Mini Tempest Stages 2004Longcross - 28th March 2004Report by Rob Slingerland & Peter Wood Thame Motorsport Club had five entries for this event: -
Dick Mauger / Andrew Street. Set 15= fastest on SS1 but 22s quicker on SS2 and 8th fastest. Storming by SS4 and 2nd quickest overall! Mr consistent then stayed within a couple of seconds of the eventual winner all the way. He beat the EVO 4 that finished 6th overall on every stage! Finished an excellent 5th overall and won his class. Richard Upton / Stuart Parkins. All going well to Stage 4, when dropping 20s to SS3. Heard that he blew turbo and retired on SS6 with a single lapper. Dave Keen / Matt Bateman. Newly built car out for the first time, an Astra 1.6 3 door Mk3 with fairly standard engine other than camshaft. First stage car ran great, although Dave having to learn about a new car, and remember what lift off over steer was (bit different to the Skoda, which didn’t have any). Stage 3 and getting a bit more settled, but the car had developed a flat point and it would not rev easily past 5-5500rpm, and after crossing the finish beam the car cut out, needing the car towed back to service. Frantic working and tinkering eventually got the car running again after cooling down, but none the wiser of the fault. Stage 4 and again the car would not pull past 5-5500rpm easily. Having completed stage 4 came back to service, but the car would not then restart. The day unfortunately ended in disappointment. Turned out to be a fuel pump/ injection relay costing £6! Stephen McDonald / Rob Slingerland, using the ever-reliable Skoda of Dave Keen. Steve built this car a number of years ago and competed in the BRC then sold it to Dave. This was Steve's first event in over 3 years and Steve had lined up his friend to co-drive for him but by Saturday had not got his licence through, so I stepped in. Stage 1 was a learning curve for both of us, Steve in getting used to the car again, and me coming to terms with the fact I had no pedals to press. Stage 2 and with a few pointers to Steve with lines etc on the road we improved in time, from Steve's admission he was trying to overdrive the car at points. Throughout the day we remained consistent, Steve got quicker as the day went on and more confident in the car, we ended the day 39th O/A and a superb 2nd in class out of 10 starters, well done Steve. Terry Brooks / Tom Brooks. The Brooks brothers out again in the pug 1.9, again mixed fortunes for this crew, started cautiously and built up speed stage by stage, until the intervention of a misplaced tree, I quote " I was going a bit quick and couldn't scrub enough speed off (lucky the tree was in the right place then)", dented rear wing and bruised pride, they carried on, ran to the end of the day and picked confidence back up. The dent will push out so evidence will disappear just need to replace the wheel arch trim. They had an up and down day on timings with SS2 some 20s better than SS1, but the killer was SS5 where they dropped over 5 minutes! They finished 58th overall and 16th in class of 32, but without the dramas would have been 15 places higher and about 11th in class. A great event as usual, with a really strong capacity field of 90. A mixed day for the club – 2 retirements, an accident and finish, and a first and second in class. Home | News / Info | Calendar | Event Reports | Photo Gallery | Rally Teams | Contacts | Links - Updated Sunday, 24 February, 2008 |
