British Rallycross Championship

[Sal the 2nd]

As the first round at Silverstone is nearly upon us (weather permitting!), I thought I would start a thread for this championship as it's shaping up to be a good one this year. We may not have the quantity of Supercars yet that other series like the French have but with Mark Higgins now having backing for a full season in the Peugeot from Eddie Stobart and the possibility of team boss Andy Scott being there as well the established runners will have a new challenge to face.

https://en-gb.facebook.com/AlbatecRacing/

At the moment only planning to be at both Croft rounds which due to Silverstone coming in are clumped together but at least the weather should be better!

[Sal the 2nd]

https://www.motorsport-news.co.uk/ne...to-mitsubishi/

Julian Godfrey in a Mitsu Mirage for the first round at least.

[Sal the 2nd]

http://www.rallycrossbrx.com/news/lo...es-points-lead

So perhaps predictably Mr Loeb won in the sleet and snow of Silverstone. Godfrey now leads the British points standing.

Will be interesting to learn what people thought of the new circuit. I guess most were hiding from the cold yesterday but viewing seemed very far back from the track and fencing appeared to block the views..

[AndyRAC]

I thought that they might provide a live stream of the event, seeing as it's a MSA British Championship, and it's 2018. But sadly not....

[MrJan]

I thought that they might provide a live stream of the event, seeing as it's a MSA British Championship, and it's 2018. But sadly not....

I thought that too, had a look but nothing doing so watched the Sebring 12h (free stream) and Goodwood Member's Meeting (free stream)

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Great action fan video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGWcpTyKzNs&t=125s

[tbtstt]

Didn't notice that there was a separate thread for the British Championship when I posted in the World thread! I have already posted in the other thread but, once again, my thoughts on Silverstone:

Easily the coldest day I have ever spent at a track, the windchill was below -10 at times and everytime I used the camera my fingers were frozen within a couple of minutes! I managed to take barely 100 pictures over the whole day.

The viewing for spectators was better than I expected. I initially feared that the grandstand area was the only place to view, but the top part of the track (around the outside of turn one) was all accessible...

...lot of high fences though, so very limited options for spectators taking pictures (unless you were packing big lenses!). Not the worst UK rallycross circuit for spectator viewing that I have been to, it struck me a bit of a mix of Blyton and Croft in many respects (better than the former for spectators but not the latter).

The grandstand and top of the Stowe building gave a good overview for seeing the entire track and the standing areas were never more than two people deep, so finding a spot you wanted wasn't hard. If they hit the 30,000 spectator target they have talked about for Speedmachine though, that will obviously be a different situation (and I'm not sure if the Stowe building will be accessible for that either).

It's a very twisty circuit. Seemed quite compact and slow, even when it dried out. I didn't think the Supercars really got a chance to stretch their legs. The track obviously had to drop into a specific area, but it seemed like there was unused space at the bottom end of the circuit (after the jump). Loeb agrees that it's a bit slow as well:

https://www.thecheckeredflag.co.uk/2...ebastien-loeb/

Be interesting to see if they can make any changes for the World round. That said I went with a mate and met a couple of friends there: all of them are tempted to go back to Silverstone for the second British Championship round later in the year, but none of them are tempted by Speedmachine yet.

Back to the British Championship and it was a good result for Godfrey as he took top British Championship points. If I'm honest I didn't think he really deserved it as Godfrey pulled (what I thought was) a dick move on Roger Thomas earlier in the day. Fairly good start for Higgins, though he deserved a better position in the final. I hope he is a strong challenger for the title though.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

From the fan video I thought Higgins looked the fastest of the Brits and wasnt impressed by Godfrey in his new car... but somehow he got the best result.

Really nasty weather, so if that still didnt put people off then Silverstone cant be too bad !

[tbtstt]

From the fan video I thought Higgins looked the fastest of the Brits and wasnt impressed by Godfrey in his new car... but somehow he got the best result.

Really nasty weather, so if that still didnt put people off then Silverstone cant be too bad !

I think a lot of people (me included!) wanted to sample Silverstone without paying Speedmachine prices. I have seen a lot of negative comments on Facebook and yeah, there is room for improvement (and with big crowds I think it will be a different experience). Gripes aside though, it's a new British rallycross track and that's got to be a good thing.

If the car stays together Higgins should be a strong contender. Godfrey seems to be good at escaping drama, Procter is very fast but consistently has issues with his Fiesta. O'Donovan is fast as well, hopefully he'll have his Fiesta out for Lydden.

[tbtstt]

Forgive the double post, but just uploaded some shots from the opening British Championship round from Silverstone, few of my faves:









And a few of the World guys: