| Cockburn closes the gap |
2004
Events
This superb venue starts the championship off with an extended course. Frighteningly fast tracks, large drops and slippery firebreaks typify this vast site, a long time favourite of WRC drivers! Ellesmere, Shrops 5th-6th June Now a championship regular this site is a mixture of fast open fields, gravel tracks and more technical woodland sections. A summer date won’t guarantee the weather, but the prospect of dry conditions will make this a very fast event. ScotlandAn excellent and vast new site in the South West of Scotland within easy reach of the M6 provides another completely new challenge to the 2004 championship. Within easy reach of London, the course takes in a mixture of fast flowing grassland sections through a deer park and a number of much trickier "real" off road sections through the woods. A terrific spectacle and a veritable drivers course. DriffieldA classic all weather site rounds off the championship in style. Expect plenty of water and loads of "air" as the competitors leap and splash their way around this dramatic "lunar" landscape. Archive of results and reports
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 With
one round left to go, Richard Kershaw wrapped up his third consecutive
Goodyear MSA British Off Road Championship at Eridge Park near
Tunbridge Wells last weekend. The Huddersfield based driver was once
again the class of the field taking overall victory on both days of
the competition to put his points tally beyond reach.
It was Scotsman John Cockburn who led for most of day one. Everyone made a steady start to the event, as overnight rain and dew conspired to make the largely grassland course immensely slippery. Cockburn was fastest first thing, but with times tumbling by nearly 40 seconds into the drying second lap Kershaw was then fastest. Probably the series' unluckiest competitor, Tim Marsh, was true to form falling off the track on the second lap. "We just found a bit that hadn't dried and whoosh!". Tim was recovered by Ryan Cooke, who was given a notional time for stopping and checking that the crew were safe. Ryan himself was posting fast times and was trading times with the leaders. Tim Marsh posted three fastest times in the afternoon on day one, but the damage had been done and he was not able to make up his run two deficit. In the meantime other potential front runners were falling by the wayside. Neil Davey's Maxilight developed a wiring fault and set itself alight, putting him out of the running, whilst Brent Taylor and Jeremy Fearn suffered a roll which put them out early on. Poor Chris Hammond hardly even succeeded in starting his first run, when his gearbox failed on the startline in his Bowler Wildcat 200. Richard Kershaw suffered a broken rear propshaft two miles into his sixth lap, but still posted a time some forty seconds quicker than his opening lap, but this was enough to make sure that Cockburn had a strong lead into the final run. Cockburn went first and Kershaw needed a stunning last lap to put the title out of reach of his competitors and take the full points haul. With Cockburn waiting on the finish line counting down the seconds it quickly became apparent that indeed Kershaw had pulled something out of the bag at the last minute by posting the fastest time of the day, and pipping Cockburn to the points by a whopping 15 seconds. Whilst the championship might not have gone down to the wire in 2004, it certainly had its moments and Kershaw staked his claim once more in dramatic style! In contrast to day one, Sunday was fast from the off. Tim Marsh sheared the driving member bolts on his TMC on his first lap compounding his bad luck. Kershaw was again fastest and he held his lead to the end to take the aggregate win from Ryan Cooke who was celebrating his best ever British Championship result and John Cockburn whose last minute puncture dropped him behind the jubilant Cooke. Colin Read in the works Mitsubishi Shogun Warrior was fourth overall scoring perhaps the best ever result for a production car and also clinching the class championship. Behind him was the Simmbugghini of Roger Jones and the Super Production Defenders of Steven Smith and Tony Walmsley rounding out a large contingent of Production Cup competitors in the top ten. Results
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Results
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