Bird kicks off 2022 in style with Brands Hatch Victory

Cumbrian driver Frank Bird continued where he left off last month by once again dominating the latest round of theFrank Bird Motorsport News Circuit Rally Championship with MSVR which took place with the MGJ Engineering Brands Hatch Winter Stages Rally yesterday.

The event formed the fourth qualifying round of the series and following his victory on the opening round at Oulton Park in November and round three at Donington Park last month, 22-year-old Frank, from Penrith, along with Lake District-based co-driver Jack Morton once again weren’t headed and took the win by over a minute.

Brands Hatch Stages

The regular start to our season was down at Brands Hatch, for the circuit rally championship, where Frank Bird & Jack Morton (Fiesta Rally2) dominated from start to finish. They went fastest on all 8 stages to take victory by over a minute from John Stone & Tom Woodburn (Polo R5). They had a battle on their hands as Neil Roskell & Andrew Roughead (Fiesta R5) were only 5s behind and fighting to the end, to try and make up for lost time on the morning stages. In the 2WD battle Joshua & Tamsyn Davey (Darrian T90) ended up 6th overall and just 11s ahead of Jeremy Straker & Simon May (Darrian T90 GTR+).

Brands Hatch Stages

A cold but dry Brands Hatch helped balance the stage conditions between the 2WD and 4WD competitors and it was John Stone & Jack Morton (Fiesta WRC) who went fastest on the opening two stages. Chris West & Keith Hounslow (306 Maxi) were then fastest on the next pair of stages but it was Stone who was ahead by 3 seconds at the lunch break. Stage 5 would prove pivotal as West came out just behind a lower runner, after a merge, dropping a few seconds. Worse was to follow for Stone though as he got stuck behind the Satria Millington of Tony Robinson, after he stalled at the hairpin in the pit lane. The best part of 15 seconds were lost and West had taken the lead.

Brands Hatch Stages

A damp and dreary Brands Hatch played host to the latest round of the Circuit Rally Championship and it saw Mark Kelly & Andy Baker (Escort MkII) take victory by six seconds. Their lead had been up over 20 seconds after two stages but Chris West & Keith Hounslow (306 Maxi) closed in through the rest of the rally and piled on the pressure for the afternoon’s 4 stages. 2nd overall was West’s reward after an attacking drive with 2016/7 Circuit Rally Champions Ian Woodhouse & Jason Leaf (Escort MkII) rounding out the podium, a further 17 seconds behind.

Brands Hatch Stages

It was a glorious winters day down at Brands Hatch, with crisp and cold conditions all day. Of the top 10 seeded crews only 4 made the finish, with the attrition rate high among the fancied crews. At the end of 8 hard fought stages Paul Swift & Pat Walsh (Escort MkII) took victory by 8 seconds from Martin Hodgson & Tony Jones (Escort MkII), with Nigel Mummery & Fiona Scarrett (Focus WRC) just over a minute further back. 2016 winners Chris West & Harry Brown had been fastest through the first stage but destroyed the front left corner of their 306 Maxi on an obscured concrete block, early in stage 2.

Brands Hatch Stages

With no event in 2015 we made our first visit in a while to Brands Hatch and a wet start caused chaos early on, where front wheel drive ultimately proved to be the best method of drive. Chris West & Steve McNulty (306 Maxi) were joint fastest on the first stage and 4th fastest on the 2nd stage saw them sharing the lead after the first pair of stages. Steve Quigley & Tom Hutchings (Clio 172 Cup) were tied with them for the lead with Tony Robinson & Phil Clarke (Clio) just a further 2nd back after fastest time on stage 2. Through the next pair of stages the conditions improved and became more predictable, which saw the Clio’s fall back as the RWD and 4WD machinery started to make up ground.

Brands Hatch Stages

It proved to be back to back wins on the event for the Davrian Dav-Tec of Dean Thomas & Mark Burt but that was not the whole story. Johnnie Ellis & Dave Green (Impreza) has set the pace setting fastest times on all 4 of the morning stages. Their lead was being cut in to through stages 5 & 6 but they looked to have the gap in hand but disaster struck on stage 7 as they punctured coming out of Druids and the resultant time loss saw them drop off the leader board. The fastest crew through the afternoon were Royston & Bridge Carey (Clio 172) but they had lost too much time early on and ended up 12 seconds behind Thomas. Pete Rayner & Stanley Graham (Escort MkII) completed the podium a further 28 seconds back.

Brands Hatch Stages

Our 2nd visit to the Brands Hatch Stages saw near arctic temperatures but thankfully a largely dry day. The battle on the track though was hot all day. Paul King & Alicia Miles (Escort MkII) set the initial pace and led after setting fastest time on the opening pair of stages. But by stage 6 they had been reeled in by Dean Thomas & Mark Burt in their Darrian Dev-tec Mk8. Thomas held on but was under pressure from Jeremy Straker & Simon May (Darrian T90) who went fastest on stage 7 to leave just 10 seconds separating he top 3, going into the final stage. Thomas went off at Graham Hill bend but kept his cool to eventually win by just 8 seconds.

Brands Hatch Stages

The competitve season got underway with our first visit to Brands Hatch in the best part of 30 years for the inaugral running of the Brands Hatch Stages. The rally was dominated by John Indri & Dave Engwell (Darrian T90 GTR) as they set 7 fastest times, from the 8 stages run on the event, to take victory by over a minute. It did not start out that way as they were only 2nd fastest on the opening stage as the Focus WRC of Nigel Mummery & Fiona Scarrett went fastest on the opening stage. Mummery then slipped back to a comfortable 2nd overall before a spin on stage 5 saw them beached in the gravel trap at Paddock Hill Bend.