Friday 16th July 2010 – Darlington & Stockton Times

CONTINUING his domination in the Suzuki Swift Championship, Northallerton driver Dave Bellerby had a clean sweep of wins in the fourth round of the Quaife MSA British Rallycross Championship at Massmechelen in Belgium on Sunday.

Morton on Swale driver Jonathan Bean was making his British Championship debut and in heat one, the Snigwigsponsored BMW driver suffered with a sticking throttle but bounced back in heat two with a superb start to finish victory where he repeated the feat with another battling performance in heat three.

As a result, Bean lined up in fourth place for the SuperModified final and came away with a fourth-place finish with a great drive, meaning a dash to get everything packed up and to catch the ferry back to the UK.

However, en route from the track, he received a phone call saying his time had qualified him for the prestigious Superfinal but he was too far away from the circuit, so had to forfeit his place.

Barnard Castle hotelier Mark Watson continued his good form this season by qualifying for the Superfinal and was classified in sixth place in the Jersey Farm-sponsored Citroen Xsara.

The next round of the championship takes place at Knockhill in Scotland on August 8, with all the local drivers expected to make the trip to add to their Belgian successes.

Meanwhile, two other local competitors were in action on the continent, this time in the European Rallycross Championship in Finland where both Leeming Bar’s Kevin Procter and Tony Bardy, from Scotch Corner, both made it to the C final. In the Procters Luxury Coaches-sponsored Ford Focus, Procter finished second to Jani Paasonen’s Skoda which meant he was classified 12th overall and remains 11th in the championship.

Bardy, in the ex-Steinar Joranli Opel Astra normally driven by Christopher Evans, got his first points of year in his third event despite stopping in the C final after a brief off in the first lap and was classified 16th.