Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Twyman off to positive start
‘It’s the most successful British championship car of all time’
Rallycross legend Will Gollop is best known for his titanic duels with charismatic Norwegian Martin Schanche in the early 1990s.
But while the Blean hero’s twin-turbo MG Metro 6R4 may resonate most with fans of the split-surface sport, it is his Peugeot 306 which enjoyed success the longest.
Built for the 1994 European championship season in Gollop’s G-tech Motorsport workshop in Hersden, the four-wheel-drive Supercar machine was one in a long line of his creations.
“It is the most successful British championship car of all time,” said Gollop, now 66.
“It came off the back of my Peugeot 309 from 1993 which was the exact opposite – it was one of the worst rallycross cars.
“I could not build a 306 for 1993 because it was not homologated but I started building the car in the August of that year and it was much better.”
Gollop finished fourth in the 1994 European series and, after electing to focus more on domestic competition, won the British championship in 1996 and 1997.
Those successes became the first in a catalogue of wins for the chassis, which was sold to Irishman Helmut Holfeld for 1998, who duly won the British title the same year.
“Seeing Helmut drive it was probably a high point for me,” said Gollop, the 1992 European champion.
“The steering was not perfect for the first year I had it but I worked hard on that and it made a hell of a difference.
“Some teams would have had a computer to do that sort of thing in those days but I did it practically and physically and the car felt comfortable as I didn’t feel in control before.”
Following Holfeld’s success, former rally driver John Mccluskey was next to own the 306 before fellow Irishman George Tracey took ownership in the mid-2000s.
London-based Irishman Ollie O’donovan continued the Emerald Isle theme in 2006, ironically snatching the British title from Gollop’s then protégé Andrew Jordan – driving a G-techbuilt Ford Focus – in 2007. Ross Twyman made an encouraging start in the opening round of the Dickies British Supersport Championship series at Donington Park.
The Wingham rider, representing EHA Racing, was fourth in free practice and seventh in qualifying before crossing the line eighth in the race. Littlebourne’s Tom Ward – a close friend of Twyman – came through free practice in 12th but had to settle for 24th in qualifying after a crash on the seventh lap put him way back on the grid .
However, The Aero Legends/ Go Racing Developments man made up 10 places in the race to come home 14th.
“When Tony Bardy was running the Peugeot for Ollie O’donovan, he rang me up and said how brilliant the car was,” Gollop recalls.
“He said that considering its age, there was nothing he would change and it was nice of someone of Tony’s engineering ability to say how good the car was.
“I have been pleased to see it be successful over the years.”
Incredibly, the 306 has still proved competitive in the modern era, beating up-to-date machinery as recently as 2013 in the hands of current owner Andy Scott.
Even today, Gollop thinks the car could win a British championship event in the right hands, despite being almost a quarter of a century old.
It is highly unlikely that one car will ever enjoy such serial success – or change hands quite so much – in rallycross again.