This weekend sees the opening round of the 2014 MSA British Rallycross Championship take place at Lydden Hill, Kent.

The new look series, with a revamped Organising Committee, TV coverage by AMGTV and shown on Eurosport HD and Premier Sport, as well as this weekends round being streamed live via the Internet, bodes well for all those involved in this years six events that make up the Championship.

This year sees one hundred and twenty three entries line up for the start at Lydden this weekend, and includes those from the Belgian Championship too, at the familiar Kent circuit.

In the Supercar class, Julian Godfrey is back to defend his title in the Ford Fiesta, while Kevin Procter, last years winner at Lydden is down to drive his Ford Focus. There is a welcome return for Steve Hill in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo, while Steve Harris will also feature in his Ford Focus. Other notable entries include Steve Mundy in the Ford Focus, Colin Anson in the Ford Ka, along with Lydden regular Koen Pauwels in the Ford Focus. The addition of two Volkswagen Sirocco’s for Ronny Scheveneels and Jochen Coox will only add to the category over the weekend.

In the MSA Supernational’s, there is a field of fourteen cars entered, with the likes of Gary Dixon in the Vauxhall Astra, Mike Howlin in the Ford Fiesta, Stuart Emery in the Peugeot 206 and Vince Bristow in the BMW. There is an interesting entry in the shape of Slawomir Woloch who moves from Hot Hatch, into this category in the ex Liam Doran Ford Fiesta. Woloch was at the recent test day at Lydden and seemed to have got to grips with the car very quickly, and will certainly be one to watch this weekend. When you add in entries from the likes of Alan Tapscott, Michael Boak, Malcolm Boyd who ran very well last year at Knockhill, Martin Hawkes and Kevin McCann the Supernational’s will certainly be a class to watch this weekend.

The Super 1600 features a mixture of UK and Belgian entries, but the notable UK ones are Andy Knowles, who will run his rebuilt Citroën C2, and is capable of pushing for victory from the off. Others to watch are Phil Chicken, Jack Thorne, Mike Jones and Ashley Walton who all drive similar C2’s this weekend.Notable Belgian drivers in the Super 1600’s include the likes of Bart Stouten in the Peugeot 206, Danny Luyten in a Toyota Yaris and Davy Van Den Branden in a Citroën DS3 to name just a few.

The Hot Hatch will see the likes of Craig Lomax back in his Citroën Saxo, with a lot of improvement work carried out over the winter months and there is no doubt his aim is the championship. There are others though that will be as equally determined to battle with him, and the likes of David Ellis, Tomasz Marciniak, Paul Maybourne all in Saxo’s will ensure a good battle all year. Not to be discounted either is the rapid Peugeot 106 GTi of Tomasz Weilgosz.

There are two entries for the BMW Mini, in the shape of David Bell and Rebecca Ryder, while the MSA Junior Swifts will have the likes of Jennie Hawkes, Charlie Bean, Drew Bellerby and Jake Taylor on hand to battle at Round One of this years championship at Lydden.

The Suzuki Swiftsport category produced some superb races throughout last year, which bodes well for this one, as there are some new faces in there as well. 2013 Champion Graham Rodemark is back, as is Tristan Ovenden and these two battled closely last year and there is no reason to believe that this year will be any different. That said, when you add the likes of Rob Maynard and Chris Mullen, it will not be a two horse race. Also on the list are Dale Cousins, Ashley Clackett, Richard Dolan, Jack Brown and Mark Dodsworth. Keep an eye on the Swifts this year folks. An added bonus for everyone is the appearance of X-Games Gold medallist Danny Way who will join the Swiftsport this weekend.

The RX150’s return again to British Rallycross at Lydden Hill, and so does defending champion Marc Scott. Scott who put in a superb performance at Croft last year in the Peugeot 306 Supercar, always said he would return to the RX150 while he worked on a deal to compete in a car, so do not rule out that option later in the year. He will be the one that everyone else will be trying to beat, but it will not stop the likes of Kevin Feeney, Richard Moore or James Grint from trying. Moore and Feeney had a close battle all year, while James Grint showed at Croft last year, that he was able to dial in very quickly to the buggy. Good to see a return too for Adam and Larry Sargent.

The Retro Rallycross is back at Lydden too, and will be sure to entertain the spectators. Hugely popular last year, the Retro guys provide some superb action every time they are on track. Sadly though the news is that we will not see the glorious VW Beetle of James Harrold this weekend, as he suffered very terminal gearbox issues when testing last weekend. We will however see the likes of Rob Gibson in the MG Metro 6R4, Ray Morgan in the BDA Escort, Lance Foster and Ian Biagi in Minis, as well as Barry Stewart in the Porsche and Paul Smith in the VW Polo.

We then have the Belgian Supernational min 2000cc, in which there are twenty-one entries as well as in the Supernational Plus where there are seventeen cars entered as well.

Lydden Hill and Round One of this year Championship is looking very good this weekend.

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