THE Northern Saloon and Sports Car Championship, organised by Darlington & DMC, continued the excellent racing it has produced this season as it came down to the final two rounds at Croft Circuit last weekend.

Featuring strongly in a very busy BARC race meeting to finish the season, the first of what was to be three races took place on Saturdayfor classes A and E.

The class A cars run slicks in dry conditions but the more powerful cars of Jeff Wilson from Middlesbrough and Scotsman Colin Simpson opted for wets, Paul Brydon put intermediates on his BMW and Hartlepool’s David Botterill gambled on slicks. As the lights changed it became apparent that wets were the way to go in the early laps with Brydon dropping away and Botterill really struggling.

As the track dried out Brydon’s performance improved, reeling in the Marcos Mantis of Simpson to take second on the last lap, but Wilson had the Elise too far ahead to be concerned. Botterill came home fifth behind the Caterham of Stuart Carr while Northallerton’s Simon Mayne took a fine class win in E2 in his Fisher Fury.

Race two for the treadedtyred classes B, C, D and H was a frantic affair with a large mixed grid. The front row was occupied by the main Championship protagonists Andrew Morrison from Scotland and York’s Michael Cutt. Sat behind them was Stephen Kell from Middlesbrough in his Sierra 4x4 and being no respecter of the front row men, he launched his car through to lead into Clervaux but out of the back of the circuit both Cutt and Morrison got through to continue their season-long Championship battle.

Paul Moss from Darlington threw his diminutive Citroen Saxo around to finish third behind Morrison and Cutt and take Class D. Fellow Darlington driver David Cox was the class C victor in his Peugeot 306 whereas Merrybent’s Malcolm Dearnley kept the region firmly on the map by taking his Morgan to Class H victory.

A tight programme planned by BARC came unravelled on the Sunday afternoon as various cars planted themselves in the scenery. Consequently, and to ensure the NSSCC had their Championship deciding final race, the grids were amalgamated.

The Class A and E race set off first ten seconds ahead of the rest but all eyes were on Cutt and Morrison. Cutt needed to only finish second to be the 2014 Champion but that’s not in his makeup. He launched in to an early lead and try as he might Andrew Morrison, the new Scottish Champion, could not oust him.

They crossed the line separated by a mere half a second.

It was another race victory for Jeff Wilson in the Lotus Elise with Brydon and Simpson finishing second and third.

Darlington’s David Hewitson finished sixth in Class B in his Toyota Supra with Consett driver Alan McPherson taking his MK Indy to first and second places in Class E2. And so the NSSCC season finished on a knife edge. Some 54 drivers had registered for this ever popular Championship and had raced at six circuits. There were 36 different types of car competing and every race had inter-class battles throughout.

One interesting entry who took victory in the Formula Renault Championship race at the BARC-organised meeting at Croft was Brazilian Pietro Fittipaldi, grandson of former Formula One Champion and racing legend Emerson Fittipaldi.

l Northallerton enduro rider Robbie Wallace celebrated turning 17 by competing in round seven of the Perkins Slade Ride Off Road Enduro Championship last weekend but despite another strong performance, it wasn’t quite the result he was looking for.

Aboard his Motoconnection and Putoline Oils-backed Yamaha YZ125, Wallace was in action at Lee Dell near Rochdale in Lancashire. After the recent fine weather, Robbie was expecting the track to be dry and fast, but after overnight rain on the Saturday night and with the track routing through some tricky bogs, things were not going to be easy.

The two-hour race kicked off at 10.30 with a strong field of 40 riders. Off the start line Robbie was third into the first corner and trying to get through the bogs in front so as not to get caught behind any slower riders. Relieved at clearing the boggy woodland without problems, Robbie completed the first lap in second position.

With the track lapping at around ten minutes, Wallace was trying to get into a smooth rhythm so as to save energy for a strong finish.

With the sun coming out, the track began to dry and speed up which suited Wallace. He ran most of the race in second place losing about six seconds a lap to the leader.

On the second last lap, Wallace hit a loose dislodged rock which caused him to crash.

After a couple of minutes, he remounted his machine to complete the final two laps and finish in seventh place.

l Former Le Mans 24-hour race winner Guy Smith will help flag away over 160 cars when the Trackrod Rally Yorkshire roars into action at Pickering Showground this evening. Locally-based Smith is a lifelong rallying enthusiast and he will be at the traditional ceremonial start, which commences at 7pm.