Ti Motorsport

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.

Barton Stacey Test

Matt Cotton & Anthony Godden had their first taste of the Citroen C2R2 that they will use to contest this years C2R2 Cup at Barton Stacey on Sunday.

Their day got off to a delayed start however as Dave Edmunds had used the car to open the stage & managed to break the gearbox mount in the process. At the moment we are trying to decide whether the bolt broke or worked loose.

Once we got him comfortable in the car Matt soon came to terms with the extra power, he was running a GpN 1400 MG ZR last year and the sequential box. It was hard to wipe the grin off his face everytime he came into service.

With a days testing under his belt we are hoping for a good showing in Carlisle next week but are more interested in getting a finish and points on the board. Championships are won that way as last year proved.

2008 Updates

With our last minute deal with Matt Cotton signed & sealed we have a few changes to make to comply with the latest edicts from Citroen.

The cage at the rear has now had 2 additions to it, one a gusset on the near side and the other a bar between the hoop & rear cross bar. There are also mods to be done at the front but these have been deferred while Citroen decide what to do about the cars which were supplied as LHD and were converted to RHD before they themselves did it.

Before the Jim Clark Rally we are intending to re-do the interior and may try to upgrade to the competition loom with internal battery & aircraft spec wiring as well as the all singing all dancing dash.

Welcome to Matt Cotton

At last we have managed to seal a deal to contest the 2008 C2R2 Cup. Matt Cotton & co-driver Anthony Godden will join us in our championship quest. You can find out more about last years Silverstone Stars Championship runner up at CG Motorsport.

Because of the last minute deal we are planning to get Matt out at Barton Stacey on the 12th of April to get him some time in the car & are looking for a venue near Carlisle for a shake down prior to the Pirelli.