MOTORSPORT
Triumphant return for Kershaw as British Cross Country Championship rides again Word and pictures: Gary Simpson / Songasport
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t’s been a long time coming, but at long last the Britpart British Cross Country Championship (BXCC) is back. And the series itself wasn’t the only thing making a triumphant return as the racing began at Round 1 in Tong – because multiple former champion Richard Kershaw came back in style after a period away to win the event in his Lofthouse Freelander. Co-driven by his son Mason, Kershaw finished the event just 24 seconds ahead of Paul Rowlands’ Polaris RZR. Adrian Marfell’s Fouquet-Nissan was a mere five seconds further back in third. The event was split into two days, with five runs on the first and six on the second. Ian Gregg’s Polaris led the field overnight, only to be overhauled the following morning as Marfell went on the attack. But both were then to encounter problems, with Gregg taking a stage maximum and Marfell losing 45 seconds to a broken drive-
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shaft. Kershaw, meanwhile, stayed on the pace to take the lead with one run to go – then had a trouble free last lap to secure the win. ‘It’s been nine years since my last full British season,’ said Kershaw. ‘I can’t believe it. What a weekend – and to win with my son, it doesn’t get any better. It’s only the third event with the new Lofthouse car and there’s more development to come but we’ve got a great base to work from.’ Rowlands and co-driver Neil Lloyd finished second in their Polaris – and 8th in their new Lofthouse Freelander. Double entries are permitted in the BXCC, allowing teams to compete twice in separate vehicles, though this is the first time anyone can remember the same driver appearing more than once in the same top ten! ‘Not a bad weekend,’ Rowlands commented. ‘We broke a wheel on the first day but other than that we had good runs in both cars. It was
my first event in the Lofthouse so I was driving at around 90% – there’s a lot more to come from that car.’ Despite the broken shaft, Marfell and Paul Bartleman held on to take third place. ‘I’m gutted not to get the win,’ admitted Marfell. ‘We’d managed to get into the lead after the 7th run and the win was in sight, but it wasn’t to be. I’m pleased with our times – we set the fastest time of the whole weekend on one run. There’s still more development left in the car so we will fight on.’ Reigning BXCC champion Justin Birchall and his new co-driver Andy Powell were in fourth, while Andy Degiulio and Paul Foley were fifth – despite having to change a diff and suffering a broken driveshaft. ‘We had a great first event,’ said Degiulio. ‘I was a bit rusty at first with not racing for a long time. Towards the end of day one we noticed a vibration and transmission noise on the car. It got so bad on the final run of the day that you could feel it
resonating through the car and we were waiting for something to go bang, but we got to the end. ‘We worked until 11pm on Saturday fitting our spare diff to the rear. Then on day two we broke a rear driveshaft. We managed to get it fixed though and we were happy with fifth place.’ Phill Bayliss and Lance Murfin, who were doing their first BXCC event in their Team OFG 3M AT Challenger, overcame several issues to finish sixth. ‘What a weekend! Saturday started okay but then we got a puncture which damaged a ball joint on the second run. Queuing for the third run, we lost all the electrics and had to roll back to the service area – we eventually found an issue with the emergency cut-off switch. ‘We finally started run three and I was in a rather stressed and annoyed mood. We were pushing hard but ended up going into a ditch – I kept the power on and we launched out of it and off the road. Thankfully
4x4 03/08/2021 21:55
