Rook escapes the mayhem to take victory (From Bucks Free Press)

Wycombe driver returns to winner's enclosure after four years

2:22pm Thursday 11th October 2012 in Local Sport By Alan Feldberg

WYCOMBE’S John Rook enjoyed his first rallycross victory in four years at the weekend after a bit of a free-for-all at Pembrey.

Competing in the MSA Hot Hatch Championship, drivers were put at the back of the grid with the Super 1600 cars, meaning three heats of third row starts.

Rook navigated this potential minefield to qualify third for the championship race, but then the mayhem came.

As a full eight-car grid hurtled towards the first corner, another Hot Hatch driver bumped into four other cars.

Rook dodged the trouble though to come round the first corner third, and then powered away to finish second.

However, a stewards’ enquiry afterwards disqualified race winner Tomasz Wielgosz, promoting Rook to the top of the podium.

He said: “I cannot believe it, an absolutely fantastic result for myself my first win in Rallycross in four years, it was an incident packed race and keeping out of trouble all proved valuable.

“This now puts me in second place in the points table with one round to go and my target is the overall Hot Hatch title at Croft in three weeks time.”