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With 2 rounds gone points leader in the Rally First category of the BTRDA Championship is Jason Hopkins with Roy Gravestock second & our own Dominic Hodge in 3rd place whilst Stefan is in 2nd place behind Tim Ball who leads the co-drivers.Robert Brookes brings up the rear at the moment with a single point from his non finish in Minehead. He does however have the satisfaction of setting fastest stage time for the Rally First boys on the Porlock Toll Road stage
Next weekend sees the 2nd round of the Peugeot 205 1400 Challenge at Twyford Wood. Following Lucas Hunts roll at Manby we are preparing a new car for him
& finishing this will be number one priority this week. This will be the first challenge car we have built for a while & will give us a chance to incorporate all the lessons we have learnt. 
Although we have a very successful spec for these cars, we have after all won the championship for the last couple of years there are always things you might like to change or improve.
Repairs to the R2 wrecked on the Pirelli will also go ahead now having had clearance from http://www.richardeggerinsurance.co.uk/ to go ahead.
Also on the agenda is the long suffering Honda gearbox for Richard Phillipsons Civic. Both Quaife & Gripper have assured us that their components are spot on so we will assemble it again & see what happens this time.
The Saxo stock hatch is due back from Power Engineering so there will also be the final touches to put to that prior to testing
What an amazing week. Following the disasters on the Pirelli our 1400 C2 needed lots of TLC to put it back into shape for this weekends Somerset Stages Rally. While rebuilding the top half of the engine we have also been sourcing a suitable throttle body to replace the 1100cc one currently fitted. This has now been approved by the series eligibility scrutineer and although not fitted for this event [just in case there were any issues] we will be using it from now on.
Half way through the week we were also approached about the possibility of running a second Rally First car on the event & after a little negotiation arranged to run a Peugeot 205 for Robert Brookes who would be starting his first ever rally. Just a case of needing to convert an enduro spec car to MSA stage configuration.
By 2 o'clock on Friday afternoon both cars were ready & slightly later than intended on their way to Minehead.
The C2 for Dominic Hodge was again running Yokohama rubber whilst the 205 was to be Dunlop shod. For this event which is the only one in the championship to have tarmac as well as gravel the Rally First competitors were allowed their mandatory 6 gravel tyres + 4 tarmac tyres.
Formalities over both crews signed on job well done.
An 8.30am start from the seafront in Minehead saw the crews head off to tackle 3 gravel stages before returning to Butlins for a 20 minutes service & a change to tarmac tyres for 2 runs up the famous Porlock Toll Road
Dominic was running one car in front of Robert and arrived for service on his due time with no dramas to report. One of our strut top mounts had loosened slightly but otherwise there was little for the service crew to do except fit the moulded slick tyres & wash the Somerset mud off the car. Missing however was Robert & the 205
A later competitor reported that they were stopped between stage 2 & 3 with fuel evaporation problems, as we had not heard from them I sent the management car to sort them out & just after they left the service area who should roll in but Robert & Rebbecca with the 205.
As a precaution we changed the fuel pump on the car although we found nothing wrong with the original one. Fortunately the problem had happened on a road section so no time was lost. By his own admission his first stage wasn't too good but he had started to come to terms with stage rallying.
The crews left the service area and made their way to a double run of Porlock. First auxiliary service was at the top of the hill and despite it being all up hill & Dominic has done nothing but complain about the up hill performance of the car he was second quickest on the first run & Robert who was beaming when he got to the top was just 1 second adrift. There was quite a delay before the second running, Dominic managed to shave 6 seconds off his time but Robert blitzed them all & took his first fastest stage time for the FR1400's.
Back at service & a return to gravel tyres and more gravel stages and on stage 7 Dominic opened his account on fastest stage times. Mainly down hill they tell me. Between stages Rob had a recurrence of the non starting but eventually got going and went into the double run of Chargot. From there they had one more stage before another service.
Service for the C2 was straightforward just a spanner check & a pat on the head for Dominic & a big slap for Stefan who had managed to book in on time but not noticed that he had been given a wrong time on his time card. A 1 minute penalty which was ultimately to cost them 3rd place. 
It was here that we lost Robert, too much lock with too much throttle & handbrake broke a drive shaft . Mark that one down to inexperience.
Dominic ran through the last two stages but was a little off the pace for some reason & the minute lost meant they dropped from 3rd to 4th place but once again good points on the board. For Robert it was a little disappointing not to get to the finish but we hope to get him out again soon.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Brookes family for the chance to run Robert, its not everyday we get the chance to work with a rally legend & it was a pleasure to spend a couple of days in the company of Russell Brookes & son Robert
Tony is supported this year by, Delivered on Time, Seacon UK, Bridge Road Boxing Gym and North Devon Design; and wishes to thank everyone involved in getting this project off the ground. You can keep up to date with Tony’s season by logging on to www.simpsonrallying.com ENDS Media Notes not for publication
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Hardev Singh Sira [Gogi as we know him] has defected.from the Peugeot camp & has bought a Mk1 Escort for the 2009 East African Safari Rally. The car was built from a Gatrac shell for the London Sydney rally.
Full details of the car will be published as soon as we know exactly what we have.
Ti running a Ford, what a turn up
With just 4 days to go before needing to leave for the Minehead based Somerset Stages Rally there is frantic activity at Ti following the engine failure on this weekends Pirelli Challenge.
Loss of all water on stage 2 was down to failure of one of the nylon hose couplings used on the C2 1400s and is something we are remedying at present. The head gasket had said enough & we are hoping that the head isn't warped though going by the rest of the weekend it will probably be similar in shape to a banana.
Dominic Hodge has spent the last week going over the DVD provided by the organisers or someone who should Know better and we are expecting him to be on the boil from stage one, though I really expect it to be more of a fast simmer.
Joking apart we are looking to be a little closer to the other 1400s this time out as we continue to develop the C2
Welcome back Longcross was what just about everyone present was saying. It's always been a super venue for southern tarmac fans and had been sorely missed.
Martin Head & Neil Billingham were looking forward to a battle with a couple of Nissan Micra Kit cars and at the end of the first stage were just 2 seconds adrift, 9mins 13 for Martin, 9.11 for the 2 Micras. Over the next 2 stages Martin reversed the positions and was leading the class by 15 seconds when the car filled with smoke and a total lack of drive.
End of play for the day & the end of a weekend to forget for Ti
While the internationals were on the stages from about 9.0am the Challenge Rally crews didn't get under way until mid day. The car was unchanged from North Humberside but with Delivered on Time support gracing the sides this time.
Because of the one make tyre supplier we were also using Silverstone tyres.
While we waited for the start Stefan who had been worrying about his Golf sump sourced a new sump from somewhere in Hexham
, as the photo caption says he was like a kid with a new toy.
Just another job for the service crew, at least it was fairly straightforward.
Our weekend went from bad to worse when we had another THE phonecall. Bottom radiator plastic hose had come off and dumped all the water just before the end of stage 2. When they had tried to restart the engine it had seemed tight and rather than risk even more damage Tony & Stefan retired from the Rally.
On a positive note Tony was dropping about 1 sec a mile to the Polo so with the mods available to us we should be well on the pace next time out.
Having had a refreshing hour & a half's sleep the service crew made their way back to Carlisle Airport's service area. The C2 needed to be re-scrutineered before starting Super Rally & fueled to the brim for Saturday's first 4 stages. The revised figures for fuel consumption [1 mile per litre stage 3 miles per litre on road sections] were going to cause a few headaches for some of the crews, BRC not allowing management.
We were a little concerned but not unduly worried when we saw fuel coming from by the overflow. We just put it down to the briming of the tank.
Then came THE phone call. Matt had rolled the car. Lost it flat in 4th about 70mph got a tank slapper on, into ditch and end over end roll I am told.
The only straight panels left are the drivers door, so he got that bit right and the tail gate. The boys were shaken but uninjured although Matt is a bit sore today [Sunday]
Thank god for insurance. Makes it all seem worth while paying those premiums when this sort of thing happens.
They say that every cloud has a silver lining and ours came in the form of a phone call from Raymond Moore of Charles Hurst Citroen who reminded us that provided we got the car into parc ferme even on a trailer Matt would be classified as a finisher. So by virtue of some peculiarity of the regs Matt & Anthony finished 32nd overall & 4th C2R2
This just puts a bit more pressure on the workshop as the car is due out on the Jim Clark next month.
The opening round of this years BRC & BRC Challenge turned into a nightmare for the Ti team. The early promise shown by Matt Cotton in the R2 came to nothing with a fuel pump failure in the 3rd of the Friday nights 4 stages. The crew were left stranded about a mile from the end of the stage. For once there was some limited phone service so we were able to get to the end of the stage to collect them. Choosing Stefan's Golf estate for the rescue mission we were sat at the end of stage when a couple of rescue vehicles came out and told us that our car was on its way but might be a while because of another accident. We opted to make our way into the stage to try to speed thing up as it was by now about 11 o'clock. Sure enough everyone was stuck while the rescue boys pulled out another competitor. While this was going on we had a quick look at the car. No fuel to the injector rail. Before too long the rescue crews had everything sorted & were following them out of the stage when the Golfs oil light came on.
BIG BLO*** HOLE IN SUMP!!!!!!!!!. Much cursing, swearing & jumping up & down in anger later & we had an interesting predicament. All the recovery vehicles had gone & we had no phone signal & a stricken rally car as well as the Golf to get back to Carlisle. Mechanic super star Len Davies headed off to the end of the stage in the hope of catching the recovery crew while they were unhooking the C2R2 & luckily he just made it. So that solved one problem, it got the Golf onto the 'main' road.
Only thing to do was to phone Stefan & Tony & get them to come & collect us so that we could go & collect the trailers to get the cars back. While we waited we managed to get the C2 going so were able to get Matt & Anthony back to Carlisle under there own steam while we waited for Tony & Stefan.
While we were waiting a strategy evolved Andy Tearle would collect a trailer & return to collect the the Golf & Jim Daniels who would stay with the car. Meanwhile Len & myself would fix the C2 ready for Super Rally on Saturday. It even worked & by 4.45am the Golf was back at service & the C2 was ready to fight another day. The service crew eventually got to their digs at 5 am with a restart at 6.30.
