Doran takes hard earned Grand Prix

Liam Doran ended a tough year by winning the MSA British Rallycross Grand Prix at Croft. But even here the Englishman did not have an easy path to success.

Driving the Citroën C4 owned by Latvian team TT Motorsport, Doran was put out of Saturday’s final round of the British Rallycross Championship when the engine in the car failed in the first heat. The team spent the whole day and long into the night rebuilding the engine which has overheated as the result of head gasket failure, their effort getting Doran back on track for Sunday’s GP. Doran repaid the effort by setting fastest time in the first heat and went on to start the Grand Prix final from the middle of the front row of the grid.

David Binks and new British champion Julian Godfrey qualified first and third, Binks setting fastest time of the day along the way. The pair lined up with Doran still not out of his pit garage, the TT engineers now battling to repair broken steering and eventually sending their man to the grid with the steering wheel half-a-turn out of line and the steering askew. Despite this Doran made the best start and led the race, but in the second lap was in more trouble as the gearbox now broke. “I only had first and fourth gears, so I was on the rev limiter as long as I dared in first and then just had to get it into fourth, the engine almost died, and that’s how Binks caught me,” said Doran.

Binks challenged Doran and the two were neck-and-neck running back to the first corner where Binks spun out, “It was a racing incident but that’s okay, Liam’s got a long winter ahead knowing that we are faster than him,” said Binks after the race.

With Binks out, Doran now had a clear lead and was able to get his wounded car to the finish clearly ahead of Julian Godfrey who held off the challenge of Andy Scott. Pat Doran placed fourth with Kevin Procter fifth and also having a tough day, including a non-finish in the first heat when the gearbox in his Focus failed. Steve Mundy passed “Mad Mark” to win the B final and then climbed to sixth ahead of Derrick Jobb who overcame overheating problems in his Escort to make the main event. Steve Hill had a good day with his Mitsubishi Lancer E10 and qualified sixth, only for problems to surface again and halt him in the first lap.

Best of the two-wheel drive cars in the event was James Bird who was fifth in the B final with his Renault ClioSport V6.

• MSA British Rallycross Grand Prix
• 1 Liam Doran (Citroën C4)
• 2 Julian Godfrey (Ford Fiesta VI)
• 3 Andy Scott (Ford Focus II)
• 4 Pat Doran (Ford Focus)
• 5 Kevin Procter (Ford Focus II)
• 6 Steve Mundy (Ford Focus)
• 7 Derrick Jobb (Ford Escort)
• 8 Steve Hill (Mitusbishi Lancer E10)