FIRST CIRCUIT RALLY TITLE FOR WEST
Peugeot driver west joins panizzi and de lec our in the record books. by Jack ben yon
This year, Chris West joined a very exclusive club. The Middlesex driver joined Gilles Panizzi and Francois Delecour in becoming a champion in the Peugeot 306 Maxi after winning the Motorsport News Circuit Rally Championship.
West’s Peugeot 306 Maxi is powered by a few more horses than in Panizzi and Delecour’s day thanks to an uprated engine, but given his opposition, the car still needed to be threaded between the tyres perfectly to have any hope of winning the title in the racing-track based series. And he did such a good job that he won it with a round to spare.
West’s 306 is an ex-panizzi and Delecour testing car and, although it has been heavily modified since then, it still has all the noise, explosive change of direction and the constant hum of a gearchange through the seven-speed box that it always has. Fans of the championship were in for a treat this year as the front-wheel-drive car mixed it with a host of high-powered Ford Escort Mk2 missiles. Having won the last two titles, this time the Escorts were all defeated. Co-driver Keith Hounslow didn’t need to encourage the excitable West on, he didn’t need any extra motivation to end Escort dominance.
The pair took maximum points on three events – the Neil Howard, Knockhill and Snetterton Stages, to wrap up the title early, becoming the first crew to do so in the championship’s three-season history. He did it using scuffed, elderly tyres, worn driveshafts and a perennially empty pocket. But West’s determination, will and vigour were not to be defeated.
However, for all the praise of West, second placed-man Mark Kelly deserves almost equal credit. The Mk2 driver started with the top-spec car in 2017 for the first time and impressed with his mighty speed, winning the Brands Hatch and Alan Healy Memorial Stages at Cadwell Park respectively. More consistency next year and he will be a title threat, a 10th at Knockhill and a fifth at the earlier Cadwell event proving his undoing as West didn’t finish outside of the top three in the points all year.
The real surprise was third-place man Ian Woodhouse, who wasn’t the ever-present threat for victories he had been in the 2016-17 season, of which he was the overall champion. Without Paul Swift, Woodhouse’s challenger last year, he appeared out of sorts and went winless despite two triumphs on his way to the title the season before.
Alan Kirkaldy – in an R5 guest drive at Anglesey – and ‘Juicy’ Bruce Edwards were event-winning pointsscoring interlopers, but didn’t complete the full season and didn’t get a chance to show off their pace all year. Honourable mentions go to Dane Walker and Paul Sheard for brilliant overall results (see right).
Edwards could return next season – which starts in November at the Neil Howard Stages at Oulton on the third of the month – but he’ll face stiff opposition. Mainly from West – with fresh Michelin tyre backing and a new engine from Smith and Jones – and an ever-improving Kelly who, if consistent, will fight West all the way. And there’s always another challenger or two who come out of the woodwork and take the regulars down to the wire. It will no doubt be another fascinating affair. ■