Evans wins in Yorkshire as Bogie is Crowned Champion.

David Bogie and co-driver Kevin Rae secured their sixth podium from six events to secure the 2011 Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship title with a third place finish on Rally Yorkshire, an event won by Elfyn Evans and Andrew Edwards.

The six podiums for Bogie – including three wins – were enough to see them come out on top ahead of Evans in the Pirelli Star Driver Subaru.

Evans led the event from start to finish as he attempted to close down the gap to Bogie and wrestle the crown away from the Scottish driver. Bogie headed into the event safe in the knowledge that a thirteenth place finish would secure the crown after the earlier announcement that the Isle of Man rally had been cancelled, and with it counting as a double points scoring event, it suddenly changed the complexion of the event as it meant that all competitors had to count all their scores.

Rally Yorkshire 2011 kicked off with a ceremonial start at the Scarborough West Pier Friday night before the main action, which involved nine special stages in the picturesque North Yorkshire Moors the following day.

Stage one was a fourteen mile blast through the infamous Dalby forest. This caught out a number of competitors as the grip was a complete lottery thanks to the conditions. The first driver to encounter problems on the stage was rapid Finnish driver Jussi Kumpumaki – he was unsure whether the rock he hit was on the surface or not but this caused him to go off on a tightening right hander and into a felled tree. All four wheels on his Ford Focus were pointing in the right direction but the front end of his car was too badly damaged for him to continue.

It wasn’t just Kumpumaki who ran into problems on the first stage – Mikko Pajunen decided to visit the bushes, a move which cost him half a minute, Callum Black openly admitted that he was too cautious on the stage while Martin McCormack, a front runner in the F2 category said that it was one of the worst stages he had ever driven.

The stage conditions played into the hands of those runners in four wheel drive machinery – and Evans was fastest by 12.9 seconds, having blasted through the stage with nothing to lose. Lying second was the Skoda Fabia S2000 driver Jonny Greer, who was 24.9s ahead of Bogie – he had decided to play it safe and go for the points, while fourth was the leading two wheel driver runner, Peter Taylor in the Renault Clio.

The next three stages – two runs through the Gale Rigg stage and one through Cropton Forest provided the entrants with a surface which they preferred and for McCormack, it gave him the chance to climb up from seventh to fifth by the time the crews arrived north of Pickering for the auxiliary service halt.

Stages one to four had also seen a close battle in the one make fields – with Desi Henry and Joe McGonigle constantly swapping positions in the Citroen Racing Trophy while in the Fiesta Sport Trophy, a handful of seconds separated Kit Leigh, Nick Cristofaro and Osian Pryce.

Heading into the next two stages, the lead quartet remained unchanged – Evans threw away half of his advantage on the fifth stage as he spun; this allowed Greer to cut the deficit to just ten seconds ahead of the main service halt in Scarborough.

The stages at Staindale and Langdale also proved critical in the Fiesta sport battle – Cristofaro broke a drive shaft leaving the startline at the start of stage six while Leigh lost third gear in his Fiesta. In contrast, Alex Laffey was going well in his new car after his Ulster Rally accident.

Three stages were left in the rally after the Scarborough halt – another run through Dalby before Staindale and Langdale. Dalby offered a lot more grip the second time around and McCormack – who was now in ‘the zone’ moved to the head of the F2 field at the wheel of his Citroen DS3.

For Bogie, the final three stages were the most important of the rally as he closed in on the British Rally Championship crown, but they were also the trickiest. He had to drive with caution but with maximum concentration so that he didn’t make a mistake. During the final stage, he even had his window open as he was that stressed out – he thought he was going to be sick.

He drove faultlessly to bring the Mitsubishi home third overall and was crowned 2011 Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Champion. Evans, after an equally polished rally secured his second victory of 2011 and second in the Championship while Greer finished third in the Championship.

Speaking after the event, the newly crowned Champion said: “It’s hard to sum up how I feel. I’ve been chasing this result all year and the dream has now come true. This has been the hardest rally of my life by far. I had to make sure we got to the finish and we did everything possible to achieve this. To win the title is a reward for everyone who has supported me: the team, my family and, of course Kevin, who has done a great job. It’s a huge achievement and I still can’t quite believe it!”

Evans added: “We came here to do a job and that’s what we’ve done. David had a great start to the season and we had a bit of bad luck along the way, which has made all the difference for the final event. I must therefore congratulate David and his team on claiming the title. However, scoring a win this weekend is a great way to finish the season. It proves that we have good team, a good car and, of course, good tyres.”

Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship Roll Of Honour:

Champion Driver: David Bogie
Champion Co-driver: Kevin Rae
Formula 2 Champion Driver: Martin McCormack
Formula 2 Champion Co-driver: David Moynihan
Teams Champions: Autosport Technology
R3 Champion Driver: Martin McCormack
R3 Champion Co-driver: David Moynihan
R2 Champion Driver: Mikko Pajunen
R2 Champion Co-driver: Jani Salo
Ladies Champion: Louise Cook

Estoril sees Quaife Record his Maiden LMS Podium.

Phil Quaife ensured that he and the CRS Racing team celebrated their final Le Mans Series outing at Estoril in dream fashion as they secured a podium finish in the GTE-Am category during the season finale.

Quaife, alongside regular team-mates Adam Christodoulou and Klaas Hummel secured second at the former Portuguese Grand Prix circuit after the CRS Racing drivers pulled off an impeccable job at the wheel of the #82 Ferrari 430.

The team has had its fair share of bad luck this season but the free practice sessions suggested that the team’s fortune could be about to change as they were fast out of the box and Quaife was able to pull out a stellar lap in qualifying to line up the car third in class.

Hummel started off the race and he produced a solid opening stint before handing the car over to Quaife, who was then able to fight with the newer cars in their class – he had an hour and a quarter in the car before handing it over to Christodoulou.

Once Christodoulou handed the car back to Quaife, he then spent the next hour of the race showing his pedigree at the wheel of a GT car by chasing down then pressurising the AF Corse Ferrari into a mistake.

He wasn’t able to catch the class leading Porsche – the car was more suited to the stop/start nature of the Estoril circuit – but his driving allowed Christodoulou a clear run to the flag.

Quaife and the team were understandably delighted to bring the car home for a class podium in the final event of the season – the last event for CRS Racing before their withdrawal from frontline racing as they turn their focus to the development programme of the McLaren MP4-12C GT3 car for 2012.

Speaking after the event, Quaife said:  “It’s been such a fantastic weekend and to score a podium at the final race is just reward for the team’s strong but at times luckless season. The car’s base set-up was good from the start and reacted positively to any changes we made in practice. The consistency of our race pace then allowed us to really attack and eventually come home second. It’s such an amazing feeling to be on the podium, especially before the team disbands.

“Overall, this season hasn’t been quite what I was expecting or hoping for. We should have been in the championship fight from the word go but it didn’t work out like that. There were a few chances to score podiums that for one reason or another we weren’t able to take. Luck hasn’t been with us in 2011 but at least this is a great way to end the season. Finally, I’d like to thank Adam and Klaas for their fantastic efforts, as well as everyone at CRS Racing who have worked tirelessly over the past two years.”

Quaife will return to the track over the 8^th/9^th October when he takes part in the Blancpain Endurance Series race at Silverstone, at the wheel of the team’s McLaren MP4-12C GT3 car.

MP Motorsport Secures Monza Hat Trick.

Monza played host to the final rounds of the 2011 Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup and for leading outfit MP Motorsport, it rewarded them with a hat trick of podium finishes for Jordan King, while Karl Oscar Liiv and Alexey Chuklin both starred.

Over the weekend, 24/25 September, the series headed to the famous Italian circuit for the first time and for King, a regular in the CERTINA Formula Renault 2.0 UK Championship, he was immediately up to speed – on the Friday, 23 September, he was producing inspired pace from the off as he was looking to back up his podium in Slovakia last time out.

King was soon up to speed and the pace of the Red Bull backed Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz Jnr and he secured Pole Position in qualifying, lapping the Italian circuit in 1m50.835s. Team-mate Liiv rounded out the top six, just 0.7s shy of King while Chuklin finished the session with a top twelve result.

Away from Pole Position in the opening race of the weekend, King led the way but on lap two, Kvyat moved into the lead before the Safety Car made an appearance. Once the Safety Car had been withdrawn, King chased down Kvyat over the remaining laps but the lead driver of MP Motorsport ultimately had to settle for second place, only 0.7s off Kvyat after thirteen laps of the Monza circuit. King’s laptime was within 0.031s of the fastest outright lap of the race.

For Liiv, he finished inside the top five and within a couple of seconds of the podium battle while Chuklin was unable to capitalise on his qualifying performance as he slipped down the order to fifteenth overall.

Ahead of the second race of the weekend, King lined up second having qualifying just 0.2s away from another Pole Position while Liiv lined up ninth and Chuklin improved to eleventh.

King managed to overcome Stoffel Vandoorne for second during the early stages but on lap five, he was demoted to third by Sainz – he fought back though and on lap eight, retook second from the young Spaniard. Sainz didn’t settle for third and retook King on lap ten, and King wasn’t able to respond and took third at the flag.

Since graduating into the Formula Renault Northern European Cup, the second of the three Monza races saw Chuklin produce by far his most impressive performance – he worked his way up the field with impressive ease en route to securing a top six finish. Liiv, however, missed out on another top six finish as he was forced to retire with just two laps remaining – he had been running fifth.

The reverse grid final race gave Liiv a chance to bounce back from his race two misfortune as he lined up on the front row of the grid – he ultimately finished sixth but he did set the third fastest lap of the race – King, starting from fifth, completed his hat-trick of podium finishes as he worked his way up the field, and ran as high as second before Kvyat demoted him to third. Chuklin secured his second top twelve result of the weekend in the final race having started fifteenth.

“It was a fantastic weekend for us”, said MP Motorsport team principal Sander Dorsman, “Jordan was able to match the pace of (Daniil) Kvyat and (Carlos) Sainz and to be on the podium in all three races was a really great achievement. Karl-Oscar and Alexey both performed well too, making it a very strong event for the whole team. It’s been great to end the championship this way.”

MP Motorsport head to Barcelona over the 8^th/9^th October for the season finale of the 2011 Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0,

Ceccon confirmed for Scuderia Coloni at Jerez.

Scuderia Coloni has confirmed that Kevin Ceccon will return to the cockpit of their GP2 car as the prize for securing the Auto GP Under 21 crown.

While the campaign hasn’t come to its conclusion as Mugello hosts the final round of the season this coming weekend, 1^st/2^nd October, Ceccon will take advantage of his prize this week as the GP2 Series heads to Jerez for a two day test.

Enzo Coloni is pleased to be welcoming Ceccon back in the car after he raced for the team earlier in the campaign: “We are happy to give Ceccon the opportunity to drive our GP2 car again, giving him the chance to improve the good job he was already doing when he raced with Scuderia Coloni earlier in the season. Our aim, when we created a special Under 21 Trophy with such a great prize, was to give young talents a real help in progressing toward top-notch motorsport, and we think we achieved that. I’m not just speaking about Ceccon, we really managed to create a very competitive environment where the best young talents in motorsport challenged each other, and that’s clear if you look at the guys that are still fighting for the U21 second place. There I can really see some interesting drivers for the future.”

Ceccon’s prize has happened quicker than expected – it had originally been scheduled for after the Auto GP season. The change has happened due to Ceccon’s performances to date: he has secured one victory and four other podium finishes.

He left the penultimate event at Valencia having secured the title and his early success opened the door for Scuderia Coloni to allow Ceccon to enjoy his GP2 Prize test earlier than anticipated.

Ceccon can’t wait to get behind the wheel of the Scuderia Coloni GP2 car again and he is looking forward to the in car time at Jerez: “I’m really happy that I will get to drive the GP2 car again, and I want to say thanks to Auto GP for this chance. When I chose Auto GP at the start of the season, this prize test was one of my aims, so securing it by winning the Under 21 Trophy felt really good. Furthermore I really believe that this will be very good for my career, because even if I already contested four race weekends with the GP2/11 car this test will give me the opportunity to accomplish a different kind of job: in a GP2 event you have little time to work on the car, just two 30 minute sessions before the races, while in Jerez things will be much different. We will have no pressure, and we will have plenty of time to try different set-up solutions, finding out those that fit the best with both the car and my driving style. Besides this, I know the track because I raced there with F3, and working with the team that ruled the second half of the season will be a further boost. I’m really looking forward to it.”