Competitors in the Motorsport UK British Cross Country Championship (BXCC) head to Wales next weekend for round two of the popular off-road series, which will be held in Ceri forest near Newtown.
The venue has been used by the championship before but not since 2017. It is a well known forest for rallying, although the BXCC crews will be using some tracks that no rally would use!
PAR Homes Racing’s Jason Rowlands leads the title battle on 86 points after taking victory at the opening round in Yorkshire. Father Paul is in second place with 81 points and Rob Bool rounds off the top three on 75 points.
Ceri will provide some terrain that ex-rally crew Mike Faulkner and Peter Foy will be familiar with. They had a successful round one, finishing 6th BXCC crew despite being hindered by a couple of punctures on their Fouquet.
“The car has been prepared by Warrior Motorsport after round one,” said Faulkner. “The team have been completing work on the suspension with support from Ohlins main distributor and service centre Mick Gardner Racing but, due to work commitments, we’ll not be able to test the car ahead of Ceri. We enjoyed the first round although the very muddy conditions meant we didn’t really get chance to use the car to anywhere near its full potential. We’re looking forward to round two and continuing to improve our times, hopefully we can nudge into the top ten.”
AJD Offroad’s Andy Degiulio didn’t make the start line of round one after coming off his mountain bike while riding the course the night before but he’s hoping round two goes more to plan.
“I’m healed up and ready for Ceri, I’m raring to get behind the wheel and start my championship,” commented Degiulio. “I’ve got a new co-driver for the event, ex-AWDC champion Alex Parpottas.”
Joining the championship crews will be several “weekender” entries, including former champions Martin Gould, who will be racing his Buxton 4×4 Rivet-BMW, and Gordon Monaghan in his RS200. Toby Jefferson had a good run at round one until a cooling fan packed in and he’s looking forward to competing at Ceri.
“It was disappointing that the fan issue curtailed our racing in Yorkshire,” said Jefferson. “A new fan has been fitted and we’ve done a normal post-event check with assistance from Phil Ibbotson, a bit more tinkering and we’ll be ready to go. Neil Hartley will be navigating for me after his round one debut, he is very giddy about racing at Ceri, he’s even got a new race suit!”
The BXCC is supported by Par Homes, Voxcloud, Roodsafe, Roadflash, Gregg Motorsport, Fairview Farm Machinery, Fairview Farm Log Cabin and Holiday Accommodation, Aspire Park and Leisure Homes, Johnnie Drysdale, Whitecliff 4×4, Dynatech, NickyGrist.com, Whitchurch MOT Centre, Staffordshire Signs, PD Extinguishers and OR Tyres.
For more information on the championship please visit crosscountryuk.org.
Live results from Ceri will be available via visit results.wizzyideas.co.uk
