MORTON ON SWALE driver Jonathan Bean proved to be the pick of the local competitors who ventured over to Nutts Corner in Northern Ireland for rounds two and three of the Fuchs Lubricants Rallycross Open Championship.

Driving the Snigwig.co.ukbacked BMW 325i in the BMW RWD Challenge, the 38-yearold saw off a concerted challenge throughout the weekend from Northallerton’s Dave Bellerby, who was making a guest appearance in the series, and York driver Jon Clayton to take a double victory and in doing so, shot to the head of the standings going into round four at Blyton next month.

Also claiming silverware at the County Antrim track to the west of Belfast was Darlington’s David Cox who took third place but had to settle for fourth in Sunday’s race.

Team-mate David Bell, from Ferryhill, struggled all weekend and after spinning out of Saturday’s final, he trailed home a distant seventh in Sunday’s race with transmission problems.

Stockesley teenager Kelly Bird’s luck was out as the 15-year-old missed out on the silverware after a busy weekend whereby she was the victim of other drivers’ mistakes on four occasions and after leading in her heats, had to settle for a best result of fifth in the Junior class on Sunday.

The weekend was a tale of woe for defending Rallycross Open champion Mark Watson from Barnard Castle, whose weekend got off to the worst possible start when he crashed his Citroen Xsara on the media day prior to the event.

Watson showed strongly in Saturday’s heats but in the Division 1 final, a blown head gasket put him out of action for the rest of the weekend.

★ ★ ★

PORSCHE Carrera Cup GB rookie Robert Lawson secured his first ever Pro-Am 1 class victory during round three of the season at Thruxton Circuit in Hampshire last weekend.

Capping off a great event for the 31-year-old from Barton, the result, combined with second place in Pro-Am 1 in round four, was all the more impressive considering it was his and the JHR Developments team’s first competitive run with the powerful Porsche 911 GT3.

The runner-up in the 2008 Seat Cupra Championship came under pressure early on but held onto fifth at the flag and in doing so, took the win.

★ ★ ★

A NUMBER of local crews made the long journey down to Somerset last weekend for the Betta Somerset Stages Rally 2009.

Leading the championship going into the Minehead-based event which comprised the third round of the BTRDA series was Thornton le Street driver Tim Pearcey in his Mitsubishi Evo IX, and after a promising start to the day, he had climbed into the top ten after the third stage, where he and co-driver Robin Hernaman continued to set six top ten stage times in their car.

The rest of the day remained faultless for the pair and Pearcey claimed the win in the N4 class win by just 13 seconds and in doing so, finished the rally in seventh place overall.

Also competing on the event was Tow Law co-driver Michael Wilkinson who was co-driving for Lancastrian David Wright in his Mitsubishi Evo IX and after a steady start, the pair were lying third overall after the second stage, but eventually they finished fourth overall, claiming first in class B13.

Guisborough co-driver Mike Scrimgour was in the Vauxhall Corsa driven by Gary Scott.

Despite a ruptured power steering pipe on their 1400 Vauxhall Corsa, they reached the finishing line to claim claiming sixth in class and 47th overall.

★ ★ ★

BISHOP Auckland racer Barry Burrell continued his great early season form when he finished in ninth place following a difficult 13 laps of the Assen circuit in the second round of the European Superstock FIM Cup 1000 Championship in Holland last Sunday Racing the Honda CBR1000RR for Czech Republic’s MS Racing, Burrell struggled with handling problems throughout practice and qualifying and was hampered by a crash also but a superb effort in the final qualifying session saw him post sixth fastest time to start from row two of the grid.

Race day saw good weather conditions and Barry enjoyed a great race which saw him add seven points to his tally to move him up to fifth place in the standings overall and is the top British rider at present.