One British champion has already been crowned in 2022 but who will be next?

Another bumper weekend of British Championship action, and over 100 grassroots events across a broad spectrum of disciplines lies in wait. Let’s get up to speed with what is happening in this edition of ‘Up to Speed’:

Around the Clubs

There are plenty of different disciplines being demonstrated across the country this weekend. The Peak & Dukeries Off Road Club has organised the Norwood RTV trial held at the Norwood Lodge. Heading over to Tixover, the Anglian Rover Owners Club is hosting the Tixover Gymkhana.

For rally fans looking to have a go themselves, the Spadeadam Motor Club is holding the Blue Streak Historic and Targa Rally starting at the Down-A-Gate Community Centre. The East Ayrshire Car Club  has organised the Kames Autotest August 2022 to be held at the Kames Motorsport Complex.

For more information about events near you, visit our website.

British Rally Championship and Scottish Rally Championship– Grampian Rally

The British Rally Championship heads up to Scotland for the Grampian Rally and round four of the championship. Based in Banchory, just outside of Aberdeen, the Grampian will be welcoming drivers, co-drivers and spectators for a spectacular day of action in the nearby Kincardineshire forests. There will be stages being held in the forests of Durris, Fetteresso and Drumtochty with a central rally base at Milton of Crathes.

This round of the BRC will also be aiming to offset their carbon with their partnership with Carbon Positive Motorsport.

The Scottish Rally Championship will also be joining forces alongside the BRC for the Grampian Rally.

British Touring Car Championship – Snetterton

Snetterton’s unique blend of high-speed and technical corners lies in prospect this weekend as the tin-top stars of the British Touring Car Championship descend on Norfolk.

Team BMW’s Colin Turkington usurped Tom Ingram for the championship lead on the annual pilgrimage to Knockhill last time out, the Ulsterman now five markers clear at the summit.

A first victory in NAPA Racing UK colours for Ash Sutton elevated him to third in the standings, with battle lines set to be re-drawn on a scorching weekend in the sunshine this time around.

Sutton’s former team-mate and friend Josh Cook rounds out the top five behind BMW ace Jake Hill, the quintet separated by a slender 23-point margin with four events to go.

Three races headline a packed bill of support racing, including ROKiT British F4 (see below), with live, free-to-air TV coverage on ITV4. Races start at 12:08, 14:15 and 17:10.

ROKiT F4 British Championship – Certified by FIA – Snetterton

Alex Dunne still leads but the gap at the top of the ROKiT F4 British Championship certified by FIA standings continues to thin as the next generation of rising stars arrive at Snetterton this weekend.

Three different drivers – Joseph Loake, Georgi Dimitrov and Ugo Ugochukwu – shared the spoils at Knockhill a fortnight ago. Loake capitalised on a damp but dry qualifying to put his JHR-run car on the front row behind Ugochukwu. He then bested the McLaren junior off the line before going on to register his first win of the season.

Dimitrov similarly annexed the race lead at the start, although he was helped after pole-sitter Adam Fitzgerald spun on the lap to the grid, giving the British-Bulgarian driver a clear road ahead once he had fought off early competition from Hitech’s Oliver Stewart.

It was in the finale that the championship story took another twist, however. Dunne, with a podium and a solid haul of points in the two races so far that weekend, stalled from the front row, and subsequently picked up a damaged front wing and a puncture recovering further down the order.

That left his two chief title rivals Ugochukwu and Williams protégé Ollie Gray with, in effect, an ‘open goal’ to claw back ground in the championship. They finished line-a-stern to record a 1-2 finish for Carlin, a result that brings Gray to within 41 points of Dunne, eventually 14^th and a lap down, at the summit.

But the Irish teenager has been the ‘one to beat’ at each of the six events thus far in 2022 and will undoubtedly be looking to add to his seven race wins around Snetterton’s technical, twisty 300 layout this weekend.

With over half the grid having now won a race in Britain’s FIA Formula 4 series, the strength in depth of the competition has never been greater.

A whole host of rising stars, such as Carlin’s Louis Sharp, Argenti pairing Aiden Neate and Daniel Guinchard, and Dunne’s Hitech team-mate Eduardo Coseteng, have also proven themselves at the front and could yet throw a spanner in the works for the trio currently at the top.

Michael Shin will be aiming for a repeat of his front-running performances earlier in the campaign at Virtuosi Racing’s home event. The South Korean rounds out the top ten, just two points clear of Stewart.

Edward Pearson is also keeping a watching brief on that battle, another four points adrift in 12th, with Noah Lisle (JHR), Adam Fitzgerald (Argenti) and Daniel Mavlyutov (Hitech) locked in a hard-fought battle for 13th to 16th in the standings.

Chris Dittmann Racing return to the grid this weekend with two fresh faces to Britain’s FIA Formula 4 series in Indian racer Divy Nandan, a member of Narain Karthikeyan’s Academy, and Jack Sherwood, already a GB4 race winner in 2022.

Qualifying kicks off the competitive action at 10:30 (BST) on Saturday, with two races to follow at 14:05 and 17:50. The second race features a partially reversed grid, with the top ten qualifers flipped to form the starting order.

Sunday features one further, ITV4-televised contest, due to get underway at 15:05 in front of a capacity trackside crowd at the Norfolk venue.

British Hillclimb Championship – Shelsley Walsh

Only three rounds to go, and the race for the British Hillclimb Championship is hotting up.

This, the second visit of the year to the fastest 1,000 yards in the UK, Shelsley Walsh, could prove to be a pivotal step for Wallace Menzies towards retaining his title, but with Alex Summers and Scott Moran breathing down his neck.

As has been the theme throughout much of this season, records fell once again on the series’ most recent visit to Wiscombe Park in Devon. Summers set the first ever sub-33s run in Saturday’s first run-off, with Menzies pipping Moran to victory on Sunday.

Follow the event here: https://www.britishhillclimb.co.uk/