Motorsport By Tony Brunskill

Published at 05:16, Friday, 24 October 2008

FARMER David Ewin from Appleby is riding high in the 2008 Rallycross championship with several podium finishes and is already the BTRDA Supermodified under 1900cc class winner as he enters the finale of the championship at Croft this weekend.

Action man: Appleby's David Ewin's Ford Fiesta rallycross car

David hopes that with a good, clean race he will consolidate his fifth place in the Open Championship Procar 2000 class, though ever the racer, he hopes to get even higher up the leader board.

The range of vehicles at Croft will be vast, including the open wheel RX150 Rage Buggies powered by 150bhp Fireblade motorcycle engines in which top rally stars, Guy Wilkes and Kris Meeke, with be competing.

Rallycross is enjoying a great resurgence of interest after having been the number one Saturday viewing for petrol heads many years ago, mainly from Lydden Hill.

But with more cars entering than there have been for the last 20 years, it is hoped that Lydden will host the 2009 European Championship opening round on April 13.

The rise of interest could be due to the economic crisis because unless drivers go for the very top echelons of the sport, it can be done on a modest budget using mildly tweaked, small family cars to get on the ladder.

This is how David started, spending personal time off-season to work on his car to improve performance, and look where he is now.

The Saturday/Sunday Croft meeting will be spectacular and it is only about an hour away, so go and help cheer him to his dream of 4th place!

Having battled all season in the Pirelli MSA Gravel Championship, 21 year-old David Bogie from Dumfries had to be satisfied with 10th place on the seventh and last round, the Bulldog Rally based in Oswestry, last weekend.

David is the rising Scottish star making a bid to follow in the footsteps of his hero, the late Colin McRae, into the top of the sport and his results so far in a variety of cars show he has the talent and courage to do so.

Last Sunday’s Keith Knox stages run on the Otterburn range was another pot hunting success for the son and father combo of Barry and Michael Lindsay from near Carlisle.

The pair not only won the up to 1600cc class outright but cheekily stuck the diminutive Pug 106 into fourth place overall to embarrass those with more powerful cars behind him, including west Cumbrian William Jarman with Mark Fisher navigating.

They were in ninth place in their Escort Cosworth but to be fair it was only because the Cossie had a badly slipping clutch.

Carlisle’s Geoffrey Harkness with Caroline Lodge in the hot seat were back in 13th place having struggled for grip and running frighteningly short of fuel at one point, but at least they finished the arduous rally run in very damp conditions.

Not so lucky was Brett Mitton and navigator Derek Blyth. They had to retire with transmission problems, along with car nuts Richard and Edwin Cook who had to wade into a nearby steam to retrieve a lost wheel when wheel studs sheared!

I gather our local car clubs are struggling to get marshals for the Roger Albert Clark and Lombard rallies which pass through our county next month, mainly because there has been some confusion getting correct information from them organisers.

For example, the reported Ashpark stage for the Roger Albert is now swapped to the Craik stage situated north of Castle Or, Eskdalemuir on Sunday, November 16 when the first car is due at 13.54 where I will marshal.

I am also helping out on the Lombard on November 6 and 8 in Newcastleton.

So, if you can help, do get in touch with your car club and enjoy some classic rallying!

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk