Ti Motorsport

Dominic stars in our 205

Llandovery hosted the latest BTRDA Rally First round with 7 stages for the crews to tackle. The largest entry so far with 15 registered crews meant that Rally First made up nearly half the 1400 field.

The scrutineers gave us a bit of a shock when they failed the C2 on the size of the washers under the bolts holding the seat runners to the car but some repair washers under the heads of the bolts soon rectified the problem.

Nicky Grist who is backing the Rally First had arranged an evening seminar to help the new-comers by running through the stages & what they held in store

With Rob Brookes at no 223 & Dominic Hodge at 224 it made for an easy time for chase which was possible after every stage. After Stage 1, Halfway 1 Rob thought he had a problem with the C2. He was really struggling on the up hill sections out of slow bends but a quick check revealed no obvious problem & there was main service after Monument 1 the next stage & time to take a closer look. Dominic came in beaming, revelling in the the fact that he had just taken 15 seconds out of his championship rival Roy Gravestock.

With the first main service giving us 30 minutes to look at the cars we were able to give the C2 a thorough check to try to find a problem but everything appeared to be OK. The 205 just required a spanner check before heading off for stage 3, Route 60.

What a difference a stage makes. At the emergency service after the stage Rob was beaming. The flowing nature of the stage suiting him down to the ground and he was back on the pace, a little late but reassuring. Not a problem with the car more the nature of the previous stages. Dominic was 2nd quickest of the 1400s just 6 seconds behind David Bennett in his Corsa

A 20 mile road section to stage 4, Caeo which was very very slippery . Loads of the drivers were reporting spins & minor offs then it was back to Halfway 2 before second main service.

This was where Dominic came to grief when he was a little too enthusiastic and slid into a ditch. Luckily the organisers sent a recovery truck through before the big boys so Dominic had a stage max but only lost 7 minutes of his lateness. I think Rob [right]over reacted a little when he realised he had beaten Dominic on a stage.

Monument 2 posed no problems for either crew but with the rain coming down for the 2nd running of Route 60 Dominic had serious visability problems when the heater blower died & the car just misted up.

In the end both crews finished unscathed although Rob reported a massive nearly off [Rachel bent the foot brace in her attempt to stop the car] & Dominics off prevented a probable 2nd place but rallying is all about ifs & buts.

Top 6 positions after the Quinton are

1 Jason Hopkins

2 Roy Gravestock

3 David Bennett 

4 Dominic Hodge

5 John Pearson

6 Robert Brookes

Join the Rally First Party

Why not give Rally First a try. This new initative by the BTRDA lets you compete on some of the best clubman rallies in the country with subsidised entries & the chance to run at the head of the field instead of in the ruts at the back.

We have suitable cars available for hire & can offer on event support if you are using your own. 

Full details of the tech regs, events etc are available at       

                         http://www.btrdarally.com/

Dukeries Rally

Following our test at Sweet Lamb the team were all looking forward to The Dukeries despite its reputation for long straights followed by 90's and the fact that it cuts up badly and ends up with ruts like you wouldn't believe.

Scrutiny passed without incident having previously agreed our new throttle body with the series eligibility . Chris Hellings had arranged to do everything on Saturday morning & set of from Devon at about 12 o'clock in order to pick up the car and be in Southwell for 7.30am.

We got our first look at Rob Richards' 106 1600 car & very tidy it is too.

The first 2 stages were very short Watchwood 1 a staggering 1.18 miles & Blidworth 1 2.3 miles but even this early on with only 40 cars having used the stage both Rob & Chris said how rough they were. No problems except Chris felt the brakes were a little soft so we gave them a quick bleed.

Stages 3 & 4, Sherwood Pines1 at 6.75 miles & Clipstone South 1 at 5.53 miles were again rough but caused no major problems although Rob was finding it difficult to stay in the ruts and was loosing time as a result.

Portland 1, 6.67 miles was the final stage before lunch and a one hour service break.

While Chris' car was having a little attention to the bodywork after a contact moment with a chicane the service crew discovered a problem on the C2.  The front drivers side suspension unit had developed a leak and as these are prototype units we had no spare to replace it with so Robert was warned that the handling would probably go off as the unit lost oil. His comment that it was so rough that he felt it wouldn't make a huge difference as the car was sliding along on the sump guard for lots of the stages didn't give me a lot of confidence but he did promise to drive for a finish as this was the number one objective.

The afternoon was a rerun of the same 5 stages only even rougher. At the second emergency service the C2 came in carrying about 4 degrees of negative camber on the drivers side front wheel.

 We have now had a chance to look in the workshop & both the strut casing & the piston are bent.

It is always a nerve wracking time sat at the end of the final stage but this time was no problem with both Chris & Rob coming out of the final stage unscathed.

Rob Richards & Wendy Gibson faired less well. At the main service everything was fine and the pair who were right at the back of the field [this was Robs first ever forest event] set off to do the 2nd run. Whether because of the rough stages or a loose rock the gear linkage came apart despite having modified units fitted. Rob tried to replace the link getting very seriously burnt in the process but couldn't manage to get it back together. So retirement was the order of the day.

At the end of the day Chris had beaten Rally First regular Roy Gravestock by 5 seconds & as Chris isn't registered for the championship Rob gets points for 4th place.

Positions so far

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

Somerset Stages

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

Somerset Stages Rally

Only a couple of weeks now to the next round of the BTRDA Rally First Challenge at Minehead for the Somerset Stages Rally.

Since its last outing we have been looking at gaining a little more power to try to cut the differential between us and the other 1400 crews. Our car is about 20 bhp down on the other 1400's although up to the Citroen figures. The other area we are looking at is the transmission, seeing what options there are in the C2 parts catalogue. Who knows what Somerset might bring.

Once again we will be using Yokohama tyres as they suited the car last time out.

I know that some of the Peugeot 1400 challengers are going to be out spectating so give Dominic a cheer when you see him.

North Humberside Rally

Having made the most of the Birbeck establishment we made our way into Whitby for the 9 o'clock start. Amazingly the weather had cleared & we had sunshine of all things. BTRDA allow management cars so Stefan's Golf was once again commandeered. Service was to have been at Abbey fields but as everything had got stuck in the mud the organisers managed to persuade the local council to let them use the nearby council car park. The only problem with that was that over 100 cars were trying to service in an area good for about 50.

The event format was 3 stages with management after 2 & 3 followed by 40 minute service then repeated, with management after 5.

At first management service we had our only drama of the day. The radiator had come out of its mountings & was sort of fully floating. The crew were happy with the car but a little disappointed with their times but were holding 4th place in the Rally First class. At the end of stage 3 the temporary repair was holding so we followed the car into service.

Investigation of the radiator problem points to damage from the Lombard Revival that we missed when we got the car ready and although safe enough the strain had broken the top mount so this will be something we will need to look at.  Tyres were swapped front to rear and the car spanner checked but apart from the radiator everything else was fine.

Stages 4 & 5 were trouble free with Dominic taking 10 & 7 seconds off his first times despite the arrival of the forecast rain. He was however going backwards compared to the othersin the class.

At the end of stage 6 we waited fairly anxiously for the car to arrive and eventually Dominic & Stefan arrived still complaining about how slow the car was up hill [its a stock 1400 Dominic] but we had a good finish with no problems & points on the board.

On the way back to the finish we had the text results & we had actually climbed to 3rd in class so even better.

Certainly a very encouraging start with a liitle bit more power from the car & a little more from Dominic & who knows.

Pre event test

In order to give Dominic some time in the car we arranged to use Chris Birbecks facility at Saltburn to shake the car down & to arrive at a suitable suspension setting. Also on hand to try the car was Tony Simpson who will use the car on the Pirelli in 3 weeks time. Conditions were pretty grim but as the forecast for Saturday wasn't great we just made the best of it. Our revised struts & rear dampers proved to be brilliant, we had based the rates on the R2 dampers and they seem to be spot on. Apart  from softening the rate on the rear both drivers thought we were good to go for Saturday. I must say that the car handles superbly and certainly rides the bumps well.

We are however a little bit down on power so that will be the next item on the development program

The great thing about Chris's place is that they have a hotel as well as a workshop so we were able to pressure wash the car & give it a quick spanner check before heading into Whitby for scrutineering & documentation.

Scrutiny posed no problems and with our 6 Yokohamas marked we were back to Birbecks for the night.

Dominic heads Rally First Entries

Our own Dominic Hodge is no 1 seed in the BTRDA Rally First Series starting next weekend at Whitby. He will start no 213 in the Silverstone Tyres 1400 Championship. 12 cars are currently due to start pretty evenly split between 1400's & 1000's.

Although the main 1400 field use Silverstone tyres the Rally First crews have a choice and we have done a deal to run Yokahama's AO35's same as our 205 Challenge guys. For this championship you are only allowed 6 tyres per event.

The car has now been log booked and now we have a load of stickers from the BTRDA which should make it look a bit more like a competition car.

C2 Challenger

With North Humberside just 2 weeks away there is a lot of activity around our 1400 challenger. One of the main jobs being to bring the car up to MSA standard for stage rallying. We shall once again use a Cartek cut out system as this has been so easy for us since we started using them, although they can be a bit of a bind if the battery is flat as they trip out all the time.

Following on from the Revival Rally we now have a much more positive location for the strut top mounts & the revised struts should give us the travel that we need. The struts provide 20 click adjustment for bump/rebound.

Rear ride height is also adjustable courtesy of natty threaded units which go over the original locations on the rear beam and give us up to 2" of movement. Rear dampers are also 20 click adjustment.

OMP bolt in cage needed the extra bars for the seat belts when in Enduro form because the rear seats made it impossible to anchor the belts in the floor. Otherwise it is a really nice cage & fits nicely.