by Geoff Mayes


Crash.net columnist Matt Beebe came through to secure the 2007 Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship R2 class title on the Wales Rally GB at the weekend.

Beebe, who has won at least one title every year since he began rallying, experienced a truly character building event.

This year the overall rally was split into two points scoring events for the BRC contenders. Despite winning Friday's rally and taking maximum points, the 2006 R3 champion didn't have an easy time on the opening leg.

Whilst driving non-competitively through the cancelled first stage the brake calliper collapsed. Fortunately Beebe, who is a qualified service technician, was able to strap the offending item up but still admitted to driving cautiously, expecting the brakes to disappear at any moment. Once the car had been re-fettled during the mid-day service he was back on the pace and ended the day 22 seconds clear of his nearest championship rival. Even more impressive was the fact that Beebe was the leading 2wd car as well.

Day two began with Beebe in a slightly stronger championship position than at the beginning of the weekend. However he knew that he still had to keep pushing and the first stage of the day saw the top three in class separated by just 3.6 seconds.

Then, despite breaking a pipe leading to one of the rear dampers, Matt still set top three times before returning to mid-day service leading his class once more.

However all this hard work from a team running one of the tightest budgets in the championship would be shattered when the diff failed in the next stage, forcing him to SupeRally.

This wasn't the end of the road, but it certainly wasn't making life easy and then en-route to the first stage of the final morning the alternator destroyed itself, cruelly bringing the multiple champion to a halt.

At this stage the distraught crew thought their rally and championship bid was over, but when their close rival James Wozencroft ran into problems of his own it was time to bring out the calculators and work out all the notional times for the last day. Beebe would eventually be classified thirteenth in the BRC and more importantly clinched scored even points to take the title - albeit by only one point.

“Wow. I'm speechless,” said Matt. “I really thought everything was lost when the alternator blew up. I feel sorry for James but after all the hard work and effort everyone has put into this year it's nice to reward them with another title.

“I'd like to thank everyone who has helped, from my parents who have always supported me, to m3motorsport, North Warwickshire and Hinckley College, Eastern Airways, Crash.net, Garwood Motorsport Services, PIAA, AVO and Quadro Services, the erection specialists, everyone has been a massive help! And a final mention to my pregnant wife, who has supported me every step of the way!”

Beebe meanwhile also got an added bonus post-event when he secured the final Pirelli Star Driver nomination that will pit him - and four others - against Wozencroft in a shoot-out to win a funded drive in the 2008 Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship.