2004 BTRDA Silkoline 1400 Championship

Round 6 - Dukeries Rally & Round 7 - Quinton Stages

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

BTRDA Silkoline 1400 Round 6, 24th April:- Dukeries Rally

Round 6 of the BTRDA Silkoline 1400 series took Mat and me to Mansfield near Nottingham and back to the event which in 2003 we vowed to be competing in along with all the other BTRDA events during 2004.

Dukeries Rally

On visiting in 2003 we were keen to get out there and see what we could do within the highly competitive championship, so to be there this year in the thick of it was nice.

For this event we had improved the transmission changing from a quaife torque bias diff to a Tran-x plate diff along with larger competition drive shafts and F20 CV joints. This would be the first time I had driven a front wheel drive car with such a set up so the aim was to take things easy to begin with and pace up as the day went on.

The stages for this event were quite fast consisting of many long rough straights and 90 deg bends. The stages throughout the day went well with no mechanical problems and both driver and co-driver were happy with the progress. This cars handling had changed dramatically and combined with the better tyres that we had recently changed to I was able to feel and balance the car much better with the biggest gains being made with the increased mid corner and exiting grip allowing me to use all of the power that is available.

Going in to the last 2 stages of the rally we were laying 7th and in close contention with our closest rivals. The penultimate stage was a part re-run of stage 2 from earlier in the day and with greater confidence in the car I attacked the stage a little harder throwing some caution to the wind. Unfortunately this was to become our downfall.

The stage was going well and myself and Mat were really getting in to a good rhythm with the notes, Mat called a R2 over blind crest after a fast approach and the line I took launched the back of the car it to the air reminiscent of Marko Martins recent big accident in the WRC, we were flying through the air staring at the gravel below….not a nice feeling!! The difference was though that we managed to get away with it taking a huge impact landing nose first. We carried on regardless as all seemed to be fine inside the car and although there were various rattling and shaking noised that we didn’t previously recollect the car was still handling ok and the engine etc working fine, we continued on to set 2nd fastest stage time only second to Ian Evans our best stage time so far this season pushing our way through to 5th in class. There was another stage to go and after a very quick scan over the car in the queue for the last stage myself and Mat though we had got away with it!!

It wasn’t to be though as with 2.5miles to go we exited a 90 right and the suspension broke shearing a ball joint stem and taking out the engine crank sensor with it! Gutted!! Mat and myself were left to ponder what could have been whilst sat in the forest for 2 hours watching everyone else having fun! Although very frustrated with the result we were glad to see that the investment had made a difference and that was were now capable of putting times in around the top 5. With this in mind we were really looking forward to the next round of the BTRDA series.

BTRDA Silkoline 1400 Round 6, 22nd May:- Quinton Stages

Round 7 of the BTRDA Silkoline 1400 series took us to mid Wales and again we were going to be running though some stages that the WRC championship uses so we were looking forward to the challenge.

Despite the disappointment of the last rally, but cheered on by our increased pace we were really keen to get back out there and mix it with rest of the highly competitive crews that are contesting the championship.

Quinton Stages

The results from stage one were a clear indication that the days rallying was to be competitive as we were placed 8th with 7th,& 6th places all within a second of us.

Disaster struck on stage 2 though after about 3 miles – whilst exiting a bend we ran wide after going in a little deep on the brakes, and whilst on opposite lock with the power on, a CV joint shattered taking us out of the rally and, after our poor result on the previous event, out of the top 10 in the championship. Gutted once again.

At times like these the sport really tests your resolve. The irony being that we had competed in 5 previous rally’s with smaller drive shafts and CV’s with no problems and now with larger stronger items we go out because of a CV failure!!

We have a good 6 week break for the summer now the next event being the Woodpecker on September 4th based in Ludlow. During this time I plan to improve the suspension further and complete some testing to work on reliability. The aim of the next few rallies is to finish and try and get ourselves back in to the top 10.

The situation is frustrating now as we know we have the pace to compete but reliability is letting us down, a situation we must improve upon if we are to succeed in finishing in the top 10 in our first season in the BTRDA Silkoline 1400 series.