The third round of this year’s MSA British Rallycross Championship in association with the Shannon Group heads to South Wales and the competitor friendly Pembrey circuit this weekend.

Current championship leader Andy Scott will want to extend his lead in the Albatec Racing Peugeot 208 at Pembrey, and will be aiming to make it a hat trick of wins following victories at Croft and Lydden Hill in the MSA Supercar class in association with Odyssey batteries. With a new teammate this weekend in the shape of James Grint, the team will be confident of a good result.

This is Grint’s first outing in a Supercar, ahead of his debut in the FIA World Rallycross series in Belgium next week, but despite this, he is ready for the change from an RX150 buggy to the Peugeot and said “I like Pembrey, it’s the first track I ever drove on in rallycross in the buggy, and this will be my third time there. It’s fast, with some very tight corners, so I’m very excited to get out there in a Supercar. The event offers a perfect opportunity to not only gain more seat and track time, but also ahead of my EuroRX debut to get a Supercar race under my belt prior to Belgium.”

With Scott having a fourteen point lead in the championship, only ten points separate the next seven drivers, with these led by current second placed Julian Godfrey in the Ford Fiesta. The opening two rounds so far this year have not been kind to the Heathfield driver but he will be hoping for a good run at Pembrey. Third in the championship at this point, Ollie O’Donovan will want to keep his British title ambitions on track, but he too like Grint will be contesting the EuroRX in Belgium and it remains to be seen if he will drive the Ford Focus or Ford Fiesta.

Kevin Procter will be aiming for a better run than he had at Lydden in his Ford Fiesta, showing great promise in the heats and even though he is just a point behind O’Donovan in fourth he will be very focused on a good result.

Pat Doran in the Citroën DS3 and Andy Grant in the Ford Focus are tied for equal fifth overall and both drivers are very capable of getting into the middle of any battle for heat wins or a podium place, if not outright victory. Steve Harris will have his SH Racing Citroën DS3 on hand at Pembrey and will be aiming to get among the leading drivers and hopefully onto the podium. Steve Mundy brings his Ford Focus to South Wales while the rapid Ford Ka of Colin Anson is Pembrey bound too.

Steve Hill will have his Mitsubishi Evo10 back on song again following terminal engine issues at the last round at Lydden Hill and will certainly be hoping for a good run, to claw back some points on those drivers ahead of him in the title race.

Mad Mark brings the gloriously resplendently eye catching Citroën Xsara to Pembrey and is more than capable of making it to the podium too, if things go his way as he has often shown in the past.

In the MSA Supernationals, everyone will be out to catch probably the most impressive driver of the year so far, in Daniel Rooke and his Citroën AX. This week saw him announced as one of the finalists in the RX Talent search taking place at Lydden Hill later this month. Alan Tapscott in the RWD Vauxhall Corsa and Gary Simpson in the BMW M3 will be aiming to push Rooke all the way at Pembrey, while Tony Lynch in the Mini and Paige Bellerby in the Lotus will want to do likewise.

Gareth Wood brings his Ford Ka to Pembrey, and with two steady results so far this year, will want to continue that run of form, while Guy Corner makes the long trip from Northallerton in Yorkshire to compete in his Peugeot 206. Gary Dixon is back in his Astra GTE for Pembrey once again, while Slawomir Woloch will have his Ford Fiesta on hand, aiming to get among the leaders on the day.

Current Champion Stuart Emery finally got his championship campaign back on track at Lydden Hill in the Peugeot and will be aiming to make up points on those ahead of him, while Milford Haven’s Mike Howlin will want to uphold Welsh honour at Pembrey and is surely one to watch this weekend, as will Martin Hawkes in his Peugeot 206.Steve Cozens brings his Renault Clio to round three this weekend, while Malcolm Boyd has his BMW 325 on hand at Pembrey too.

In the MSA Juniors, Drew Bellerby will be aiming to continue her lead in the series, following two good results at Croft and Lydden Hill. Bradley Durdin, who on occasions has pushed the Northallerton driver all the way, joins her this weekend on the grid. Jennie Hawkes, however will be aiming to stay in touch with the leading duo, and her job may well be made that bit easier by the addition of Sam Jones, from Bexley in the JAM Motorsport Swift, out for the first time at Pembrey this weekend.

In the Swiftsport class this weekend, its likely we will see another intense battle for victory. Tristan Ovenden has a ten-point lead over Darren Scott heading to South Wales this weekend, with Rob Maynard holding third overall in the title race, and Nathan Heathcote fourth. Indeed the top four are all from Kent, so while there is a British title being fought for in South Wales, one imagines that the battle for “King of Kent” will be just as intense.

Jack Brown makes the trip down from Barnsley, while Jake Taylor will still be on a high one imagines, as he like Daniel Rooke was one of those nominated to take part in the RX Lites talent search at Lydden Hill. He will join Rooke and ten others to see whom progresses to the World Rallycross round in Turkey later this year, the prize being an all expenses paid drive.

Dave Ellis, Andrew Hawkes and Jeff Hankin will also be in action in the Swiftsports at Pembrey, as will Alex Spencer, Andy Pecover, Jake Harris and Aidan Hills.

In the Super 1600 Craig Lomax brings his rapid Citroën C2 to Pembrey this weekend, and the Suzuki Swift of Mark Gamble will join him on the gird in the JAM Motorsport prepared car. Phil Chicken will have his Citroën C2 out as well, ahead of a planned appearance in the EuroRX series. Dave Ewin will also join them in his Ford Fiesta.

The BMW Mini are represented this weekend by David Bell and John Clayton, while in the HotHatch there are entries for Robert Potyra in his Citroën Saxo, and he is joined by Jeff Hope-Davies in a similar car, while also joining them this weekend will be Tomasz Wielgoszin his Peugeot 106 and Mariusz Mehlberg in the Citroën Saxo.

Chrissy Palmer currently leads the RX150 battle and is three points ahead of Marc Scott in the race for the title, and while these two will battle it out, they will be joined and pushed all the way by Stephen Jones, Richard Moore, Brett Harris and the Sargents, Larry and Adam. Mitchell Flaherty has also entered the RX150’s this weekend.

The Retro Rallycross will once again entertain at Pembrey, and a trio of Mini’s are entered and will be driven by Jordan Bowes, Lance Foster and Ian Shelly respectively. James Harrold however has his glorious VW Beetle ready to join the grid and entertain the fans, while Ray Morgan will join the fun at Pembrey in his Ford Escort BDA. The Retro line up is completed by Paul Smith in his VW Polo and Daniel Greaves in his Mazda 323.

Event Information

Tickets for round three of the MSA British Rallycross Championship in association with the Shannon Group on Sunday 10 May are available from just £12

from http://www.pembreycircuit.co.uk/racing/british-ral...

or by calling +44 (0) 1554 891 042.

The day’s race action gets underway with practice from 9am, with the heats and finals immediately following.

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