Rain and mud add to the fun at London Motorsport Show

This year’s London Motorsport Show attracted around 10,500 visitors despite the inclement weather conditions and the Docklands Light Railway being closed for maintenance work throughout the weekend. The first London Masters Rallycross and the 'hot rides' areas still pulled in the crowds though as the rain and mud only added to the fun.

The fast and furious pace of the cars on the purpose built circuit of the London Masters spurred drivers on and there were several bumps, shunts and cars going into the wall as each tried to get the best racing line. The Swedish Rally legend Per Eklund was the eventual winner of the Division 1 ‘A’ Rallycross title and won the silver cup as well as the Ivan Mitchell Trophy, a beautiful bronze statue of a jaguar.

When accepting the trophy, Per said: "It is an honour to take part in the first London Masters and the circuit provided us with a great weekend of racing. This should only be the start and I hope to be back next year on an even bigger and better circuit to defend my title."

Other winners included Dermot Carnegie for the Division 1 ‘B’ section and Ben Power for the Supernational ‘A’. The Procar finals were won by Ashley Simpson for 1600 ‘A’, Hal Ridge for the 1600 ‘B’, and Stuart Emery for the 2000 ‘A’. Glenn Guthrie won the Revivals ‘A’ section and Lance Foster won the Revival ‘B’. In the Junior Rallycross, Russell Simpson won for group ‘A’ and Daniel O’Brian for group ‘B’ while the Minicross titles went to Ian Thorndyke for group ‘A’ and Tom Edwardes for group ‘B’.

Inside the kart track proved as popular as ever with visitors testing their track skills but it was the Girls in Motorsport feature which proved to be the biggest hit within the exhibition. Female racing drivers such as Michaela Bevan, Becky Kirvan, Anna Walewska and power boat racer Sarah Donahue spent hours talking to other ladies about how to get into racing as well as talking about the industry with the petrolheads attending.

The show attracted a few famous faces including Formula 1 driver Mark Webber and Harry Potter star Rupert Grint who plays Harry’s best friend Ron Weasley.

The full race results of the London Masters are available on londonmotorsport.co.uk. 2008 dates and major new plans will appear in the New Year.