ANOTHER highly controversial saw Rugby’s Mark Cossar finishing runner-up for a third year running after recovering from a dangerous crash earlier in the race.
A total of six 1,000cc sidecars were involved in Sunday’s clash, which was the biggest domestic meeting of the year at Lower Stanton in Wiltshire.
Cosssar had comfortably won all four of his heats and semi-final too but in the final he was forced out to the fence by Gareth Winterburn, which allowed his father Rod Winterburn down the inside and ultimately to victory.
It was a controversial move and more was to follow when as Cossar set off in hot pursuit and took second place, Gareth Winterburn than rammed into the back of his bike and passenger Carl Blyth, but once again the race was allowed to continue.
Cossar was understandably left angered and wants the powers that be in grasstrack to take a long overdue look at their rulebook.
“It’s all on the line at the Masters,” said Cossar. “So it’s high time the rules reflected the importance of the event, rather than being so hopelessly out of date.
“Apparently there are rules in place about racing incidents but nobody seems brave enough to enforce them.
“Everyone in the crowd saw what happened, but strangely, the officials didn’t. I believe race fans across all sports want to see a fair contest.”
Rugby’s Gareth Williams (as passenger to Birmingham’s Matt Fumarola) made the semi-final on his Masters debut, while Mark’s younger brother, Tom Cossar, was fortunate to escape with only two broken ribs and a broken right hand after a nasty crash when he was hit by Paul Johnson.
