NEW TEAM COULD BRING CROSS COUNTRY BACK
A new organising team is hoping to bring back the British Cross Country Championship next year after the championship was cancelled for 2018 due to a poor entry.
Jon Aston, who finished 11th on the Dakar Rally and was due to be clerk of the course for this year’s championship, has confirmed interest in taking over the running of the series from Marches 4x4, the previous organiser.
“Myself and Gary Simpson [series media and photographer] did a lot of work over the last week or two to try and get more people to come along and we got another five, but it still wasn’t enough,” said Aston.
“I have emailed the MSA formally expressing my interest in taking on the tender in 2019. It’s no secret that I wanted to do that anyway. They go through a tender process, and the tender is usually issued in July-september. But we have to have the forestry allocations in by the end of July, so actually we could do with knowing before then.”
Aston plans to sit down with competitors to discuss what they would like to see from the new championship. The previous organiser has confirmed it will not oppose Aston in tendering for the championship for 2019.
For Marches 4x4 to run it this year, the breakeven point was 25. It received 24 entries.
A statement read: “Due to a low number of registered entries for 2018 Britpart BCCC/ Britpart BCC Trophy and Britpart Freelander Challenge it is with regret the Marches 4x4 MSM Ltd directors Selwyn Kendrick and Phillip Turley have had to take the decision to cancel. Monies received to date will be refunded.”
Aston has the support of a number of drivers and teams.