MAGNIFICENT Mark Cossar left his opponents with nothing but faces full of mud as he regained the prestigious British Masters title in emphatic style.
Scorching to three heat victories and a win in the semi-final, the 31-year-old from Rugby held his nerve in the last, winner-takes-all race to take the Masters crown for an incredible fifth time – his first victory since 2013 – after three agonising consecutive years as runner-up.
With age on his side and more titles on offer, Cossar looks set to become the most successful 1,000cc British sidecar grasstrack rider in the history of the sport.
Only afterwards did Cossar reveal what a risk he had taken with his machinery, as he gambled everything on a very highly strung engine from Performance World of Rugby to give him extra power from the start.
“Thankfully it worked!,” said the Rugby ace afterwards, “but I knew I was asking an awful lot of the motor, so was trying to back off a bit when I got out in front to take the stress off it, especially in the tricky conditions.”
Together with his ever-dependable passenger Carl Blyth, Cossar is also firm favourite to win the 2017 British Sidecar Speedway Championship. He leads the title race with just one round to go at Belle Vue, Manchester, on Saturday, October 14.
2017 British Masters result: 1st Mark Cossar and Carl Blyth; 2nd Rod Winterburn and Billy Winterburn; 3rd Gareth Winterburn and Liam Brown.