British GT – Silverstone

The British GT circus descended on Silverstone for a 3 hour race that started in the wet. There was no more rain during the race and after a wet opening 30-40 minutes the circuit began to dry and the race began to settle down. The pole sitting Beechdean AMR Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Andrew Howard/Jonny Adam spun at Becketts on the first lap handing the lead to the Von Ryan Racing McLaren 650S of Gilles Vannelet/Adrian Quaife Hobbs. With two safety car periods the race was left with a tense final half hour but Vannelet/Quaife Hobbs held on to take victory. The main threats all race had been the trio of BMW Z4 GT3’s and in the end it was the Triple Eight Racing entry of Lee Mowle/Joe Osborne which ended just under a second behind. Completing the podium were the reigning champions Marco Attard/Alexander Sims of Barwell Motorsport/Ecurie Ecosse (BMW Z4 GT3).

Severn Valley Rally

The Severn Valley Rally saw victory for Bob Ceen & Andy Bull (Impreza WRC) after a dominant display saw them build their lead up throughout the event. 2014 winners Luke Francis & John Roberts (Evo IX) were 2nd, some 24 seconds back with Dylan Davies & Llion Williams (Impreza) completing the podium 46 seconds further back. In the Historics Richard Hill & David Jones (Escort MkII) took victory from Jason Pritchard & Phil Clarke (Escort MkII) by ten seconds with Paul Barrett & Dai Roberts (Escort MkII) completed the podium, eight seconds further behind.

World RX of Great Britain

Our return to Lydden Hill for the World RX saw even bigger crowds than 2014 and superb action on track. We did the full weekend this year and saw Petter Solberg (DS3) take victory by 0.4s from Mattias Ekström (S1) with Johan Kristoffersson (Polo) completing the podium. The best of the Brits was Guy Wilks (Mini) who made the final but retired after picking up a puncture on the first lap. In the RX Lites Kevin Hansen took victory by 0.8s from Kevin Eriksson and in the Touring Car category it was Fredrik Salsten who came out on top in his DS3. A superb weekend and a must see for any motorsport fan. Now which European rounds of the World RX can we get too this year…?

Plains Rally

The Plains saw Euan Thorburn (Focus WRC) return to the rally he has won for the past two years, now looking for his hat trick co-driven by Richard Cooke. Two fastest stage times out of six was a good return but 23 seconds dropped on stage 3 told in the long run as Thorburn came home 3rd overall, 24 seconds behind the eventual winner. David Weston & Kirsty Riddick (Impreza WRC) also took a brace of fastest stage times which proved to be enough to take victory by just 6 seconds from Josh Moffett & John Rowan (Fiesta WRC) who set fastest stage times on the final two stages to make Weston sweat.

Master of Midshires

Only our 2nd ever grasstrack sidecar meeting, (usually due to returning from the Isle of Man), saw overcast but dry weather conditions. It was almost perfect and the ‘A’ final saw Rod Winterburn & Liam Brown take a hard fought win in the 1000cc sidecar final from Gareth & Billy Winterburn with Colin Blackborn & Carl Pugh completing the top 3 overall. The ‘big chairs’ as they are affectionately called really are something else to watch but the solos or uprights make up the bulk of the races. In the premier 500cc class James Shaines came out victorious from Paul Cooper after a superb battle in the final.

Manx National Rally

The largest entry in a decade saw challenging conditions for the crews on the Isle of Man. Paul Bird & Aled Davies (Focus WRC) struck early and held a comfortable lead after the first four stages before Melvyn Evans & Mark Glennerster (Impreza WRC) struck back on stage 5 to cut the gap back to 20 seconds. It was short lived however as Evans was unable to start stage 6 due to electrical issues so Bird took an overnight lead of just under a minute ahead of Jason Pritchard & Phil Clarke (Focus WRC). After level pegging roughly on Saturday’s opening pair of stages, Bird started to extend his lead and he had almost a minute and three quarters going in to stage 11. That stage would see the demise of Bird though as he punctured early on and by the time the wheel was changed the lead had long since gone and he retired from the rally. This left Pritchard to back up his 2014 win with another excellent result in 2015.