Justin Birchall’s hopes of securing the Britpart MSA British Cross Country Championship title took a knock last weekend when he failed to finish the second round of the series in South Wales.

The signs weren’t good from the off as a family illness forced Birchall’s regular co-driver, his wife Louise, to pull out of the event forcing fellow Pendle & District Motor Club member Jonathan Dixon into an unplanned off-road debut.

Unfortunately their Birchall Catering Supplies backed Peugeot M206 Evo picked up a puncture just 300 yards into the opening stage and from then on things just got worse.

“The car lost power every time we went over a jump,” said Birchall. “We tried changing the alternator but to no avail and then we picked up another puncture on our second run, it was horrific!”

One bright note from the weekend though was that he was able to compare times with Ben Collins, formerly the Stig, of Top Gear fame.

“Richard Hammond was there with a Top Gear film crew but Ben soon discovered that off-road racing is totally different to track racing as we beat his time easily despite our problems,” said Birchall. Birchall hopes the car’s power loss fault has been cured, having now identified a problem with the oil pressure switch, as this weekend he heads over to France to compete in the Rallye Jean de la Fontaine.