AWDC Walters

Back down to Walters for the first of hopefully three trips this year, for some off-roading action. The AWDC Safari Championship opened with a 37 car entry for the 2016 season, in unseasonably dry conditions. There was dust a plenty, even in the trees, but a few true mud plugging sections provided the technical challenge to temper the fast flowing forestry tracks. Chris Bird (Milner) was victorious by a comfortable margin from the glorious sounding machine of Adrian Marfell. Greg Clement completed the podium.

Tour of Epynt

After a cloudy start the Tour of Epynt was played out under glorious spring sunshine, with tyre choices now all based upon how soft the crews wanted the rubber to be. The top 4 were hard to separate over the opening pair of stages with Steve Simpson & Patrick Walsh (Impreza WRC) taking the lead by 3 seconds from Damian Cole & Paul Morris (Fiesta WRC) tied with Simon Mauger & Jonathan Hawkins (Metro 4M4). The 2nd loop saw Simpson extend his lead as Cole put a few seconds between himself and Mauger. With Simpson having beat the bogey time on stage 4 he then did the same on stage 5 to extend his lead and remained untouchable for the rest of the day, to take victory.

Malcolm Wilson Rally

An action packed rally up in the Lake District saw Charlie Payne & Carl Williamson take back-to-back victories in the BTRDA championship. It all came after late drama for David Wright & Steve Pugh as their Focus WRC had differential problems, making the car want to swap ends constantly through the final stage. They did inevitably spin and a hard fought 13 second lead became a 23 second deficit handing Payne the win. Connor McCloskey & Damien Duffin (Mini WRC) had been fastest through the first stage but getting stuck in a deep water filled hole on stage 2 ended their rally. Wayne Sisson & Neil Shanks (Evo X) took the final podium spot after a consistent drive throughout the event, just over a minute behind Payne.

UCI Track Cycling World Championships

After a recent glut of cycling we finished off the track season with the ultimate, the Track Cycling World Championships in London. Both sessions on the 5th and final day would see 4 medals decided and when Laura Trott dominated the omnium to take her first World title in the discipline since 2012, we would not leave disappointed. All of this came after a consistent run of 2nd and 3rd places in the first 5 events which gave her a buffer for the points race. She didn’t just defend it but she extended her lead to take the gold medal and rainbow stripes. It looked like that was it after Jason Kenny came up short in the keirin but then it went off the scale as Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish took to the track for the final event, the madison.