World RX of Great Britain

Another cracking weekend down at Lydden Hill as Mattias Ekström took his Audi S1 RX to a third consecutive win. He played the joker lap superb in the semi final and final, when Petter Solberg (Citroën DS3) had looked set to strike back as he went fastest in 3 of the 4 qualifying sessions. Solberg didn’t joker on lap 1 of the final and when he did Ekström had made up enough time to be ahead when Solberg rejoined the gravel, so Solberg was runner up to keep the championship battle close. There was also the threat of Andreas Bakkerud (Ford Focus RS) who faded in the final, so it was Timmy Hansen (Peugeot 208 WRX) who completed the podium, at Lydden.

Blancpain GT Series Endurance – Silverstone

Our first visit to a Blancpain GT Series race saw us take in the 3hr endurance race at Silverstone. With dry conditions and periods of warm sunshine the race was fast and frantic, with over 20 cars still on the lead lap at the halfway point. A late safety car bunched up the field with little more than 20 minutes of racing time left so it was hard fought win for Maxi Buhk / Dominik Baumann / Jazeman Jaafar in the HTP Motorsport Mercedes SLS by less than a second from the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT’s Audi R8 of Laurens Vanthoor / Dries Vanthoor / Fred Vervisch. The pole position sitting GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan driven by Mirko Bortolotti / Rolf Ineichen / Jeroen Bleekemolen completed the podium.

Plains Rally

We got our first dose of dust in 2016 thanks to the recent dry spell of weather. Luke Francis & John Roberts (Evo IX) started first on the road and had the advantage of a clear view, which was countered by road sweeping duties and a high quality top 10 behind them. It was Tom Cave & James Morgan (Fiesta R5 Evo) who were fastest out the blocks through Gartheiniog and they took an early lead from Julian Reynolds & Patrick Walsh (Focus WRC). Reynolds was fastest on the next stage, pegging back a few seconds but Cave then headed the time sheets for the rest of the day to take victory by 27 seconds. Reynolds was joint fastest with Cave on two of the remaining 5 stages to take 2nd overall with Francis a fine 3rd overall.

Master of Midshires

This is starting to become a regular thing! Thanks to the night boat back to Heysham we made it to our 2nd Master of Midshires in a row and the contrast with the Isle of Man could not have been more stark. Warwickshire was enjoying its warmest day of 2016 and the Victory Field track needed constant damping down to try and help with the dust. Once again there was great action throughout the day with the ‘Big Chairs’, 1000cc sidecars, taking centre stage.

Manx National Rally

As is fitting with the Isle of Man there was mixed weather for the Manx National. The opening night was dry and saw Ashley Field & Janice Moore (Darrian GTR+) take the lead after the opening pair of stages through Ramsey. The bogey was then beaten on stage 3 by the top two as Jason Pritchard & Phil Clarke (Focus WRC) looked to establish themselves. Another pair of fastest times through the final two stages saw them take the lead and open up a 46 seconds advantage over Simon Bowen & Richard Robinson (Impreza WRC S11). Field had dropped behind Pritchard on stage 4 but a 40 second loss on stage 5 saw him slip behind Bowen too.