Procters Motorsport
PROCTER SENSATIONALLY WINS IN FRANCE
Kevin Procter takes a fairytail victory in France
Leeming’s Kevin Procter lifted his first European Rallycross Championship victory at Dreux in France last weekend to became only the third driver in history to win an A final the having first progressed through the C and B finals.
Driving the Tony Bardy-prepared Coach2.com Ford Focus, Procter won the second round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship after a disappointing showing in round one at Lydden Hill over Easter.
The finals were the only races run in dry conditions as two days of rain at the Circuit de l’Ouest Parisien made it a particularly arduous event and tipping the scales in favour of French drivers who occupied four of the six A final grid slots at the end of the qualifying heats.
Procter qualified 15th and led the C final from the start, progressing to the back of the B together with French veteran “Knapick” who appeared content to follow the Englishman and collect the eight and last grid space for the B final, in which the first couple of laps were quite physical.
Championship leader American Tanner Foust had earlier retired from the second heat with punctures to both front tyres and parked his Fiesta in the second lap of the B final. Procter, meanwhile, continued his magnificent progress, working his way through the field to run second to Russian Timur Timerzyanov. “Everything just fell into place in the B final and when I got behind Timerzyanov, I knew that I could just follow him and get to the A final. I’ve never had an A final in Europe before, so that was an ambition achieved in itself,” said Procter whose day was very far from done at that point.
Former French champion Marc Laboulle and this year’s French championship leader Jerome Grosset-Janin shared the front row of the grid but came to blows in the opening lap, Grosset-Janin’s run effectively ended after Laboulle’s Citroën Xsara rattled into his Renault Clio. Another former national champion and regular ERC front-runner, Davy Jeanney, went ahead. Procter was also on the move and ran second before taking the lead when Jeanney’s Citroën C4 failed. Laboulle then took the lead when Procter took his turn in the Joker Lap but was then repassed by the Englishman to take a sensational victory.
Speaking afterwards, Procter said: “After the heats I was disappointed not to qualify on the back of the B final but I led the C final from the start and got into the B and then everything went my way and got up to second place and knew that if could just stay there and follow Timerzyanov that I’d get to the A final. My goal has been just to get into an A final. That sounds a bit sad really but that’s been the aim since I started coming to Europe four years ago and when I went to the grid for this one I felt that I’d achieved an ambition. And then I somehow won it! I got through the pack in the first lap or so and the team were on the radio telling me to keep going. After the Joker Lap, Marc Laboulle got ahead of me but the made a bit of a mistake and I had to have a go at getting past him, that worked and I won. I’m pleased for Tony Bardy and the whole team because they take a lot of flak from me yet they work all hours to get the car here and then I don’t perform, so I’m glad for them to have won a race for them.”
The 2012 season was expected to be quite open, but Procter’s win has pushed him up to third place in the championship, just three points behind joint series leaders Liam Doran and Tanner Foust going into the next round in Austria at the end of the month.
Such was Procter’s feat that since the ERC began in 1973, the back-to-front journey through the C, B and A finals has only previously been accomplished twice by Olle Arnesson (France, 1982) and Richard Hutton (Portugal 1994).
By Larry Carter
Cleanliness is…
Will preparation standards be a factor in French ERC round? When Kevin Procter took part in Croft Circuit’s pre-season media launch on Tuesday it afforded the chance for some conversation with preparation expert Tony Bardy. Procter’s car was, as you would expect from anything that is allowed through the doors of Bardy’s workshop, immaculate, but to get the car back in that condition after the British ERC event at Lydden had taken a lot of hard work and effort.
Racing in conditions like this takes its toll on the cars (pic Tim Whittington)
“We were three days cleaning the cars after Lydden, it’s a long time since we have had event like that,” said Bardy. “I don’t what’s in the track at Lydden but there’s something corrosive in it, it eats into the anodised finish on bolts. We have military grade connectors in the wiring and it had even got inside of them, we’ve stripped so much of the car in the last three weeks you wouldn’t believe it. I spoke to Jos Kuypers the other day and he said the same, they’d spent days cleaning the car and then started to repaint the underside.”
Bardy and Kuypers are not alone, Michael De Keersmaecker clearly enjoys racing in the rain, but admits there’s a downside. “I like the rain when it comes during a race but I don’t like the work that it makes. After Lydden… there was so much work to do on the car. But we have done it and I’m sure that we are ready no matter what happens here,” said the Belgian. While there is no doubting that Bardy’s eye for detail and his meticulous quality control set a standard that few, if any, in the paddock can match, the Yorkshireman makes a very serious point about preparation.
“There’ll be some who come unstuck this weekend because of what happened at Lydden,” he says, clearly indicating that those whose standards of cleanliness are not as high as his own, may be inviting trouble by having left dirt or corrosion to create a weakness in their car. Louis Pasteur is credited with saying that “luck favours the prepared mind”, which translates well enough into the old motor sport adage “luck is made in the workshop”.
Whichever way you want to look at it, Bardy is more or less stating the obvious fact that you will only get out of motor sport the equivalent of what you put in; in this case seeing that the reliability of the car may have been compromised as a result of running it in wet and dirty conditions at one event means you need to make the extra effort to reinstate that reliability before going to the next event. Under the skin the two Bardy-prepared Fords of Procter and stablemate Andy Scott are white. White inside, white under the bonnet. Presented for scrutineering in France both are good as new, the only dirt that which has been picked up from the unsealed surface of the paddock at Dreux while the car moved from its truck to the scrutineering bay. If it’s true that cleanliness is next to Godliness…
Bardy (left) is renowned for his attention to detail
Foust Takes Lydden Euro Win
10.04.12 – Monster Energy International Rallycross Festival
Kevin Procter secured a valuable point after clutch problems at Lydden Euro opener
American racer and TV presenter Tanner Foust won the Monster Energy International Rallycross Festival at Lydden Hill Race Circuit on Easter Monday (April 9). Starting his third year in the FIA European Championship for Rallycross Drivers, of which this was the opening round, Foust and the Swedish OMSE team that build and run his Ford Fiesta Supercar mastered the wet and muddy conditions on a day of persistent rain, to qualify on pole position for the A final. “I don’t have a lot of experience of racing in conditions like that so I really had to let the team lead me on setup, they kept fine tuning it all day,” said Foust who led the final from start to finish. “It’s the perfect way to start the year but I’m not going away thinking we have the championship in the bag, the result here tells you that it’s going to be a very competitive year.”
Either side of Foust on the podium were Norwegian Mats Lysen and English start Liam Doran (Sittingbourne). While Lysen had an uneventful run to second place, Doran appeared to encounter every possible problem in the qualifying heats and started from third place on the B final grid. “That was a tough event, my Citroën DS3 is a new car this year and we only had dry weather testing before we came here so really it was like starting from scratch. The whole event has been like a big test session so to win the B final and then get to third place in A final is amazing,” said Doran who worked his way through the field in a determined drive.
Scotsman Andy Scott (Dumfries) had been best of the British drivers in the qualifying heats, never out of the top four, Scott started the A final from third place on the grid but lost a lot of time after being sent wide in the first corner, the windscreen of his Focus covered in mud and dirt, and was unable to do more than rejoin the race and take eighth place.
The Super1600 and TouringCar classes of the championship both produced first time event winners. Finnish driver Jussi-Petteri Leppihalme (18) qualified on pole position for the Super1600 A final and then led from lights to flag, taking the win in a smooth and controlled drive and leaving defending champion Andreas Bakkerud in second place.
The TouringCar A final was won by 19-year-old Swedish racer Anton Marklund who survived a crash in the qualifying heats to make it into the A final, and then grabbed the lead in the first corner where Derek Tohill and David Nordgaard tangled and ran wide. Marklund went on to win from Czech Roman Castoral and Tohill.
Results of A finals
Supercar
1 Tanner Foust (Ford Fiesta VII); 2 Mats Lysen (Renault Clio III); 3 Liam Doran (Citroën DS3); 4 Guttorm Lindefjell (Skoda Fabia); 5 Michael De Keersmaecker (Ford Focus II); 6 Stig-Olov Walfridson (Renault Clio III); 7 Jean-Luc Pailler (Peugeot 207); 8 Andy Scott (Ford Focus II)
Super1600
1 Jussi-Petteri Leppihalme (Renault Clio II); 2 Andreas Bakkerud (Renault Twingo II); 3 Krzysztof Skorupski (VW Polo IV); 4 Ulrik Linnemann (Peugeot 207); 5 Jaroslav Vancik (Skoda Fabia); 6 Vadim Makarov (Skoda Fabia II); 7 Davd Johansson (Citroën DS3); René Münnich (Skoda Fabia II)
TouringCar
1 Anton Marklund (Ford Fiesta VII rwd); 2 Roman Castoral (Opel Astra G rwd); 3 Derek Tohill (Ford Fiesta VII rwd); 4 Tomdaniel Tanevik (Mazda RX8); 5 Koen Pauwels (Ford Fiesta VII rwd); 6 David Nordgaard (Ford Focus II rwd); 7 Kim Steinsholt (BMW 1); 8 Pedro Bonnett (Volvo C30).
Great Start for British Championship
26.03.12 – Monster Energy MSA British Rallycross Championship, in association with MaKTraK
Paige Bellerby finished a respectable 10th overall in her first outing in the senior Swift Sport Rallycross category
Former British champion Ollie O’Donovan (London) made a winning return to the championship at Lydden on Saturday (March 24) where he won the opening round of the Monster Energy MSA British Rallycross Championship, in association with MaKTraK at the wheel of his Ford Focus Supercar.
O’Donovan qualified on pole position for the Supercar A final after setting fastest times in the first and third heats. Defending champion Julian Godfrey (Heathfield) had won his first heat and would have been fastest, but forgot to take his turn through the Joker Lap – a longer section of track through which every driver must pass once in each race – and received a 30-second penalty for his error. Godfrey made up for that by winning the second heat and setting fastest time of the day, worth one bonus point in the championship, but could not better fourth in the third heat and started the final from the second row of the grid. Alongside O’Donovan on the front of the grid were Andy Scott (Dumfries) and Pat Doran (Winkleigh).
O’Donovan led to the first corner and was able to edge away from the rest as Scott and Godfrey disputed second place. The shape of the race changed in the second lap when Godfrey spun at the chicane and Scott’s Peugeot suffered a puncture. Steve Hill (Aylesbury) quickly came through to run second but was unable to hold on to the position after the bonnet of his Mitsubishi Lancer E10 came loose and opened against the windscreen. As Hill struggled on to finish fifth, Doran moved up to second.
Steve Mundy (Ludlow) completed a magnificent day at the wheel of his self built Focus by making his way to third, ahead of Andy Grant (Barnstaple) who was slow at the start but who picked his way through the field to place fourth. Supercar newcomer Steve Harris (Southend) did not manage to get a test in his Citroën C4 before the event, but completed his first event successfully, learning the car on his way to sixth ahead of Scott and Godfrey.\
MSA Supernational
On the back of a successful run in the winter’s Irish Rallycross Championship, Ian O’Connell (Dublin) started a campaign in the British championship with victory at Lydden. O’Connell qualified on pole and led the A final almost all the way in each of its two starts. The first attempt to run the final was halted when four cars went off the track at the Devil’s Elbow in the third lap. Ash Simpson (York) and Michael Boak (Newcastle upon Tyne) made contact and both spun, Gary Dixon (Lincoln) and Ryan Lawford (Canterbury) going off at the same points in a separate incident. The race was stopped and all except Lawford, whose Fiesta had lost a rear wheel after the bearing seized, made it back to the restart.
O’Connell led again, this time challenged by Bird at North Bend in the first lap. Ads O’Connell defended his line from Bird’s attack, he inadvertently made space for Simpson who drew level on the Irishman’s inside. The top three were briefly side-by-side but in the scramble down Hairy Hill O’Connell again asserted himself, regaining the lead and then beginning to edge ahead as Bird and Simpson disputed second place. Simpson emerged best of the British pair, but could not offer a real challenge to O’Connell who gained his first British event win. Steve Cozens placed fourth, Dixon taking fifth after a tussle with Boak and Mike Howlin (Haverfordwest) the last man home.
MSA Junior Rallycross
Defending champion Aidan Hills (Lancing) was fastest in all three heats and led the final. While Matthew Thomas (Llandudno) was Hills’ closest challenger in the heats, come the final it was James Ross (Watford) who emerged to challenge the champion. Ross took the Joker Lap section early in the race and then lapped quickly and cleanly so that when Hills did the Joker Lap late in the race he was ideally poised. Moving ahead, Ross then held off the champion through the last lap to take an impressive victory. Charlie Bean (Northallerton) made his first start in the championship and drove with increasing confidence as he learned his new car on the way to fourth place.
Swift Sport Championship
There were 15 starters for the first championship round and while pre-season title favourite Tony Lynch (Wigan) set fastest times in the first and third heats to take pole for the A final, the racing was incredibly close throughout the event and Lynch was beaten in the second heat by Chris Mullen (Leeds) who also earned bonus points for fastest time of the day.
The last place on the A final grid was earned by James Knight-Coney (Dartford) who won the B final to progress to the main event. At the front, Lynch was immediately challenged by Tristan Ovenden (Canterbury) and Johny Bean (Northallerton), each of the three running at the front of the field before Lynch went ahead at the start of the second lap. Mullen moved up to second place ahead of Graham Rodemark (Hailsham) and Richard Norman (West Malling) as bean and Ovenden took the Joker Lap section. Norman had been into the Joker Lap at the start and now began his rise through the field. By the third lap Norman was up to second and closing quickly on Lynch. When the leader took his Joker Lap in the last lap of the race Norman grabbed the lead and headed fro his first victory in the class. Bean and Mullen came back up the order to complete the top three, Lynch placing fourth ahead of Rodemark at the end of a frenetic race.
RX150
Established pace setters Tom Keet (West Sussex) and Marc Scott (Dumfries) shared the fastest times in the qualifying heats, Keet best in the first and third with Scott topping the order in the second heat but being eased back to the second row of the grid by Don McLeod (London) and Terry Dolphin (Essex), the latter making a sensational debut in the championship to start second on the A final grid.
Keet led the final from the start and pulled away from those chasing him to take a convincing win and open his season with a maximum points score. McLeod ran second with Dolphin and Scott breathing down his neck all the way until the last corner of the race where Dolphin spun and hit the tyre wall, stopping just short of the finish line where he was classified last of the seventh starters. McLeod held on to second place, Scott gaining third at the last with father and son team Larry and Adam Sargent taking fourth and fifth places ahead of newcomer John McGovern.
NGK Super1600/Hot Hatch
The two classes ran together during the qualifying heats but had separate finals. Danish racer Ulrik Linnemann used the event as a test session for next month’s European championship round at Lydden and was clearly the fastest of the combined class all day. Winning all three heats, Linnemann then added a clear win in the NGK Super1600 A final and pronounced himself pleased with the performance of his Peugeot 207. Russell Simpson (York) was the closest challenger throughout, qualifying second and then running out second in the final which needed was restarted after David Ellis (Leeds) rolled his Citroën Saxo in the gravel trap at Devil’s Elbow in the first lap.
Among the Hot Hatch racers Irishman Andrew Twomey (Dublin) and Pole Tomasz Wielgosz (London) were best in the heats. Both lost out in the final, however, Wielgosz leading until a spin dropped him down the order and opened the door to Darren Clark (Canterbury). The race was stopped in its last lap when Slawomir Woloch (London) rolled his Citroën Saxo at Chesson’s Drift. the result was declared based on the order the last time the whole field passed the finish line, so Clark gained the win with Woloch classified second ahead of Darren Swales, Twomey, Wielgosz and John Rook (High Wycombe).
BMW MINI
Class champion Kris Hudson (Harrogate) had a poor start to the event when his MINI suffered a puncture in the first heat. Setting that behind him, Hudson set fastest time in the second and third heats and then led the A final from start to finish as he asserted himself and began the title defence in style. Newcomer to the class David Bell (Ferryhill) emerged as Hudson’s closest challenger and took second place ahead of George Edwardes (London). Dutchman Fons Picavet drove in his first event for more than decade in a borrowed car and placed fourth with Keifer Hudson, younger brother of the winner, last man home in fifth place.
Autosport International Clubmans Championship
The Clubmans Championship will race alongside the British championship classes at four events this year, its SuperModified, Stock hatch and Minicross classes present at the season opener as the first of these.
In the SuperModified A final Russell Crampton (Croydon) made a flying start to climb from seventh on the grid to hold the early lead. Vince Bristow (Hastings) soon found a way to get his BMW ahead of the race leading Mini, Gary Simpson (York) also passing Crampton to run second. Bristow then kept Simpson at bay to take the win, Brian Jukes (Newcastle) moving up to take third place in his Seat Ibiza, Crampton ending the day in fourth place.
Craig Lomax (Leeds) was fastest in all three heats and led the final from start to finish to make a perfect start to his season. Nick Potter (Canterbury) qualified second but slipped to fourth in the final as Paul Maybourne and Mark Bright moved ahead. Neither, however, was able to match Lomax who romped home the clear winner.
John Thacker was top qualified among the Minicross racers but lost out in the final as defending champion Tom Edwardes (London) came to the fore and took the first win of the year. Thacker held on to second place, ahead of class veteran Richard waggling (Braintree) and Todd Crooks.
Results of A finals (all four laps)
Supercar 1 Ollie O’Donovan (Ford Focus); 2 Pat Doran (Citroën Xsara); 3 Steve Mundy (Ford Focus); 4 Andy Grant (Ford Focus); 5 Steve Hill (Mitsubishi Lancer E 10); 6 Steve Harris (Citroën C4); 7 Andy Scott (Peugeot 306); 8 Julian Godfrey (Ford Fiesta VI).
Supernational 1 Ian O’Connell (Lotus Exige); 2 Ash Simpson (Lotus Exige); 3 James Bird (Renault ClioSport V6); 4 Steve Cozens (Lotus Exige); 5 Gary Dixon (Vauxhall Astra E); 6 Michael Boak (Audi TT TDi); 7 Mike Howlin (Ford Fiesta VI rwd); 8 Ryan Lawford (Ford Fiesta VI).
Junior (all 1.3 Suzuki Swift) 1 James Ross 3m46.701s; 2 Aidan Hills + 0.204s; 3 Matthew Thomas; 4 Charlie Bean. No other starters.
Swift Sport (all 1.6 Suzuki Swift) 1 Richard Norman 3m33.148s; 2 Johny Bean + 1.484s; 3 Chris Mullen; 4 Tony Lynch; 5 Tristan Ovenden; 6 Graham Rodemark; 7 Darren Scott; 8 James Knight-Coney.
RX150 1 Tom Keet; 2 Don McLeod; 3 Mark Scott; 4 Larry Sargent; 5 Adam Sargent; 6 John McGovern; 7 Terry Dolphin; 8 Brett Harris.
Super1600 1 Ulrik Linnemann (Peugeot 207); 2 Russell Simpson (Citroën C2 VTS); 3 David Ellis (Citroën Saxo VTS); no other starters.
Hot Hatch (stopped after three laps) 1 Darren Clark (Citroën Saxo VTS) 2m41.615s; 2 Slawomir Wolloch (Citroën Saxo VTS) + 6.627s; 3 Darren Swales (Citroën Saxo VTS); 4 Andrew Twomey (Citroën Saxo VTS); 5 Tomas Wielgosz (Peugeot 106 GTi); 6 John Rook (Citroën Saxo VTS). no other starters.
BMW MINI 1 Kris Hudson 3m39.411; 2 David Bell + 3.775s; 3 Fons Picavet; 4 Keifer Hudson; 5 George Edwardes. no other starters
Clubmans Championship SuperModified 1 Vince Bristow (BMW E36 328) 3m33.247s; 2 Gary Simpson (BMW E30 325) +1.704s; 3 Brian Jukes (Seat Ibiza 6K); 4 Russell Crampton (Mini 16v) 3m39.765s; 5 Ian Biagi (Mini); 6 Ashley Davies (Ford Escort VI red); 7 Richard Moore (Ford Fiesta III rwd turbo); 8 Rick May (Peugeot 205).
Clubmans Championship Stock Hatch 1 Craig Lomax (Citroën Saxo VTR) 3m41.186s; 2 Paul Maybourne (Citroën Saxo VTR) +5.471s; 3 Mark Bright (Peugeot 106 GTi); 4 Nick Potter (Peugeot 106 GTi). no other starters.
Minicross 1 Tom Edwardes 3m39.472s; 2 John Thacker + 2.398s; 3 Richard Wakeling; 4 Todd Crooks. no other starters.
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