This article needs additional citations for verification .(January 2019) |
Category | Rallycross |
---|---|
Country | United Kingdom |
Inaugural season | 1967 |
Drivers' champion | Patrick O'Donovan |
Official website | rallycrossbrx.com |
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The Motorsport UK British Rallycross Championship is an auto racing Rallycross series, running in the United Kingdom. From 2020, the championship became known as the Motorsport UK British Rallycross Championship 5 Nations Trophy presented by Cooper Tire. [1]
The championship is recognised as an official Championship by Motorsport UK which is the governing body of Motorsport in Great Britain.
The current format consists of the Motorsport UK Supercars (600Hp+ Vehicles with 4WD based upon hatchbacks), The Supernational and All4Mini's, the BMW Mini Class, the Retro Rallycross, the Swift Sport, Swift Junior championship and RX150s.
The first Rallycross event was organised at Lydden circuit, near Canterbury in Kent, on Saturday 4 February 1967.
Originally intended as a one off conceived by Robert Reed, a producer on ABC TV's World of Sport programme and organised for the broadcaster by the Tunbridge Wells centre of the 750 Motor Club under the leadership of Bud Smith, the event was such a huge success that more TV specials soon followed. And it wasn't long before 'clubmans' events were being run for autocross, race and rally drivers who'd become captivated by the new sport.
The first event was won by Vic Elford – already a successful rally driver and someone who would go on to drive in F1 and have great success as a sports car racer – driving a Porsche 911 owned by AFN, at that time the official Porsche importer for Great Britain.
It is claimed that the foot and mouth outbreak of 1967, which caused the cancellation of that year's RAC Rally, gave rise to Rallycross. However, Rallycross had been born in February 1967 and the November foot and mouth disease actually prevented some drivers attending the first Rallycross event to be staged at Croft, near Darlington in County Durham, on 30 December 1967.
There is a link to the abandoned RAC British Rally of 1967. A televised Rallycross had been organised to take place following the rally. However, following its cancellation, most of the foreign drivers and teams left Britain and the Rallycross lost many of its expected star entries. The event still took place and was won by Rootes Group driver Andrew Cowan.
With the bit firmly between its teeth, ITV ran a championship season through the winter of 1967–68, the winner of which, and the first man ever to win a Rallycross championship was Welshman Tony Chappell.
ITV's monopoly on the sport, its man Reed had thought up, was lost in August 1968 when the BBC struck a deal with Lydden owner Bill Chesson giving them virtually exclusive access to events at the Kentish track. ITV moved North, basing itself at Croft and later added events at Cadwell Park, near Louth in Lincolnshire.
The television companies first fought over Rallycross then ignored it. ITV was gone by the middle '70s and BBC's coverage had declined to one or two events a year by the time it dropped the British round of the European Rallycross Championship from its roster a decade later. The British Rallycross Grand Prix was the last event to be shown by the national broadcaster but that too ended after the 1994 event – the last to be run at Brands Hatch and in the event's traditional winter slot.
Rallycross spread to Europe within a couple of years of its creation and in 1973 the 'Embassy European Trophy' was won by Scotsman John Taylor in an Escort RS1600. The first officially sanctioned European Rallycross Championship followed in 1976 – won by Austria's Franz Wurz in a Lancia Stratos – the same year that Britain got its official British Rallycross Championship, won by Trevor Hopkins in an Escort RS1800.
Ari Pieti Uolevi Vatanen is a Finnish rally driver turned politician and a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1999 to 2009. Vatanen won the World Rally Championship drivers' title in 1981 and the Paris Dakar Rally four times. In addition, Vatanen won the 1997 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies. Since 2013 Vatanen has been the President of the Estonian Autosport Union.
The Metro is a supermini car, later a city car that was produced by British Leyland (BL) and, later, the Rover Group from 1980 to 1998. It was launched in 1980 as the Austin mini Metro. It was intended to complement and eventually replace the Mini, and was developed under the codename LC8. The Metro was named by What Car? magazine as 'Car of The Year' in 1983 as an MG, and again as the Rover Metro in 1991.
The Ford RS200 is a mid-engined, four-wheel drive sports car that was produced by Ford Motorsport in Boreham, UK, from 1984 to 1986. The road-going RS200 was the basis for Ford's Group B rally car and was designed to comply with FIA homologation regulations, which required 200 parts kits to be produced and at least one road-legal car to be assembled. It was first displayed to the public at the Belfast Motor Show.
Group B was a set of regulations for grand touring (GT) vehicles used in sports car racing and rallying introduced in 1982 by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Although permitted to enter a GT class of the World Sportscar Championship alongside the more popular racing prototypes of Group C, Group B are commonly associated with the international rallying scene during 1982 to 1986 in popular culture, when they were the highest class used across rallying, including the World Rally Championship, regional and national championships.
Lydden Hill Race Circuit is a motorsport venue in Denton with Wootton, about half-way between Canterbury and Dover in Kent, England. The mile-long circuit is mainly used for Rallycross, Drift, Saloon and Sports car racing as well as Motorcycle racing.
The European Rallycross Championship is a rallycross competition held in Europe, organised under the auspices of the FIA.
FF Developments Limited (FFD) was a British company founded by Major A.P.R. (Tony) Rolt to exploit the 4WD technology begun originally at Dixon-Rolt Developments in partnership with Freddie Dixon and, from 1950 at Harry Ferguson Research. Rolt became Technical Director at Harry Ferguson Research until 1971, when the company was closed down.
Malcolm Irving Wilson, OBE is a British former rally driver and current owner of team and constructor M-Sport. He is the father of former World Rally Championship driver Matthew Wilson. He has been married to Elaine Wilson since 1982.
The Ford World Rally Team, also known as the Ford Motor Co. Team prior to 2005, is Ford Motor Company's full factory World Rally Championship team. In its current form, it has been a competitor since the 1997 season, when Ford Motor Company's motorsport arm selected the Malcolm Wilson Motorsport company to run its factory team, entering the Ford Escort World Rally Car. The new team took their first victory in the 1997 Acropolis Rally.
Tommy Rustad is a Norwegian racing driver. He currently drives in the FIA European Rallycross Championship and occasionally in the FIA World Rallycross Championship. Tommy is the son of former well known Norwegian racer Ola Rustad.
The FIA WRC2 Championship is a support championship of the World Rally Championship (WRC). The calendar consists of the same rallies and stages as the parent series and crews usually compete immediately after Rally1 class crews. WRC2 is limited to production-based cars homologated under Group Rally2 rules. There are separate specific championship titles awarded to Teams, Drivers and Co-Drivers.
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Patrick Doran is a British rallycross driver of Irish origin, living in Thorverton, Devon. His oldest son, Liam Doran, became a rallycross driver too.
The 2018 FIA World Rallycross Championship presented by Monster Energy was the fifth season of the FIA World Rallycross Championship an auto racing championship recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) as the highest class of international rallycross.
The Citroën C3 Rally2 is a rally car built by Citroën World Rally Team. It is based upon the Citroën C3 road car and is built to R5 regulations. The car made its début at the 2018 Tour de Corse where it was driven by the French crews of Stéphane Lefebvre and Gabin Moreau, and Yoann Bonato and Benjamin Boulloud.