CAN WEST REPEAT MN SERIES GLORY?
Back for a fourth season, the Motorsport News Circuit Rally Championship kicks off this weekend for another winter of rapid action, starting with the Neil Howard Stages at Oulton Park in Cheshire.
The championship has gone from strength to strength since its inauguration in 2015, and shows no sign of slowing down.
While it might not be rallying in its purest sense, it offers the format and a taster of gravel and asphalt, while offering the facilities as simple as toilets, cafes and garages that forest or closed-road rallies simply can’t offer. It’s a brilliant introduction to what multi-venue rallying is like.
In previous seasons it has been difficult to tell who will be the frontrunners in that year’s championship. But there’s one name at the top of the list this year who will be very tough to beat.
Reigning champions Chris West and Keith Hounslow return with their Peugeot 306 Maxi, their chances of a repeat improved by a new Smith and Jones engine ( a 30 per cent power increase, says West) and a switch to Michelin tyres. Having wrapped up last year’s title with a round to spare, their rivals must be worried.
Mark Kelly leads the Ford Escort Mk2 brigade this year as 2016/17 champion Ian Woodhouse will sit the season out for an engine rebuild. Kelly improved rapidly in his car last year. Look out for him to win multiple events this season.
Pete Smith and John Stone bring interesting Ford Fiestas to the party. Stone’s comes complete with a Millington 2.5-litre engine mated to an S2000 chassis. Smith will hope he fairs better in water than the car’s predecessor Ott Tanak, who crashed the car into a lake on Rally Mexico in 2015. Caution – and perhaps flippers – could be needed in the Oulton Park watersplash.
For fans of the underdog, rapid pilot Steve Quigley has constantly outperformed his plucky frontwheel-drive Clio, and challenged for the title in its first year in 2015/16. He returns after a year out and his consistency could bring him into play.
And there’s always one surprise who pops up and takes the championship by storm. Josh Davey – if his Darrian plays ball – could do just that having come so close to victory last year before a gearbox part issue ended his season before Christmas.
There’s no major changes in the calendar this year (see above left) but the championship coverage is set to step up a gear. TV company Torque take over the production and although it is its first foray into rallying, the team is very familiar with the circuits involved and have interesting plans for how to bring the series to life. It also boasts the coup of joining Amazon Prime this year, which hosts TV shows, movies and music to thousands of people in the UK. Frontrunner, Facebook, and Youtube will all provide coverage, while MN’S digital TV channel motorsport.tv will show plenty of coverage to keep up with the frantic action.
The championship has the unusual issue in rallying that it has to turn away sponsors each year as it has so many, and with many prizes on offer from multiple packages, the MN series is the perfect grassroots contest to get started in rallying. ■