Ti Motorsport

The Thoughts of Chairman Matt

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Manx International

Following the promise shown on the Jim Clark Rally & the sorting of the electrical gremlins which had plagued the car in Scotland expectations were high for the 3rd round of the BRC & C2R2 Cup.

Once again there was a shakedown stage, Baldromma  just north of Douglas & the team took the opportunity to put the car through its paces.

Charles Hurst's had come along with new stands & banners to improve the Citroen image & bring it a bit more in line with Suzuki.

Thursdays scrutiny turned out to be quite interesting when a man with a lux meter told us the tint on our windows was too dark and had to be removed to comply with the road traffic act as applied on the island but there was no clear film to be had anywhere so we were faced with a bit of a dilemma..Run with film & be banned by the Manx police or take the film off and be illegal in the FIA's books.

The international event started on Thursday evening and comprised 4 stages Marine [5.07miles] followed by 2 runs over the 1.36mile Balley Cashtal stage with the famous Castletown hairpin & the final 13.66 mile Cringle 1 stage. This was followed by a 45 minute service before the cars went into parc ferme. Jason Pritchard was storming out in front with Andrew Hockeridge & Matt playing catch up. Matt was 3rd as we put the car to bed, well pleased to be matching times with Andrew who was this weekends bench mark / target.

Friday took in 12 stages with only 2 being run twice, once again it was going to be a lottery over tyre choice as the stages covered more or less the whole of the island and the weather was changing every 10 minutes or so. Matt went out with 2 slicks 2 wets & 2 inters figuring that this would cover every option but with road sections so tightly timed it would be difficult at times to change wheels |& not drop time.

Format was 3 stages followed by service through the day with a final 45 minute service at the end of the day.

First service came & went no problem with Matt happy with his times & no problems to report with the car. Matt & Tony seen here conferring over what to expect for the Challenge which joined the main event on stage 11. Matt's times over stage 5 [Little London1 7.23 miles] 6 [Jurby East 10.14 miles] & stage 7 [Ballajora 1 5.91 miles] were again on the pace with Andrew Hockeridge but still not matching Jason Pritchards. Second service was again trouble free just the usual dilemma over tyre choice.

Stage 11 proved our undoing when Matt broke a drive-shaft & took a tooth off a gear at the infamous Sarfield hairpin. With only one wheel drive Matt managed to get about half way through the following stage before the diff cried ENOUGH!!!!!.

With Super Rally rules allowing us to rejoin we changed the gearbox & shaft and parked the car up ready for Saturday.

Manx International

With the C2R2 finally sorted there has not been time to do a shake down event before Matt & Anthony leave for the Isle of Man on Tuesday so we will have to use the shake down stage on the island for our testing.

The car will run the same suspension & brake set up as used on the Jim Clark Rally in May and once again the plan will be to make sure we get a finish & not worry too much about setting the world on fire. Points gathering at this time is all important.

In view of the problems caused by the BSI board some rerouting of the wiring has taken place to enable a quick change should the problem recur. Plans to fit the uprated racing loom will coincide with the changes to the front roll cage / steering column support after the Trackrod Rally when the inside of the car will be fully repainted.

Championship Positions

Martin Roberts moves into the lead of the C2R2 Cup with Matt Cotton following in second place first round winner Andrew Hockridge is 3rd

1 Martin Roberts

2 Matt Cotton

3 Andrew Hockridge

4 Martin McCormack

5 George Thomas

6 Martin Laverty

7 Jason Pritchard

8 Nathan O'Connor

Fantastic Result for Matt & Anthony

After the nightmare of the Pirelli Matt Cotton was justifiably a little apprehensive when we met up at scrutineering on Friday. The car was finished in the morning and was still being adorned with stickers as we went into scrutineering. No problems arose and it was then just a case of waiting until 7 o'clock for the shakedown stage to start.

Martin Laverty's car had been checked over but he had decided to opt out of shakedown & headed for the accommodation & an early night.

Matt & Anthony headed off to the stage with a mix of slicks & inters with the intention of doing a couple of runs over the stage & then coming back to service to go onto slicks all round.

The first we knew of a problem was a phone call from Matt saying that on the second run through the stage they had a very heavy landing after a yump and the car had cut out & wouldn't restart. Luckily we have an override strategy for the car and after a little work they were able to restart the car and get back to service. We were able to rectify the problem & managed a full set of lights, wipers & indicators but as Matt was happy with the handling we opted not to go back to the stage.

Saturday dawned fine & dry but with a very cold wind. Pretty good conditions for rallying really. The first results showed that George Thomas had lost none of his speed from last year and was being chased hard by Martin McCormack with Matt in 3rd place.. Martin Roberts was next up followed by Martin Laverty & Jason Pritchard who was still in considerable pain from his recently broken ankle. Tail end Charlie was Andrew Hockridge who was later to hole his fuel tank on a loose cattle grid and retire to super rally.

Service format for the day was 3 20 minute services with a final one of 45 minutes before parc ferme & the days second service brought a host of problems for many of the teams. Andrew Hockridge was looking for a new fuel tank while both Martin Laverty & Martin Roberts had suffered from their cars cutting out on the stage. Martin L was convinced that it was fuel related & as several other people were were suffering a rumor started that there was a bad batch of fuel. Throughout the day we went through the fuel & electric circuits of the car as did the other service crews one crew would do something which seemed to cure the problem so lemming like the rest of us would change the item only to find the problem returning after a stage or two. Matt & Anthony

The electrical problem suffered on shakedown returned to Matts cars and the random operating of the wipers was distracting but not car stopping. As so many things were affected it seems to be an earth related problem but whether the result of damage from the Pirelli accident or the yump on shakedown we still have not found the problem. At the end of day one George led from Martin McCormack with Matt 3rd. Jason had developed the cutting out problem & had retired in order to rejoin under super rally.

Day 2 started with a bit of a panic as Our C2 wouldn't start in parc ferme. A battery pack soon started the car Panic Over.

First service was 15 minutes followed by one of 20 minutes, one of 30 and a final 10 minutes one to wash the cars off before the ceremonial finish in Kelso. By the second service we had a problem with our battery as it was seriously overheated [boiling], so a quick battery change to get Matt on his way while we carried on trying to solve the cutting out issue on Martins car. Martin McCormack had retired when a front hub failed promoting Matt to second Citroen C2.

The wait for the cars to arrive at final service was excruciating & when Matt phoned through he prefaced the news that they had finished with the fact that they had had a road traffic accident in the service area.

A fellow competitor speeding in the service area had slid into the front of the C2. He then had the nerve to blame Matt who was stationary at the time. Luckily a marshal had seen the incident & reported the Escort driver. Thanks pal, its bad enough when our own drivers damage the cars without having fellow competitors doing it.

After a wash & brush up both cars it was time for the cars to cross the finish line & in Matts case collect his trophy.

                    ***ALL Jim Clark photos are copyrighted to Matt Pennock Photography***

Late Set Back

This afternoon we finally road tested the C2 following its Pirelli upset. The new front brakes are awesome & I think that when fully bedded in will be a major improvement. Last year Kaz was happy with harder pads in the gravel calipers but I think he would have realised what he was missing had he have tried the tarmac set up.

As I took the car back into the workshop for final suspension set up, the clutch release bearing cried ENOUGH!! so instead of being ready to go tonight we have the box out and are awaiting TNT before 10.30 am delivery of a clutch kit.

The fuel  leak following changing the pump on the Pirelli seems to have been cured by fitting a new nylon seal so hopefully with the fitting of a new clutch Len & Nigel should be able to get away by lunch time.

Martin Laverty is already in Newcastle and will be in Kelso tomorrow, his gearbox repaired. 

Looking Pretty Again

Still a little bit to do before we leave for the Jim Clark but  mainly cosmetic. 

Repairs Nearly Complete

  Looking a bit better than when it left us and due back with us on Monday. I am expecting it to be all painted & finished otherwise we might struggle to be ready in time.

Pirelli International Saturday

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.

Pirelli Rally Friday

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.