And so it has proven already in 2004. Richard won the opening round at Radnor Forest, but not without a challenge.

Although several of his main rivals dropped out of the event with big accidents, Richard was nonetheless kept on his toes from the unlikely corner of John Cockburn and his Tomcat 88".

And it was Cockburn again who pushed him hard in round 2 in Ellesmere, where Kershaw should have had a significant technical advantage.  Round 3 in Scotland was no different and on home turf for Cockburn Richard had to relinquish his strangle hold on the top spot letting John take top points on the Saturday.  Had it not been for attaining the bogey time on the last lap though Richard would have stolen the win back by the smallest of margins.

Having lengthened the wheelbase on his already highly developed Amaterati over the winter months, Kershaw was particularly surprised to be having to fight tooth and nail to match the times of John Cockburn in his relatively basic Range Rover based Tomcat.

To win the Goodyear MSA British Off Road Championship once is impressive, but his second consecutive victory is perhaps more impressive still, coming in a year when main rival Tim Dilworth wiped the floor in the other major UK championship.