Motorsport
Scotland's Niall Mackenzie saw any hopes he harboured of winning the final round of the MCN British Superbike Cham-
pionship washed away when Donington Park was hit by a torrential downpour.
The 37-year-old from Doune powered his Cadbury Boost Yamaha to fourth in yesterday's first race before retiring when the atrocious conditions became too dangerous in the final round of the championship.
Fortunately for the Scot, he had clinched his third successive title at Brands Hatch last wekend.
''Things just got silly,'' said Mackenzie after watching Honda's Michael Rutter splash to victory in the final race. ''At times it was impossible to see where I was going and, when water got into the engine and caused it to misfire, it was time to call it a day.''
His team-mate and fellow Scot Steve Hislop failed to make it a Yamaha one-two in the champion-ship when he was pipped by Kawasaki's Chris Walker, who won the day's opener. Worse was to follow for the Kelso rider when he, too, was forced to retire in the final round.
Mackenzie, though, was pleased to celebrate his third title. ''This year's championship has been the toughest of the three,'' he said. ''Not only are there more and more works teams coming into the series, but the standard of riding is getting higher and higher.''
Final championship standings: 1, Mackenzie 387pts; 2, Walker 360; 3, Hislop 295.
q Glasgow's John Bennie guided Poole's Marcus Dodd to a dominant victory in the Trackrod Forest Stages Rally, the penultimate round in this year's Mintex National Rally Championship. But a disappointing fifth place for Dalbeattie's Murray Grierson damaged his hopes of lifting the title.
The Bennie and Dodd partnership, in their new Ford Escort World Rally Car, set fastest times on six of the seven stages through the Yorkshire forestry tracks between Thirsk and Scarborough.
''We were determined to push it all the way,'' said Bennie, the reigning Mintex co-driver of the year after winning the title 12 months ago with Aberdeen's Brian Lyall. ''Marcus has really got the feel for the car now and he was flying.''
Such was the duo's dominance that they won by 1min 19sec from Yorkshire's Martyn Harrison in an MG Metro 6R4. But for former Scottish champion Grierson, it was a day of disappointment as he tried to cut the gap on Impreza driver and title leader Roger Duckworth.
''Nothing really worked for us all day,'' said the Subaru Impreza driver. ''We really needed to win here to take the championship to a decider next month, but the way it looks now, Roger's just got to finish the next event to win the title.''
He finished tied on the same time as Duckworth, who leads the series by 15 points with only the Bulldog Rally to come in Shrewsbury on October 24. Results:
1, Marcus Dodd/John Bennie (Poole) Ford Escort WRC 1hr 7min 7sec; 2, Martyn Harrison/Lyn Jenkins (Malton) MG Metro 6R4 1:08.26; 3, Warren Philliskirk/Eurig Evans (York) MG Metro 6R4 1:08.32; 4, Steve Petch/Peter Croft (Richmond) Ford Escort WRC 1:08.40; =5, Roger Duckworth/Mark Bloomfield (Silverstone) Subaru Impreza 1:09.06; Murray Grierson/Campbell Roy (Dalbeattie) Subaru Impreza 1:09.06.
Championship standings: 1, Duckworth 110pts; 2, Harrison 95; 3, Grierson 91; =4, Petch & Geoff Smith (Twickenham) Ford Escort Cosworth 75.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article