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British Rally Championship 2010 - Round 5 News

Craig Breen and Gareth Roberts won International Rally NI, part of the Toddsleap.com Ulster Rally by a margin of nearly a minute and a half after two days of competition, not only his debut event win, but the first UK victory for the awesome Fiesta Super 2000.

Keith Cronin and Barry McNulty took second, strengthening their bid for back to back victories in the Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship, after a fierce fight with Gwyndaf Evans and Phil Pugh ended when the Welshman hit a wall and cooked the engine.

Cronin’s second place helps Pirelli TEG Sport move back into the lead of the prestigious Dulux Trade MSA Teams Rally Championship as his team-mates Adam Gould and Craig Drew finished the event in a creditable fourth place.

Sandwiched between Cronin and Gould, respectively current and past winners of the Pirelli Star Driver competition, were Alastair Fisher and Rory Kennedy. The local crew had a frustratingly lonely rally, the youngster unable to find the last ounce of commitment on the ultra fast sections, but sufficiently quick to take top Mitsubishi Ralliart Evolution Challenge honours.

Taking the Pirelli Star Driver nomination on Rally NI was absolute newcomer to the championship. Having registered before the last round, Rally Isle of Man Irish duo Daniel McKenna and his co-driver Andrew Grennan set some excellent stage times, beating Fisher on several of the two days’ stages. Despite retiring on the penultimate stage, his performance was all the more impressive as the event was his first in a four wheel drive car, the Mitsubishi Evo 9 hired just for this event.

Still leading the championship and still surprised to be doing so was Jonny Greer. Who, ably guided by Dai Roberts, finished sixth registered driver despite a broken gear linkage on the final stage.

Certainly worthy of note, although not registered for the Dulux Trade BRC, was Frenchman Bryan Bouffier, who finished first two wheel drive and fifth overall on the stunning Citroën DS3 R3 rally car’s International debut. The car ran faultlessly and could be a force to be reckoned with in next year’s championship.

Leading championship two wheel drive runners were Elfyn Evans and Andrew Edwards who survived a notchy gearbox late on to take not only seventh place of the DTBRC crews, but secure maximum points in the Kick Energy Fiesta SportTrophy. The sixth straight win is more than enough to seal the series for the youngster who only needed a single point to take the title.

Also running in the Rally 2 class were top placed Citroën racing Trophy crew Mark Donnelly and Aiden Friel who kept their heads while many of the other one-make series runners lost theirs. They counted themselves lucky though to be at the Antrim finish having suffered a total electrical shutdown and subsequent misfire on the final stage.

The sole finisher in the Swift Sport Cup was Tom Clark with new co-driver Chris Brooks. They had a fraught weekend, using three gearboxes in their Suzuki and forced to use Super Rally to re-start on Saturday when the second replacement proved time-consuming to change.

The only registered finishers in the Rally 3 class were yet again brothers Steve and Tony Graham, who nursed their diesel Astra round on Saturday with a standard differential, their competition one uncharacteristically failing.

Motorsport Mundial 34-10

In Motorsport Mundial this week there is the opening round of the world Supermoto championship at Castelletto Di Branduzzo. The British Rally championship continues with round 3 at the Jim Clark rally while the British Touring car championship is at Snetterton and the World Motocross championship goes to Uddevalla.

Auto Mundial 33-10

We start with a ride in the Mazda 3, a small car with a big job on its hands, a look at Honda's hybrid coupe that's not so sporty after all, and a tricycle concept that will never be made. Then we're speaking in hushed whispers so we can hear the clock ticking in our Roller, going all-electric racing with Westfield and offroading with Hyundai - but it's news time first.

In the show this week:-

NEWS

MAZDA 3

HONDA CRV

HONDA 3RC

ROLLS ROYCE GHOST

ROLLS ROYCE PHANTOM

WESTFIELD i-RACER

HYUNDAI TUCSON

Motorsport Mundial 33-10

On the program this week fast pace road racing at the Southern 100 in the Isle of Man despite the far from perfect conditions. The British rally championship holds its second round of the year as heads to Carlisle in the North of England, while in Belgium we find out how United Autosports got on when they made their début at the 24 hours of Spa.

BTCC Event 6 Snetterton

Jason Plato and Gordon Shedden were the winners of today’s three Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship races at the high-speed Snetterton circuit in Norfolk. Plato won both races one and two and with chief rival Matt Neal experiencing mixed fortunes it means the Chevrolet driver has turned an eight-point deficit into a 20-point lead over his Honda rival as the BTCC heads for its next round at the world-famous Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire in a fortnight’s time (Sunday 22 August).

Plato led both the day’s first two races from start to finish – despite his Silverline Chevrolet Cruze being laden with 36kgs of success ballast in race one and then the maximum 45kgs in race two. He also set the fastest lap in both to ensure he took a pair of maximum scores. Neal, meanwhile, retired from race one with a puncture and could only manage ninth in race two.

In race three, Neal’s team-mate Shedden was gifted a clear run to victory when early leader James Nash’s Triple Eight Vauxhall Vectra span off the track. Neal took third to give the Honda Racing Team a 1-3 result with Plato backing up his two earlier wins with fifth. Shedden’s result, following fourth and eighth places in races one and two, keep him third in the overall standings and he has in fact closed to within just four points of Neal.

Auto Mundial 32-10

It's the conversation you hear in every office - if you won the lottery, what would you buy first - so here's our list, which sadly doesn't include a Caribbean island in case we don't quite win that much. Spend, spend, spend - we're still throwing away cash like there's no tomorrow, and in case you're lacking inspiration, our news headlines this week are all about lottery winners' cars.

In the show this week:

NEWS

BMW X6

FISKER KARMA

BENTLEY MULSANNE

EMOCEAN CHARM 27

MV AGUSTA

IRC Madeira - HLTS International Sound and Commentaries

Freddy Loix took victory on Rali Vinho Madeira, which finished in Funchal last Saturday (7 August), after going fastest on 14 of the 21 all-asphalt special stages that formed round eight of the 2010 IRC season.

What was all the more remarkable about his performance in his works Skoda Fabia S2000 Facelift, was the fact he was recovering from a dislocated shoulder, sustained when he fell off his motorbike a fortnight before the rally. He received several painkilling injections to numb the pain as he charged to his second victory in as many starts in the IRC this year.

Motorsport Mundial 32-10

Welcome to the program where the British Rally championship competes on stages in Wales, the The World Motocross championship holds its ninth round in Latvia while the Ferrari challenge has two races in Valencia Spain. The three-point-five litre World series by Renault is in Hungary.

Auto Mundial 31-10

We start this week with the news headlines, followed by an unusual story of elegance and luxury - we're at a lakeside renaissance villa for a concours showing of some of the greatest cars ever made. Then it's business as usual as Mini gets a mini facelift and Mini E turns boy racer with some success - and we end with a double bill from the most prolific and successful race car maker of all time.

In the show this week:

NEWS

CONCOURS D'ELEGANCE VILLA D'ESTE

MINI COOPER

MINI E RACE

PORSCHE 911 GT3 HYBRID

PORSCHE 911 GT2 RS

United Autosports at the 24 hours of Spa

United Autosports scored a stunning top-three GT3 rostrum finish on the American-owned team's 24 Hour race début when Mark Blundell (GB), Zak Brown (US), Eddie Cheever (US) and Richard Dean (GB) steered their Audi R8 LMS home into third place in the annual and historic Spa 24 Hours this weekend (Jul 31-Aug 1).

The Leeds (GB)-based team's "sister" Audi of Emil Assentato (US), Stefan Johansson (Sw), Alain Li (F) and Mark Patterson (US) added to United Autosports' superb achievement by finishing fourth in class, the team's brace of R8 LMS GT3 sports cars claiming ninth and 10th overall in the 40-car field.

A power steering issue on the #68 Audi of Blundell/Brown/Cheever/Dean, just four hours from the finish with Cheever poised to re-take the class lead, cost them a possible GT3 victory following a lengthy pit-stop for repairs.

At one-quarter distance, the #68 and #67 United Autosports cars were placed fifth and 10th in class respectively – the latter surviving two harmless spins. Cheever's 128min stint saw him remain on "slick" dry weather tires, the American reveling in the treacherously slippery conditions as rain fell in varying degrees of intensity which saw the #68 hovering just outside the top-three.

With 6hr 25m gone Dean, who had qualified 10th in class on Thursday evening and who had begun the race, was up to third in the #68 (9th overall) with Johansson, who qualified the #67 Audi 13th, eighth as heavy rain fell.

The #68 Audi enjoyed a relatively trouble-free night apart from a puncture and lay third (eighth overall) in the 16th hour in contrast to the "sister" #67 Audi which endured a more eventful night. Assentato visited the gravel trap at Les Combes twice, the second resulting in a Safety Car to retrieve the Audi (0115hr), Li suffered a harmless spin, Patterson contacted a backmarker necessitating an 11mins pit-stop for bodywork repairs (0324hr) while Johansson had a puncture (0445). Despite these dramas, Li was sixth (14th overall) at 0800hr.

Blundell swept the #68 into second place (sixth overall) during the pit-stop phase shortly before three-quarter distance (1000hr) prior to his own scheduled stop, with Patterson placed fifth (12th). But the honor of taking the GT3 class lead (fifth overall) for the first time fell appropriately to United Autosports' Chairman & Co-Owner Brown 19hrs into the race (1100).

With four hours remaining, Cheever and Assentato lay second (sixth overall) and fourth (10th) in class but moments later Cheever in the #68 Audi and poised to re-take the GT3 lead, Cheever controlled a massive "moment" exiting the high speed Eau Rouge, a power steering issue diagnosed after two subsequent pit-stops costing 43mins and dropping the #68 to third in class (ninth overall) – one place ahead of the "sister" car – with three hours remaining.