The first round of the British Rallycross championship will be a leap in the dark for every competitor at next weekend’s March 17th opener at Silverstone, including FUCHS-backed sisters Paige and Drew Bellerby.

Drew has decided to continue her association with the BMW Mini that she used so successfully last year, and is looking forward to the new Silverstone track.

“It will be a great leveller at the opener this year, with none of us having driven the track.  I had a really good test day at Blyton in February, so now I’m really looking forward to the challenge”.

Meanwhile, Paige will be taking to the new track, not in her trusty Lotus Exige, but in a turbo charged Vauxhall VX220 which is on loan from Kevin Procter until her own car can have its engine rebuild completed. 

“It’s not really too good for me not having my own car ready to start the season, but we haven’t been able to get all the parts we needed in time for the planned engine upgrade.  However, I’m really grateful to Kevin for lending me his Vauxhall – I’ll try not to let him down!”

The brand new track which has been set out within the confines of the Silverstone racing complex in Northamptonshire is 1 kilometre in length and includes a jump to increase the spectacle.

Rallies hit by winter weather (aka ‘the Beast from the East’)

Unsurprisingly, given that it is still winter in Britain, two rally events had to be called off last weekend because the organisers could not guarantee that either competitors or officials would be able to attend safely.

The first event called off was the opening round of the FUCHS LUBRICANTS RACMC Historic Asphalt Championship at Bovington military location in Hampshire.  The Military pulled the plug on Thursday when it became clear that competitors would not able to safely travel the length and breadth of Britain to get to the venue.  Also suffering from the snow was the second round of the BTRDA championship, the Malcolm Wilson rally, where Fuchs Lubricants backed contender Ian Joel was looking to build on his successful season opening top ten result on the Cambrian rally. “We’d got the wind under our tails after that great result in Wales and were really looking forward to building on that momentum in Cumbria on the Wilson.  But you can’t fault the organisers for their swift decision given the amount of snow there was on Thursday – safety has to come first”.

Both rallies are looking to re-schedule later in the year.