Six Day London

To complete a hectic weekend we took in the final session of the Six Day London where Bradley Wiggins & Mark Cavendish were out in their rainbow stripes for what is planned to be Wiggins final competitive race on British soil. The fairy tale ending almost happened too but a brilliant tactical ride by the Belgian pair of Kenny de Ketele & Moreno de Pauw saw them give it their all in the final race and with less than 30 laps to go they made their last ditch move to unseat the Madison World Champions. 11 points separated the top two at the end of what was a fantastic evening of cycling and entertainment.

Wales Rally GB

Three weeks earlier and not quite as cold but the rain and mud were present as ever for Wales Rally GB. Sébastien Ogier & Julien Ingrassia (Polo R WRC) took the lead from stage 1 and went on to win the rally and cement the manufacturers World Championship for Volkswagen in the process. It was not plain sailing though as Ott Tänak & Raigo Mölder (Fiesta RS WRC) hunted down the World Champions, especially on the final day, closing to just over 10 seconds. Ogier held on though with 4 fastest stage times on day 1, followed by another 3 on day 2 helping him to build a decent lead. A clean sweep on day 3 of 6 fastest stage times from 6, added to 6 earlier in the event, were almost enough for Tänak.

Birkett 6hrs Relay

The Birkett continues to be a fascinating race and a highlight of the year as 70 teams took to the Silverstone GP circuit, for the end of season 6 hour race. After the first hour 3 teams were separated by just under 45 seconds with Tracktime Solutions in a fierce battle with JPR Motorsport (Sakr Rapx S1) with We Don’t Like Second back (Radical PR6 & SR3s) in 3rd place, but JPR Motorsport came unstuck in the 2nd hour where only having one race car saw them drop 5 laps. Tracktime Solutions still lead but having used their Radical SR3s early on the Lotus Exige drivers were out on track in the 3rd hour and We Don’t Like Second took the lead and never looked back.

Historic Sports Car Club – Championship Finals

A change to our schedule saw us take in a trip to the National circuit, at Silverstone, for HSCC Championship Finals. The day started out wet and a downpour resulted in mayhem on the track with two accidents in the Formula 3 practice. It was the afternoon before racing resumed and a total of 13 races took place on a drying track which soon became totally dry. The highlight of the day for us were the Formula 5000 cars with their awesome V8 engines bellowing round for the Derek Bell Trophy. There was great action amongst the Historic Touring Cars too with the Minis holding the advantage in the slippery conditions before race two saw the big US saloons take control on a now dry track. A good day out with something a little different for us.

Ford Parts Cheviot Rally

It was a pleasure to be up on the Otterburn ranges again and it was good news that the Cheviot was running again, after being cancelled in 2015. With the title sewn up Damian Cole & Paul Morris wheeled out the Escort MkII for a change and were not helped by the damp conditions early on. David Tinn & Giles Dykes (Satria Neo) made the most of 4WD and ran away to a 50 second lead by the end of the 2nd loop of stages. With the stages drying from there on in they extended their lead to over a minute before easing back on the final two loops to take victory by 70 seconds.

Trackrod Forest Stages

Once again the Trackrod provided us with fair weather and a good days rallying. The Historic rally opened up on Friday night with Steve Bannister & Callum Atkinson (Escort MkII) dominating the first stage and easing to victory by over two minutes from Steve Bennett & Paul Spooner (Escort MkII). Mark & Ed Bentley (Escort MkII) took 3rd place by just 0.3 seconds from Adam Milner & Roy Jarvis (Escort MkI). Jason Pritchard & Phil Clarke guided their Escort MkII safely home to 5th place securing the BHRC title for the 2nd year running. In the BTRDA section of the rally 2016 Gold Star champions Charlie Payne & Carl Williamson (Fiesta) finished the season in fine style, with victory by almost 23 seconds.