Sutton & Cheam Motor Club boasts a large and varied membership made up of some of the top rally and race drivers in the country together with a large number of British, UK and even World Champions amongst their number.
Every month the committee awards the ‘Competitor of the Month’ award to someone who has achieved something great in their motor sport.
It doesn’t have to be first place, sometimes overcoming adversity (or is that reliability?) is enough. We’ll send you a voucher for £20 too. Tell us what you’ve been up to each month contact Nigel Griffiths at: the.gs100@gmail.com
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- July Competitor Of The Month – Rob Collard
Rob partnered by his son Ricky took their Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 to 2nd place in both Race 1 & Race 2 at the Snetterton round of the British GT3 Championship in July. This follows consistent results in previous rounds including a win at Oulton Park which leaves Rob leading the championship with two rounds remaining.
Other club member results in July include Mark Kelly finishing 2nd o/all in the Tour Of Epynt Rally despite a high speed spin, Oliver Hucklebridge with Sam Cox alongside gaining some more seat time in his Escort at Pembrey finishing 38th o/all and Keith & Angelica Mainland visiting Sweden to drive a Volvo 940 in the Slottssprinten.
- June Competitor Of The Month – Will Nicholls/Nick Broom & Darrell Taylor/Steve McNulty
Will & Darrell took full advance of the The Abingdon Motorsport CAR-nival weekend by entering the sprint on the Saturday followed by the rally on the Sunday. Both challenged the more specialist sprint machinery for FTD with Will finishing 4th fastest and Darrell 5th. Sunday brought mixed fortunes with Will and Nick winning the Abingdon CAR-nival Stages (the 5th time they’ve won the event) but unfortunately turbo failure brought Darrell’s event to a premature end.
Darrell and Steve made up for this disappointment by winning the John Overand Memorial Stages at Melbourne Airfield, East Yorkshire a few weeks later.
It was great to see so many club members supporting the Abingdon Motorsport CAR-nival and it should be noted that Ben Smith had a great result finishing 14th o/all from a start number of 59.
Outside of the Abingdon Motorsport CAR-nival weekend Richard Scarbrough co-drove Dan Bird to victory on the Rex Premier Anniversary Stages in their R5 Fiesta, Rob Swann finishing runner up. Declan Dear’s excellent run of results continued with Matthew Hirst winning the Kielder Forest Rally and Rhys Wyn Davies took his Darrian GTR+ to 2nd o/all on the Lucas Oil Rali Menai stages on Anglesey.
Other non-rally results for club members in June included Angelica Fuentes finishing 4th o/all in her borrowed Lockhart at the Brooklands Museum Double 12 Auto Tests, Jamie McBain returning to Blyton for the rallycross and winning his category and Rob Collard finishing 3rd o/all at Spa in the British GT Championship round with his Lamborghini Huracan.
Will Nicholls/Nick Broom photo courtesy of www.rallygallery.com
- April Competitor Of The Month – Declan Dear
Following on from their excellent win on the Get Jerky Rally North Wales – Interclub Event in March, Declan together with his driver Matthew Hirst won the Rallynuts Severn Valley Stages which used iconic forestry stages in mid Wales. The event ran alongside the British Rally Championship round that used exactly the same route and the pace that Matthew & Declan showed in their older R5 Fiesta would have placed them 6th o/all against the BRC regulars. It should also be noted that Rob Dennis had an excellent run in his Escort finishing 19th o/all, 3rd in class on the same event.
Other notable results for SCMC members in April that showed the broad spread of motorsport events SCMC members compete in were, Darryl Taylor & Steve McNulty winning the Lookout Stages, the Quigley’s venturing to Belgium for the Rallye Salamandre and finishing 8th o/all, Will Nicholls and John Peck being at the sharpe end at the Island Car Centre Sandown Sprint on the Isle Of Wight, Jamie McBain for his class wins at the Pembrey BTRDA Rallycross, Rob Collard for finishing 5th o/all in the British GT Championship at Silverstone and Angelica Fuentes for competing in her first Autosolo and finishing 5th in class in the Tour Auto.
It’s fair to say it was a busy month for SCMC members.
- March Competitor Of The Month – Jamie McBain
As headlined in the Motorsport News magazine “Mighty McBain” had a fantastic result on the Alan Healy Memorial Rally held at Cadwell Park at the end of March. Being a circuit rally championship event, the entry attracted a number of R5 cars, but Jamie finished 6 o/all and 1st in class with his Peugeot 205. Brake problems on the early stages had Jamie and co-driver Harry Walshaw down in 24th o/all but once sorted they set a number of top 5 stages times to fly up the leaderboard.
Other notable SCMC results in March included Mark Kelly’s 6th o/all on the British Rally Championship North West Stages, Declan Dear co-driving Matthew Hirst to their 4th consecutive North Wales Rally – Interclub Event win and Angelica Fuentes co-driving Gabriel Perez to 2nd o/all in their Skoda R5 on the Rally Hecho in Mexico.
It was a busy month for SCMC members.
- February Competitor Of The Month – Mark KellyMark took a fantastic 5 second win on the closed road East Riding Stages in Yorkshire at the end of February. With an entry including approx. 30 R5 cars of various manufacturers, Mark came out on top against them all in his R5 Skoda, a brilliant result with Will Atkins in the co-drivers seat.
- January Competitor Of The Month – Sean & Colin QuigleySean & Colin mixed it with the regular Motorsport News Circuit Rally Championship regulars at Brands Hatch on an icy Saturday in mid-January and ended their day in 5th o/all, an excellent result given the entry.Other SCMC members recording finishes wereBen Smith who had a great run finishing 27th o/all from a start number of 63Oliver Hucklebridge finished his first ever event in the drivers’ seat in a very credible 35th o/allScott/Darren Stutchbury 28th o/all in the ClioPaul/Ben Garraway 31st o/all in their SunbeamDominic Norman & Vlad Ardeleanu 45th o/all in the Golf
Photo courtesy of Mark Cuthbert - December Competitor Of The Month – Rob Swann & Ian Hucklebridge
SCMC members were very active in December claiming some excellent results.
Rob Swann and Steve McNulty claimed a superb victory on the Rixy Stages, a new tarmac event held at the Stanford Training Area in Norfolk.
Ian & Oliver Hucklebridge were back at Goodwood with car 1 on the door after last years victory. After a difficult icy first stage they recovered to finish 5th o/all against some R5 machinery. To round off 2023 the Hucklebridge’s took their Escort to Pembrey and in extremely wet conditions finished just 6 seconds away from overall victory in 3rd o/all.
Other club members in December with notable results included Duncan Brown who continues his campaign in the winter 12 car series with his Mini. Multi-talented Duncan drove to 2nd o/all on the Southern Car Club 12 Car event and then swapped to the other seat to finish 6th o/all on the FDMC 12 car event.
- November Competitor Of The Month – Declan Dear
Declan together with his driver Matthew Hirst clinched the Motorsport UK Pirelli Welsh Rally Championship title for a record-equalling third time after winning the Wyedean Stages Rally in mid-November. It’s been another good season for the Delta Salvage team with many podium results in their Fiesta R5.
Other notable results for SCMC members in November were Mark Kelly winning the Neil Howard stages at Oulton Park, Jamie McBain & Ryan Stutchbury finishing 20th o/all from a start number of 80 at Cadwell Park, Keith & Angelica Mainland finishing the London to Brighton veteran car run yet again on their 1904 Orient Buckboard and Duncan Brown got his 12 car season off to a good start with 3rd o/all on the Sevenoaks and District Motor Club 12 Car event.
- October Competitor Of The Month – Darrell Taylor
Darrell had a busy October with his R5 Fiesta winning the Harlech Stages at Llanbedr airfield with Cat Lund co-driving and then followed that up the weekend after with 3rd o/all on the Bovington & Challenger Stages with Steve McNulty in the co-drivers seat. Bovington also saw good results for fellow SCMC members Sean & Colin Quigley, John Peck and Paul & Ben Garraway finishing 4th in class in their Sunbeam. David Segal also had a good run but unfortunately Ben Smith had to retire.
Photograph: Sonya Jones
- September Competitor Of The Month – Mark Kelly
September saw Mark competing in two closed road events, finishing a very respectable 8th o/all on the Rali Ceredigion which was a round of the British Championship and then following that up with 1st o/all on the 3 Shires Rally at the end of September. The 3 Shires also saw other SCMC members score respectable results with Rob Swann 5th, Sean & Colin Quigley 20th and Dave Edmunds/Dom Jeans 52nd. Unfortunately, Mark Fisher & Peter Spalding failed to finish.
- August Competitor Of The Month – Jamie McBain
Jamie’s motorsport year goes from strength to strength. Alongside his BTRDA Rallycross Championship exploits Jamie also competes in selected rallies and had an outstanding result at Bovington in mid-August. Along with a number of other SCMC members, the Challenger Stages saw warm and dry conditions and from a start number of 57, Jamie along with co-driver Harry Walshaw finished an amazing 8th o/all in his Peugeot 205 mixing it with R5s and Darrian’s during the day.
- July Competitor Of The Month – Jamie McBain
Jamie had an excellent July in the BTRDA Rallycross Championship. After an engine rebuild, the R1 Motorsport prepared Peugeot 205 revisited Blyton with a lot more success this time (the car finished on its roof in March) with 2nd in the final and then followed that excellent result with 3rd in the final at Lydden at the end of July. Don’t mention the start in the final! Well done, Jamie.
