BRITISH RALLYCROSS GRAND PRIX DORAN ADDS ANOTHER GP TITLE

Croft

Organiser: BARC/ LHRC Starters: 67 When: October 23

Making his first appearance since the Swedish round of the World championship in July, Liam Doran was plagued by transmission issues in the British RX finale at Croft, where he didn’t make it into the final.

Despite overnight work, those problems continued into Q1 of the MSA British Rallycross Grand Prix but were resolved from Q2 onwards, from where Doran dominated.

The Citroen DS 3 driver qualified second on the grid for the GP final, took the lead into the first corner and led until the finish, holding off 2016 British champion Dan Rooke, who had also retired on the opening day with engine problems. Rooke’s team worked until 0300hrs on Sunday, together with engine builder Julian Godfrey, to resolve the issues and the 19-year old qualified on pole position for the Grand Prix before chasing Doran throughout the final.

Ollie O’donovan won the Grand Prix B final, from which the top four cars progressed into the main event and moved to third in the opening corners ahead of Dave Bellerby. The pair exchanged positions towards the end of the first tour, before O’donovan started to drop back with broken windscreen wipers causing his vision to be impaired. Bellerby ran third until the penultimate lap when a broken throttle linkage put him out, elevating reigning GP title-holder Julian Godfrey onto the podium.

“It feels good,” said Doran, who won the event in 2011. “It’s been a terrible event for me with mechanical problems, but this afternoon was fun. The level is so much higher than last time I won it.”

Kevin Procter finished fourth with Pat Doran fifth and James Grint sixth.

Super1600 racer Michael Boak qualified for Q1 of the Grand Prix as top two-wheel-drive car (based on Saturday’s best lap times) and maintained that position throughout the event to make it into the Grand Prix final, the only two-wheel-drive racer to do so. He ended up ninth, stopping on track on lap five when his Citroen C2 lost power.

Supercar returnee Tony Bardy qualified for the Grand Prix final despite losing a wheel in the B final but ran out of time to make it to the start while repairing his Ford Focus.

Junior Rallycross (5 laps)