This year's FIA World Rally Championship has prematurely ended. It will not stage the 2019 season finale at Kennards Hire Rally Australia due to the serious bush fires affecting the New South Wales state close to the event's Coffs Harbour base. The organisers announced the news on Tuesday after widespread consultation with the State Government, the FIA, emergency services and the local … [Read more...]
North Wales hit by rising van thefts
Van thefts in North Wales have doubled in 12 months but fallen by 75% in South East Wales. CV theft across the UK has soared by 45% over the last four years with 30,000 vehicles stolen since 2015, according to research by Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. A total of 32,056 vans have been stolen over the last four years with almost 10,000 thefts recorded across the UK in the last year alone, … [Read more...]
Racing & remembering
One of the highlights of the UK motorsport calendar returns to Anglesey Circuit for the sixth year this coming weekend. Mission Motorsport’s unique Race of Remembrance features fifty teams in a 1,000km race. Although primarily a ‘clubman’ event, the Race of Remembrance attracts a diverse crowd of racers from novices to experts. Mission Motorsport beneficiaries play a huge part in the … [Read more...]
The unforgettable Silverstone Experience
How did a windswept WWI airfield become one of the world’s most iconic international Grand Prix circuits and the ‘Home of British Motor Racing? asks racer turned writer Ken Davies. Now you can discover this remarkable metamorphosis by visiting the newly opened £20M Silverstone Experience, charting progress from medieval farmland to international stardom, via an 18th century aristocratic estate … [Read more...]
Estonian Tänak takes WRC for drivers for first time
Ott Tänak became the first Estonian to win the FIA World Rally Championship in a tense finale to Spain’s Rally RACC Catalunya - Rally de España on Sunday afternoon. He snatched second place in the closing Wolf Power Stage to secure the 2019 crown with a round to spare, ending a 15-year French domination by the sport’s most successful drivers, Sébastiens Loeb and Ogier. It is Toyota’s first … [Read more...]
Turning back the competition clock
Rally fans turned back the clock even before summer time ends this weekend, writes Ken Davies. The second running of the Lombard RAC Rally retro 19/20 October proved more popular than the organizing team could ever have hoped, with resulting traffic jams caused by spectators queuing to enter the iconic stages rivalling those seen in period, 1976/80/83/86 and setting the perfect atmosphere on a … [Read more...]
Marathon winner dies
Marathon rally specialist Andrew Cowan has died in hospital at the age of 82, writes Ken Davies. He was born in December 1936 into a farming family in the Scottish border town of Duns, a friend and neighbour of future F1 world champion Jim Clark, who was the same age and also a farmer. Very much an endurance rally specialist, perhaps Andrew’s most significant rally victories were on the first … [Read more...]
Mardenborough heads Gamer team
Gamer to racer Jann Mardenborough from Cardiff will bring his unique expertise to the World’s Fastest Gamer judging panel during the finals. Mardenborough previously won Nissan’s GT Academy competition, transitioning from Gran Turismo gamer to full-time racing driver in 2011. In his very first year of real-world competition, Mardenborough won the British GT round at Brands Hatch. He … [Read more...]
Tänak tanks to WRGB win in poor conditions
Estonian Ott Tänak gave Toyota its first Wales Rally GB win since 1996 by storming to victory at the gruelling event 3-6 October, delivering his Yaris WRC a scintillating 10 second win over Belgian rival Thierry Neuville. Tänak charged into the lead on the ninth of the event’s 22 stages and would never be headed whilst fastest time on the final Wolf Brenig Power Stage landed him an … [Read more...]
Sam’s skills shine before WRGB
Local schoolboy Sam Scharer aged just 10 from Ysgol Bro Gwydir School, Llanrwst, Conwy, won the nationwide competition to design a striking livery for a sports car at last week's Wales Rally GB. The resulting Toyota GT86 sportscar wrapped in Scharer’s prize-winning sea-themed design was publicly unveiled in Llandudno on the eve of this year’s Wales Rally GB, the UK’s round of the FIA World Rally … [Read more...]