2006 British off road Championship
2006 British off road Championship.
Matador MSA British Off Road Championship Round 5 Driffield, East Yorkshire
Course 5.5 miles
Organised by: Marches 4x4 Motorsport Management Ltd
Colin Gould Winner Round 5 BORC 2006 also BORC 2006 Champion
Several drivers came to the final round of the Matador MSA British Off Road Championship at Driffield with a mathematical chance of walking away with the title, but with two wins apiece this year most attention was focused on reigning champion Keith Lewis and newcomer Colin Gould.
Keiths championship year has been typified by his blinding starts to events, but on this occasion it was Colin Gould who was significantly the fastest out of the blocks. Fastest on the two opening tests and second on his third Colin built up a strong lead before his wipers failed on run 4. On a course which contained numerous muddy water holes and lots of treacherous banks and drops Colins failure was near catastrophic. His 9m49s on stage was only 14th quickest and dropped him to fifth overall.
Car 16 Martin Cox st Gp G
Meanwhile Keith Lewis was making the most of Colins woes by posting two fastest stage times and building a strong lead. By the end of day one Keith had just under a minute in hand from a hard charging Colin Gould who had climbed back up to second place.
Car 36 Paul Mansfield 1st class A
The stage was set for a real show down for the finish. Keith was up at dawn to walk the course once more and assess where he could go quicker. It paid off as he took eight seconds out of second quickest Colin Gould on Sundays opening stage, leaving Colin flabbergasted at where he made up the time. Colin couldnt match Keiths pace on the following lap either and could only a claw back a couple of seconds on the third lap.
With Keiths lead seemingly being extended on every lap, the championship looked to be heading back to Wales for a second year. Unfortunately for Keith, disaster struck on run 12 when a rear stub axle failed half way round the stage and shed the rear wheel. There was nothing Keith could do but admit defeat, Thats just the way it goes, but its been close all the way!
Andrew Wilson car 101 winner Trophy Championship BORC
With Keith out of the running Colin need do nothing more than cruise to the finish, but he admitted to being worried in the remaining four laps. Ive never been so tense in my life, claimed the new Matador MSA British Off Road Champion, I really though wed missed out on it when the wipers failed!
Simon Brown Car 13 2nd overall
Car 3 A Lofthouse 3rd overall
The remaining podium positions on the day were claimed by a hard charging Simon Brown, who has been unlucky not to have bagged a British Off Road Championship victory this year and Alec Lofthouse who struggled through a propshaft failure which damaged the radiator and left him with only two wheel drive for a couple of laps!
Richard Kershaw, though languishing in the second half of the top ten overall, parted by reminding everyone why you can never write him off by posting the fastest two laps of the event on the final two stages of the day.
Car 31 C Gould winner and BORC champ
1 Colin Gould/Paul Whitham Mattseratti 1h56m09s
2 Simon Bown/Karen Bown Land Rover Special 1h57m53s
3 Alec Lofthouse/Dan Lofthouse Lofthouse Proto LD4 2h01m00s
4 Carl Duffield/Johny Koonja Tornado Evo 2 2h01m05s
5 Ryan Cooke/ Lee Channing Land Rover Special 2h01m56s
6 Richard Kershaw/Graham Broadbent GSR 206 Evo 9 2h04m09s
7 Jeremy Fearn Bowler Wildcat 2h10m34s
8 Jim Lawrence Tomcat 2h12m05s
9 Stephen Smith JRG Indy 2h13m41s
10 Tony Coid Tomcat 2h14m40s
Colin Gould 327 points
Simon Bown 314 points
Keith Lewis 299 points
Alec Lofthouse 287 points
Carl Duffield 279 points
Written by Henry Webster
Photo Credit: Steve Rees www.concept-photos.co.uk
