Motorsport

Slow going, but pair take title number 10

It's not often that second place will give you a victory, but that's what happened to Norfolk rally crew Martin Newson and Peter Morris as they clinched their 10th National Asphalt Rally Championship title at the Mewla National Rally.

The local crew had intended to upgrade their Plandescil Consulting Engineers-supported MG ZR to compete in the 1600cc section, but decided to stick with the 1400cc A5 Class and fight for a 10th consecutive category crown.

They had to battle an underpowered car throughout the rally, held in mid Wales, but were fortunate that several stages were cancelled due to a large number of accidents.

The first special stage taken at competitive speeds highlighted the lack of power, which really showed on the following 12-mile stage through the hilliest part of the route.

"It wasn't a case of losing seconds, it was more like minutes to our class rivals," said navigator Morris.

The service crew checked over the car, but found nothing apparently wrong and sent the crew off for the next 20-mile stage.

Progress was painfully slow, but as the team needed only to post a finish to clinch the crown they decided to press on regardless. At the next service point the back-up crew changed the electronic control unit, but it had no effect.

Luckily the next run through the 20-mile stage was also cancelled due to earlier accidents and the crew returned to base to be classified second in class and 77th overall.

After inspection back in Norfolk the catalytic converter was found to be partially blocked, causing the lack of pace for the Plandescil Consulting Engineers-supported MG ZR.

Ralph Firman's hope of challenging for the Super GT Championship title suffered a blow in the penultimate round of the series, held at Autopolis in Japan, after a collision at one-third distance.

The Attleborough racer had qualified the ARTA Honda NSX in sixth place and started the 65-lap event by making up a position on the fifth lap.

Running strongly, Firman was in touch with the leaders until a lap 20 clash with a slower GT300 machine hindered progress.

On the 35th lap Firman exchanged with co-driver Takuya Izawa who fought hard to bring the car home in fourth.

"The possibility of the championship has become very thin as we need to win the final race while our rivals fail to score," said Firman.

The RAFMAS Help for Heroes team was closing in on the leaders of the Birkett Six Hour Relay race when they sent out Thetford's Simon Hutchinson.

Sadly for the local racer, who has just returned from a tour of duty in the Falklands, he was punted off by a wayward BMW, which dropped his team out of the running.

Derek Jones was more fortunate as the Mulbarton racer was a member of the Eastern Delight team which secured Class A honours by 50 seconds after six hours of racing around Silverstone.