BRC

Matt Beebe season review

Matt Beebe -- BRC R3 Champion Matt Beebe, Nuneaton's own sporting celebrity, rounded out a highly successful year by winning the 2006 Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Champion R3 class despite being the less experienced under dog from the word ...

Published: Jan 16, 2007, 7:37 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Matt Beebe -- BRC R3 Champion

Matt Beebe, Nuneaton's own sporting celebrity, rounded out a highly successful year by winning the 2006 Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Champion R3 class despite being the less experienced under dog from the word go.

Matt, a triple champion already, despite the fact he has only been rallying since 2004, continued to shine in 2006 by producing some stunning drives at the wheel of his older and less powerful Hankook Ventus shod MG ZR160, and aided by mechanical woes for his closest competitor, the former S1600 champion Justin Dale, Matt was able to take 2 outright class wins (and on tarmac, a surface he was not so familiar with!) as well as maximum BRC points in the final round, the prestigious Wales Rally GB.

As well as contesting the British Rally Championship Matt also competed on his home event, the 3 day Rally of the Midlands, where he and co-driver Gemma Price took their Hankook and PIAA supported MG to a fine class win and 4th overall, taking a fastest stage time along the way when they beat the rally winning Group B Metro 6R4 by 1 second on one stage!

The Isle of Man and the Ulster Rallies both presented Matt with totally new experiences. Despite a big moment on the International Rally Isle of Man when Matt and Gemma survived a big spin and a broken clutch to win their class the pair were not quite so lucky on the Phillip White Ulster Rally in Ireland when an altercation with a very solid rock face left the little MG in need of a lot of TLC.

Other challenges faced by the pair included an in car fire during the fastest stage of the International Rally of Yorkshire as well as some un conventional 'bush mechanics' when a small pebble was needed to jimmy a fix on the air intake in order to reach the finish. All of these challenges go just a short way to demonstrate Matt's ability to overcome a variety of obstacles and along with his inherent mechanical sympathy the young service technician was able to continue his 100% reliability record.

2006 has just been an incredible year. The opening round, the Pirelli was a bit demoralising as we were outpaced by Justin but I think we've worked miracles considering our budget and I cannot thank everyone involved enough. The BRC is the pinnacle of British Rallying and to win this title is very special to me!

Thanks must go to m3motorsport, who have looked after Matt's car all year and to the students from North Warwickshire and Hinckley College Motorsport Academy.

Despite having no firm plans for 2007 yet Matt is keen to remain in the Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship and with his well deserved reputation you can be sure that his competitors will be worried when the new season kicks off in the New Year!

-credit: www.mattbeebe.co.uk

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Team Merlin International Wales summary

Next article Rallymasters Seires has new look

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Max Verstappen on GTWC Europe debut: “We’re here to win”

GT World Challenge Europe Endurance

WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 5 h

Max Verstappen on GTWC Europe debut: “We’re here to win”

How to watch NASCAR at Phoenix II: Weekend schedule, start time, entry list, TV

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Phoenix II

5 h

How to watch NASCAR at Phoenix II: Weekend schedule, start time, entry list, TV

Ryan Ellis signs multi-year NASCAR O'Reilly deal with Alpha Prime Racing

NASCAR O'Reilly

NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly

Phoenix II

6 h

Ryan Ellis signs multi-year NASCAR O'Reilly deal with Alpha Prime Racing

Ayao Komatsu: Rafael Camara chosen for F1 2027 seat on speed, not Ferrari links

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

12 h

Ayao Komatsu: Rafael Camara chosen for F1 2027 seat on speed, not Ferrari links

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts