BISHOP Auckland racer Barry Burrell saved the best until last when he was one of the stars of the final round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship held at Brands Hatch last weekend.

Riding the Buildbase BMW, Burrell was consistently fast all weekend and qualified on the front row for Saturday’s first race where he gave a good account of himself to come home in sixth place.

With another front row start for Sunday’s second race, Burrell stormed through into second place which he held for much of the race before finishing up just off the podium in fourth.

With a 50,000 crowd watching the final race of the year, as well as millions on television, this time Burrell didn’t get a great start but made his way up to sixth at the end of the 20-lap race to conclude the most successful meeting of his career.

The Guisborough-based Swan Yamaha team ended their season with a podium finish at as outgoing champion Tommy Hill claimed a third place finish in the final race of the season to secure third in the overall standings.

In the second race of the weekend Hill was forced to settle for sixth place but in the last race he fought through to fifth place, but as Alex Lowes and Michael Laverty crashed out on the final lap he was promoted to third. Noriyuki Haga ended his season with a pair of top ten finishes in ninth and tenth respectively.

Northallerton youth enduro rider RobbieWallace was in action again last week at the True Grit Enduro at Driffied which was run on the army driver training area and consisted of open grass areas and woodland.

The organisers had created a course of about five miles which made for around a 12- minute lap and Wallace’s engine having been rebuilt by his dad Duncan after the crank seized the week before, was running well.

The youth class was run along with the adult field in the 2.5 hour main event as 145 riders started the race with a youth entry of 15 riders. Wallace got the holeshot off the start line in the youth section setting a fast pace as Northallerton riders Dan Lapping (KTM 125), Sam Kozyra (Kawasaki 125) and Jack Barugh (KTM125) pushed their way through the middle of the pack. Wallace was determined to make up for his non finish the week before and pressed to create a gap from second place. This he did and after the second lap was a minute ahead of National championship rider Tim Gardham (Kawasaki 125).

After the first hour, Wallace was putting in consistent lap times with himself and Gardham pulling away from the rest of the field by five minutes.

At the two hour mark, Wallace was still ahead of Gardham by a minute but with 20 minutes to go Wallace failed to arrive on time past the pit area. Gardham went past and it was a further five minutes before Wallace came into sight, his levers bent and mudguard broken after hitting a root in the wooded section and catapulting him into a tree.

Winded and with a bruised hip, a paramedic who was nearby and gave him the all clear to continue so he remounted and headed for a steady two laps to the finish.

Fortunately he had created such a large gap before third place he was able to finish the event in second behind Gardham.

Wallace was disappointed not to win but his fastest lap set was fifth fastest ofthe race.

Sam Kozyra was pipped at the post by Jack Barugh for fourth place with Dan Lappin coming in ninth.

JUST a week before the Star Radio-supported MSA British Rallycross Grand Prix takes place at Croft Circuit near Darlington, many of the leading drivers and their cars will be in Northallerton on Sunday where the general public can meet the stars and even see the 550bhp Supercars in action.

For the first time for a motorsport event, the High Street in the town will be closed between and the organisers, working in conjunction with North Yorkshire County Council and North Yorkshire Police, will put on a live demonstration of a selection of cars, some of which accelerate quicker than a Formula 1 car.

The road will be closed between 1pm and 3pm with a diversion in place and there will also be limited car parking.

LAST weekend saw Rob Shield from Cleasby have his best kart race of the year to finish third in the last race of the season and take ninth overall for the Kart Grand Prix Super One National Championship.

Shield’s year had been tough having experienced plenty of mechanical and kart problems and the final round at Shenington, Oxfordshire, began very well with Shield topping the table with consistently fastest times in practice.

He qualified fourth, but dropped down the pack in the first heat, then fought back to finish third. For the second heat he was again starting fourth and soon made his way to second where he battled hard with local driver Scott Allen taking the lead midway through the race and holding it convincingly to the flag.

For the first final Shield was starting in second but, despite a good start, his front right tyre began to wear and he lost a couple of places, coming over the line in fourth.

A quick swap of front tyres and a rebalance later for the final race, Shield made a brilliant start and was straight into second. The top three forged ahead and towards the latter stages of the race, each took a turn in the lead and it was anyone’s race, when the flag went down all three were over the line together with Shield taking third place in one of the best races of the year.

SCORTON teenager Max Coates was invited to take part in a BTCC Superstar Kart race at Milton Keynes as part of the British Touring Car Championship’s penultimate round at Silverstone recently.

Racing the likes of Frank Wrathall, Rob Austin, Adam Morgan, Dave Newsham and Lea Wood, Max took the opportunity to battle against his idols in the BTCC paddock. After a tough race Max came back from a first lap incident to narrowly beat Wrathall by 0.367 seconds at the flag.