British championship at Lydden

Grönholm kept honest by Procter in Lydden thriller.

The fifth round of the Quaife MSA British Rallycross Championship was won by former World Rally Champion Marcus Grönholm, but second place, having run on the tail of the famous Finn throughout the final, was as good as a win for Kevin Procter (Northallerton), who claimed first place points in the championship as the best placed of the British drivers.

Played out in front of an estimated 8000 spectators, the traditional August Bank Holiday Monday event at Lydden Hill introduced Monster Energy as associate sponsor, featured the debut of the proposed ‘Rallycross Retro’ class for ‘classic’ racecars and brought Grönholm for his first appearance in the series as a part of the Best Buy Ford team alongside British star David Binks (Newcastle upon Tyne). Moving from the Ford Fiesta VI Supercar that he has raced since the start of last year to the new Fiesta VII run by OMSE, the Swedish team that is Ford’s official squad in Rallycross, Binks had his first competitive outing in the car that he will use for the balance of the 2011 season.

Grönholm started the A final from pole, but his path there had not been easy and a different driver took fastest time in each of the three qualifying heats.

Monster Energy driver Liam Doran (Sittingbourne) topped the first heat despite a down on power engine in the Citroën C4 he drove here, a car from Latvian team TT Motorsport replacing his usual car on this occasion. Procter was fastest in the second heat before Grönholm led the way home in the third. It was the Finn who took pole for the A final, Procter and Binks (second in the first heat and third in the third) completing the front row of the grid. Julian Godfrey (Heathfield) claimed the British championship’s five bonus points for fastest time on his way to fourth place on the grid, sharing row two with Doran. The back row held Andy Scott (Dumfries), the only man so far with two BRC events wins to his credit this year [rounds one and four] and Steve Hill (Aylesbury), the pair joined by defending champion Pat Doran (Winkleigh) who won the B final ahead of Belgian visitor Jos Jansen.

The A final was stopped in its first lap after Godfrey half-rolled his Fiesta in the first corner, the car sliding along the track on its side before falling back on to its wheels. Having rejoined the race as the red flags were shown, Godfrey was allowed to take the restart. Grönholm had led the first start from Binks but at the second time of asking Procter split the Ford pairing and kept the pressure on Grönholm throughout the race, the pair just 0.6s apart at the chequer and Procter adding the ‘win’ here to his victory in round two. Binks completed the podium in third place, ahead of Scott, Liam Doran, Godfrey and Hill, the race losing Pat Doran in the last lap when a broken water pipe allowed coolant to leak under the wheels of his Focus, causing it to slide off the track.

Results: 1 Marcus Grönholm (Ford Fiesta VII) 3m40.739s; 2 Kevin Procter (Ford Focus II) 3m41.353s; 3 David Binks (Ford Fiesta VII) 3m43.830s; 4 Andy Scott (Ford Focus II) 3m45.620s; 5 Liam Doran (Citroën C4) 3m47.343s; 6 Julian Godfrey (Ford Fiesta VI) 3m49.878s; 7 Steve Hill (Mitsubishi Lancer E10) 3m51.617s; 8 Pat Doran (Ford Focus I) 4 laps

Championship: 1 Godfrey 137; 2 Binks 125; 3 Scott 111; 4 Hill 106; 5 Pat Doran 100; 6 Procter 60

This slideshow requires JavaScript.