2004 BTRDA Silkoline 1400 Championship

Round 9 - Plains Rally & Round 10 - Cambrian Rally

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

BTRDA Silkoline 1400 Round 9, 25th September:- Plains Rally

Plains Rally

Round 9 of the BTRDA Silkoline 1400 championship took self and Mat Brennan to west Wales and the Plains Rally based in Welshpool.

At this event Mat and myself were looking to secure a place in top 10 of the series sitting just outside our target position in 12th position with only 5 points covering places 12th -9th.

The weather conditions for this event were tough with over night rain making the compacted surface very slippery. The event started well for us with self and Mat falling in to the routine well, we set 7th fastest time on the 1st stage our best 1st stage speed all year and followed it up on stage 2 with 6th fastest stage time.

Our pace was looking good and we were clear of our closet rivals for 10th in the championship.

Disaster stroke on stage 3 though, ending our hopes of a good finish.

On the slippery conditions the rear wheel of the car dropped in a gully as we exited a corner dragging the car in to ditch. We fought in hard for over 45mins to get the car out of the ditch and eventually we managed to get our selves out with a little help from spectators that has come from a field.

We were in luck though as the stage had been stopped due to 2 other more serious accidents so we were able to continue on and regain running position on the rest of the stages albeit out of contention.

The rest of the rally was a mix of small problems with the car and competitive pace as we fought against fuel pressure problems, windscreen wiper failure, and intercom failure to stay within the top 10 stages times for the rest of the day.

By the end of the day with all the problems we had had we were just glad to see the finish line, but very disappointed as we knew that our aim of finishing in the top 10 in our first season within a forest championship had slipped away from us.

I would like to say a big thank you to everybody from the INTECEPTOR Racing team that help on Plains Rally as the team really did make the difference this time in getting us to the finish, it’s just a shame that the battle was in vain!

BTRDA Silkoline 1400 Round 10, 6th November:- Cambrian Rally

Cambrian Rally

The last round of the season saw us make the trip to North Wales and the Cambrian Rally based in Llandudno.

Our hopes of a top 10 finish in the BTRDA Silkoline 1400 series were over as a result of the disappointment of round 9 so for this round we were playing just for fun and to gain the experience!

We were looking for a strong finish to the season to take us through in to next year but once again we were to be disappointed. This time after a frustrating start on the wet tarmac of the notorious Great Orme Toll Road with a misting windscreen we were battling our way back in to the top 10 after laying 24th.

We were quick over stages 2& 3 on a very fast slippery surface taking us through in to 8th place and only a hand full of seconds behind 7th. Once again it was not to be as mechanical failure struck as we were hard charging through stage 4 a drive shaft breaking as we negotiated an acute hairpin right. We managed to limp to the finish and back to main service but with no spare shafts we were helpless but to withdraw and ponder what might have been once again.

A hugely frustrating end to the season and one which has summed up our first attempt at a forest championship.

Starting the year completely fresh without any experience at such a level and on a surface that we had never competed was always going to be a steep learning curve and big challenge.

However this year we managed to compete in all of the BTRDA rounds and have gained valuable experience on each event, learning the stages, surfaces and different characteristics of the events. We have shown good pace and with every event improved but unfortunately we were stopped in our stacks all too often by bad luck, mechanical failure or both!

Looking forward to next year myself and Matt plan to build on the experiences from this year and compete in a reduced program of selected events that should allow us to develop the car further to improve reliability and still challenge for the championship.

Our pace at the end of this season placed us on the fringes of the top 5 so with better reliability our aim will be to break in to that top 5 in the championship.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all members of the INTERCEPTOR Racing team for their help and efforts during 2004.

I would also like to make a special thank you to Andrew Ledbury of Peter.B. Ledbury Ltd Panasonic Specialists in Wantage for his backing as my principle sponsor in 2004, with out his support our program of events during 2004 would simply not have been possible.

Till Next Year

Gavin Bristow