Easter rallycross 1990, British RX goes north and south

British motor sport is good at using every available day for events, and likes nothing better than a public holiday for racing. Easter, with four possible race days, is often the point of the year at which serious championship action gets going, but obviously not this year. Back in 1990 the British Rallycross Championship had got an early start, round one at Brands Hatch in February and by the time Easter came around it had already completed four events, a second visit to Brands Hatch plus the Irish double-header weekend that comprised a Saturday event at Nutts Corner in Northern Ireland and Sunday at Mondello Park in the Irish Republic. But why waste a holiday weekend? In 1990 the British RX players were called to action twice at Easter and raced at Croft on Good Friday before venturing south for the traditional Easter Monday bunfight at Lydden Hill. Two more events and a 500km run between Croft and Lydden to complete in this holiday weekend.

Will Gollop drove in the early season British RX events, using them to develop and learn about his BiTurbo MG Metro 6R4. British events still had a Superfinal to determine the overall winner and Gollop won this at Croft, his third consecutive victory of the year. At Lydden on the Monday it was Palmer who won the event, Gollop out of the running with gearbox problems and Palmer splashing home first in the rain with his 3.8-litre Metro 6R4. Mark Flaherty had a great run at Lydden, taking his best British finish with third in the Superfinal behind John Welch’s Vauxhall Astra. Welch had also been second at Croft, where Trevor Hopkins claimed third in his Ford RS200. 

Tony Bardy took a brace of Formula B (over 1600cc two-wheel drive) victories with his Vauxhall Astra 16v, duelling with Brian Betteridge (Escort rwd) to win at Croft. Betteridge ran second again at Lydden but the treacherous conditions caught him out in the last lap and Mike Mantel (Escort MkII) took the place.

Formula C (up to 1600cc two-wheel drive) had some new winners as class leader Jonny Milner suffered engine failure in his Peugeot 205 at Croft and relied on a less powerful rally engine for the Monday event at Lydden. Mark Proctor (Vauxhall Nova) won at Croft and Alan Coates (Metro) made the most of the wet conditions to win at Lydden. In the one-make Vauxhall Nova Challenge series there were two wins for Ian Evans who dominated the inaugural season.