MN’S Rallycross man Ridge returns to competition aboard supercharged Mini
Motorsport News’ rallycross correspondent Hal Ridge will race a supercharged BMW Mini in the final round of the BTRDA Rallycross Championship at Croft this weekend.
Ridge, who hasn’t competed in a rallycross event in Britain since 2012, will race the car in which Martin Hawkes won the final round of the British RX BMW Mini Championship at Croft a fortnight ago.
Hawkes ran the car for Ridge in a short test last week at Teeside Autodrome.
The BMW Mini cars will race together with Supermodified competitors at the event, where Terry Durdin, Paul Lawrence and Efstratios Hatzistefanis will make their rallycross debuts.
The Supercar entry list is headed by ‘Mad’ Mark Watson, but season-long Supermodified front-runner Tommy Graham has been forced to withdraw from the season finale following engine failure in his Ford Escort at the penultimate round and won’t fight for the title.
Toyota MR2 driver Marc Jones is top of the Supermodified title race heading into the final round, but is third in the BTRDA overall standings behind Peugeot 106 pair James Orton and Richard Todd, who top both the Production category standings and the overall table.
A number of drivers from Belgium and Holland will also compete in the Supermodified category, as will MSA Supernational champion, Tony Lynch.