At the start it was all about the trio of Mosler MT900R’s but as they were thirstier on the fuel than the smaller engine capacity cars, it would prove to be an intriguing battle. With the McInerney Mosler retiring early on whilst leading the race, the battle was between the Mosler’s of Beaumont/Gormley/Clucas and White/Lockie. As the race progressed the Porsche 911 RSR of Sumpter/Slater came into the equation and moved ahead following less pit stops.