2004 BTRDA Silkoline 1400 Championship

Round 2 - Malcolm Wilson Rally & Round 3 - North Humberside Rally

Report by Gavin Bristow and Matt Brennan, Photographs by Simon Clarke (www.sc-photography.co.uk)

BTRDA Silkoline 1400’s Round 2, 6th March:- Malcolm Wilson Rally

Malcolm Wilson Rally

Round 2 of the Silkoline 1400’s took Myself Mat and the rest on the INTERCEPTOR racing team on the long journey to Cambria and the Malcolm Wilson rally based in Cockermouth. Following on from our previous outing on the Wyedean rally we were looking forward to our next challenge and improving on our previous finishing position.

For this event we tried some different tyres from the previous and all seemed to be working ok as we worked our way up to 9th in class going in to the long 12.5 mile Grizedale north stage. Having being warned of the terrors of Grizedale we came through unscathed climbing to 7th in class and feeling confident. Grizedale bit back though on stage 6 as we came to grief on an R8 double caution deceptive bend. The car just got a little air over a rise on the apex of the bend and slapped the car in to the bank causing us to roll 180deg on to our roof - gutted!

Before we knew it we were back on our wheels thanks to some very enthusiastic spectators and attempting to continue. However the impact had unfortunately ripped the lower ball joint apart and that we were out of the rally, and we were left to ponder on what might have been.

Too fast too soon with insufficient notes knowledge was the diagnosis. The car though was ok which was credit to the build strategy of strength and safety being the priority.

The structure hadn’t moved an inch, not even a crack in the paint where it mattered although there was plenty of panel beating to do before the next event with every panel receiving an awakening thump or two! Luckily there were plenty of spectators at that point in the forest and we have managed to get the whole incident on video if anyone wants a look!! Its digital as well so could be attached to the web page!

BTRDA Silkoline 1400’s Round 3, 27th March:- North Humberside Rally

North Humberside Rally

Round 3 of the Silkoline 1400’s took Myself Mat and the some on the INTERCEPTOR racing team on another long journey to Hull for the North Humberside stages. Other members of the team were on circuit racing duty with our MK4 Vauxhall Astra at castle combe so we were a little tight of facilities and people but the core was still there.

After 3 long weeks of late nights in the garage panel beating, fibre glassing, filling and painting the car now looked semi-ok and was back in perfect condition ready for another crack between the trees.

This event was the first one to contain a pure tarmac stage in the shape of Oliver’s Mount Motorcycle track which is basically described as a narrow circuit cut in to the side of a big hill with no run off consisting of fast flowing bends and tight hairpins that made for some great photo opportunities. This was the first time I had driven the car in anger on dry tarmac at all and the first time trying to drive quickly on forest suspension which made things a little interesting! The route was quick seeing us up in to 5th on a number of occasions and daring not to look down! The stage left us 10th quickest 1400 so we were more than pleased with the result. Then it was on to the real stuff and again the stages were very quick and pretty rough even to the point where annoying man mad chicanes were added to reduce the average speeds, these did keep you on your toes though with many coming to grief in the braking areas. Through out the day we maintained a decent pace with the aim of the event to bring the car back home in one piece with no excursions to the scenery.

The car ran faultlessly all day and we managed to bring the car home for a 9th in B9 finish 15th 1400 from 49 starters and 92nd overall. The next round is the Somerset Stages in Minehead on the 23rd April, a little closer to home! I am working on some improvements to the cars suspension set up at present and hopefully we can go one better than last time!