ROAD RALLY ROUND UP
On the seventh running of the Vale of Clwyd Classic Matt Warren/andy Pullan took their third successive victory on the event. They had led for most of the day and finished almost a minute ahead of the field.
John Abel, partnered by Martyn Taylor, took another second place, ending comfortably ahead of early leaders Dermot Carnegie/ Paul Bosdet. The latter crew’s rally was spoilt by the addition of two cone faults and a stop astride penalty to their total.
Howard Warren/iain Tullie picked up a Wrong Approach at the second timing point of the day, but recovered to eighth place.
Meilyr Evans/euros Hughes secured a narrow win in the Rali Dyfryn Twymyn. They had a three-second victory margin over Kevin Davies/owain Davies, who took second place on a tie-break from Richy Williams/ David James Price. Neither of the two top seeds, Irfon Richards/ Daniel Sion Lloyd and Andy Davies/max Freeman, got to the end of the first test.
Mosler MT900 drivers Javier Morcillo and Manuel Cintrano made it two wins from two in the Britcar Endurance Championship at Donington Park.
The Spanish pair started the weekend 17th in the standings, after a series of non-finishes and missed races, but they made amends in impressive style.
Their win in the shorter race one owed much to their pitstop success penalty being one minute less than most of their rivals. They beat second-placed Witt Gamski and Ross Wylie in the Ferrari 458 GTE by around the same margin.
Morcillo and Cintrano then won the two-hour Endurance race on pure pace. In both races Cintrano fell back in the opening stint but Morcillo recovered strongly upon taking the wheel.
Speaking afterwards Morcillo admitted they were struggling for fuel mileage in the longer race. “Very difficult – we didn’t know if we were going to make it,” he said. “I had to conserve fuel every lap. Our car is very thirsty. If there’d been no safety cars we would have pitted a third time.”
He also spoke of the satisfaction at getting their season back on track: “We’re very happy. To have the two wins it’s a total relief. It’s a fantastic circuit for our car.”
Gamski and Wylie, who entered the meeting as championship leaders, had their Endurance race ruined after being nudged into the gravel by another competitor. They lost 15 laps extracting themselves and initiating repairs, later slowing for a puncture.
Jonny Macgregor drove through the field in his Taranis to finish second in the longer race. He’d started from the back after missing the opening race due to a blown engine aboard his Taranis in qualifying, forcing him to dash to the team’s nearby workshop to fetch a replacement car between races.
“We had an unknown second-hand engine that failed,” Macgregor said, “we were never going to repair that [in time]. Fortunately, our workshop’s only 10 minutes away.”
Macgregor also made one pitstop rather than the standard two: “We were gentle on the throttle in the middle stint of the race, and the safety cars helped.”
David Mason/calum Lockie (Ferrari 458 GT3) won the sprint race.
Daniel Fisher in a Honda Civic took a double win in the Tin Tops Championship. He held off a challenge from Rod Birley’s Honda Integra in the first race, while in the second race poleman Fisher fell to fourth on the second lap after an error, and with just over a lap to go was still in third place. Longtime leader Robert Hosier in a SEAT Leon ran wide and held up second-placed Birley at the chicane going into the final lap. Fisher out-dragged Birley on the startfinish straight then passed Hosier to lead, after going side-by-side through the Craner Curves.
Brian Arculus driving a Lotus Elite scored a comfortable win in the FISCAR Intermarque race for 1950s cars.
Sam Kirkpatrick stole the show from the other championship contenders with a win and second place in the Junior Saloon Car Championship for Citroen Saxos. He was a close runner-up to title leader Will Dyrdal in the first race, then won the second race from Ethan Hammerton after a four-car battle. Dyrdal extended his championship lead over the weekend from three points to six.
Steve Kite claimed both Hyundai Coupe Cup victories comfortably. His greatest threat was an early challenge from Alex Cursley in race one, who eventually finished sixth after running off at Mcleans.
Colin Wells in his M3 had a straightforward win in the opening Kumho BMW Championship Class A race, but could only manage third in race two after technical issues. Oliver Taylor in an E90 M3 initially had the lead but later crawled into the pits with his own woes. This left James Macintyre-ure in his M3 E46 as the unlikely winner.
There was more unreliability for the Class B, C and D machines. Peter Miller in his M3 took his first ever outright win in race one after first Ben Mcclelland, then longtime leader Ross Elliott, dropped out. These problems put them out of the second race too. Miller finished second in that race to Christopher Cheverall in his M3 E36. Miller had a poor start but caught Cheverall at middistance. They had a thrilling fight and swapped places several times.
Lewis Smith garnered both Intermarque Championship wins in his Vauxhall Tigra. In the first race, he held off a strong challenge from Malcolm Blackman’s similar machine. The second win was more comfortable.