CARTER MAKES SWIFT PROGRESS AT CROFT

After eight months out of action, defending BTRDA SuperModified 1600cc Rallycross Champion, Larry Carter, was back behind the wheel of a rallycross car at Croft Circuit for the final round of the Autosport International BTRDA Rallycross Championship on Sunday and gave a good performance in difficult conditions.

Driving the British Championship-specification Peter Gwynne Motorsport 1600cc Suzuki Swift Sport, the motorsport broadcaster and journalist from nearby Northallerton, North Yorkshire was hoping to improve on his championship placing having only contested one round in 2015 due to work and business commitments, but with Croft counting as double points, he was confident of doing that, despite the very competitive entry.

With just three laps of practice on a very wet and muddy track available, the former motorcycle racer got a great start in the opening heat to run third in the early stages, but an optimistic move at the Hairpin on the opening lap saw him run wide and eventually finished sixth.

Heat two saw the www.cartersport.com, Yorkshire Van Lease, RWS Bodyworks, Swift Signs and Fuchs Titan Race-backed driver get a better run and Carter finished second before a star-studded heat three saw him only manage eighth place. Despite that, the classification after the heats put him on pole position for the SuperModified ‘C’ Final in a class that featured some of the top British and European competitors with very powerful machinery.

From there, he enjoyed a race long dice with the two-litre Toyota MR2 of Welshman Marc Jones and despite a couple of attempts to grab the lead, Carter had to settle for second placeby less than half a second which still promoted him to the ‘B’ Final.

The ten car ‘B’ Final proved to be one of the races of the day with action right the way through as drivers in the various sub-classes battled it out with their own championship agendas. Outgoing 1600cc champion Carter held onto the tails of new incumbent Nick Potter (Citroen Saxo) as the pair traded places with each other whilst challenging Suzuki Swift Sport regular Andy Hawkes and the mighty Audi TT of Brian Jukes whilst multiple BTRDA Champion Gary Cook battled back into contention after a spin in his MG-ZR.

It all got a bit physical  going into the Hairpin on the third lap of the four lap race when Jukes and Cook nearly came together and resulted in in Hawkes and Potter making contact. With nowhere to go, Carter ended up tapping Hawkes and then collecting Potter, who spun out but rejoined. At the chequered flag, Carter was placed ninth, just a second behind Jukes  with just ten seconds covering cars placed third to ninth.

The result saw Carter elevated to fourth place overall in the Fuchs Lubricants BTRDA SuperModified 1600cc Championship despite just contesting two rounds.

Carter said: ​“Despite the very tricky conditions, I had a great day and to come away with a couple of second places and fourth in the championship is great.  The Suzuki Swift is a wonderful little car to drive and I’d recommend anyone thinking about having a go in the sport to certainly consider this option.  The racing was really clean and it was unfortunate that a couple of us got tangled up in the ‘B’ Final but that’s what happens when the racing is so close. I really enjoyed it and a big thanks to my whole team, my sponsors and the friends who came along to support me. A big thankyou to Peter and Sarah from Peter Gwynne Motorsport for supplying the car and hopefully we can do it again in the future.”