Time for a bit of a break for Ti with no events scheduled until the Neath Stages on the 16th of August. Details of the event can be found at www.threecountiescarclub.co.uk
Following his Manx accident Tony Simpson will be trying to put that behind him and is looking forward to being in the forests again.
Tony will be joined by Rob Richards in his Peugeot 106.
While I am away on the Isle of Man Len Davies will have his work cut out on next weekends http://www.swanseabayrally.com/. with 3 cars out, this being the 3rd round of the Peugeot 205 1400 Challenge & also a round of the WAMC National Championship.
Current championship leader Chris Hellings will be looking to consolidate his lead buoyed by his performance on last months Dukeries rally. Lucas Hunt will be contesting his first ever proper forest rally & whilst a bit apprehensive was encouraged by his performance at the Sweet Lamb test day.
Richard Phillipson will be on duty in the National event though whether with Quaife box or standard version depends on the repairs to the diff being completed in time.
This weekends http://www.quintonstages.org.uk sees us looking after 4 cars with Rob Richards in his 1600 Peugeot 106 joining the party.
The event should also have seen the debut of our second 1400 C2. Continued problems associated with the 16v installation are still being resolved.as a result Dominic will be out in the 205 used by Robert on the Somerset Stages earlier this year.
The full line up will be Richard Phillipson in his Honda & Rob Richards and his 106 in the main event with Rob Brookes & Dominic Hodge in C2's in the 1400 event.
We seem to have a couple of weeks now without an event and might stand a chance of catching up with the backlog of work.
Next outing for the team is the mid Wales based Quinton rally where Richard Phillipson will continue his attack on the WAMC National championship. Joining Richard will be Robert Brookes in his Decantae sponsored Rally First Citroen C2 & making a return after missing the Dukeries will be Dominic Hodge. Dominic will be partnered by Stefan Arndt for the last time so is looking for a co-driver for the remaining rounds.
This weekend sees round 3 of the Rally First series moving to the Nottingham area for the www.dukeries-rally.co.uk . This year the event is based at Southwell Race Course with scrutineering on Friday between 16.00 & 20.00.
This will see Robert Brookes & co-driver Rachel Brockington out for the first time together in the 1400 C2, they will be up against Chris Hellings in his Ti prepared 205 and the team will be completed by the 106 of Rob Richards & Wendy Gibson who are running in the main event as their car is 1600cc.
Both of our C2's are now ready to go and I must say that Robert Brookes' 1400 looks very very smart in its new livery.
Still have a few little things to sort before the Dukeries next weekend but the car is all set for Chatsworth.
With the Jim Clark Rally out of the way we now have an event each weekend for the next 4 weeks. This weekend its the Severn Valley stages with the Honda. Next weekend sees the C2 R2 & the 1400 C2 at Chatsworth, Matt with the R2 getting bonus points for the BRC & Robert Brookes showing off his new car. Martin Head will be at Abingdon on Sunday.
The following weekend and its off to the Dukeries with Robert Brookes in the BTRDA Rally First C2,& Chris Hellings in his 205 getting in some gravel practice before Swansea Bay.
Next up is the Midland rally which is the 2nd round of the BRC Challenge where Tony Simpson will try to get some points on the table following his non finish on the Pirelli. Plans are to also run the C2R2 to give Matt a little more time in the car before the Manx International
This weekend Richard Phillipson & Brian Cammack will be out in the Honda and at long last will have the 4.8 close ratio box available.Full details of stages & entries can be found at www.severnvalleystages.co.uk
They are competing in the National section of the rally so will not be adding to their Clubmans points tally
We hope to have Richard Phillipson out at Goodwood next weekend subject to the Honda gearbox issues being resolved. This will give him the opportunity to get used to the very different ratios before the next round of the Welsh Championship.
Following a couple of months frantic activity we now have a 3 week break until The Jim Clark Rally. This will see us run 2 C2R2's for the first time, Martin Laverty, last years Champion, joining Matt Cotton in the Ti Motorsport line 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
