4 finishes out of 5 cars over the weekend on the Isle of Man and at Swansea Bay.

Isle of Man

Matt Cotton and Anthony Godden finished 5th C2 after restarting Saturday under Super Rally rules. They broke a shaft and damaged the gear box on Friday night but these were replaced for Saturday. More midnight oil for the service crew, but at least we seem to have cured the electrical gremlins suffered on the Jim Clark rally.
The new red 1400 C2 was 4th on the BRC Challenge rally day 1 in the hands of Tony Simpson but unfortunately they went off on Day 2 and were unable to get back on the road! The damage is not as bad as first feared but the body shop will be busy to get it ready for the next Challenge round at Neath in four weeks.

Swansea Bay

Richard Phillipson finished 29th overall on the Swansea Bay National event in his Honda with the old box in. We weren't able to get the Quaife box with Gripper lsd repaired in time for this event.
Lucas Hunt finished second novice and 6th 1400 on the 205 challenge part of Swansea Bay. Chris Hellings finished second 1400 expert and third 1400 205 having picked up a 1 minute road penalty! Without the penalty he would have been on the pace with Andrew Chalmers who won the 1400 205 challenge on this round. The 1400's are off to Otterburn in September for their next round.

Dukeries

Robert Brookes was out on the Dukeries rally and found the going rather rough especially on the second run. The crew finished 85th overall and 5th Rally First.

Busy Busy BusyIt is all go at the moment. The C2R2 and the 1400 C2 were at Chatsworth for the Rally Show. Martin and Neil were at Abingdon in the 1400 MG but unfortunately put a rod through the block on the last stage when they were leading the class. Robert Brookes tested the 1400 C2 at Sweet Lamb in preparation for the Dukeries. Lucas Hunt went to Sweet Lamb with the 205 for the 205 Challenge test day. Then the Tony Simpson and Stefan Arndt are out on the next round of the BRC Challenge on the Midland rally. Then we have a weekend off!

Severn Valley Stages

Congratulations to Richard Phillipson and Brian Cammack who finished second in class and 30th overall on the Severn Valley Stages rally in Mid Wales. It was the first outing for the new gearbox and LSD and Richard was very pleased saying that the LSD had pulled himout of a couple of dodgy situations. The crew's next outing is the Quinton at the beginning of July.

Jim Clark Rally

Congratulations to Matt Cotton and Anthony Godden, who finished second C2R2 and 24th overall on the Jim Clark rally. This was a great relief to the whole team following the roll on the Pirelli. The car suffered from electrical gremlins for the whole event but most of the other C2 crews had cutting out problems, including Martin Laverty.

After the first day of the Jim Clark rally, Matt Cotton and Anthony Godden are lying 3rd C2R2, which is pretty good considering that they have been beset by electrical gremlins since the start. The car cut out on shakedown on Friday night, but the service crew thought they had cured the problem. Now when they go over a bump the wipers may come on!
They are going steady so that Matt can get more familiar with the car. They want a finish this time.

TI is also looking after Martin Laverty's car on the event. He is suffering from fuel supply gremlins along with some of the other crews!

205 Challenge round 2

The second round of the 205 1400 Challenge was held at Twyford Wood and Chris Hellings (pictured right) finished second to Andy Chalmers. Lucas Hunt (left with his reshelled car) was 5th. The next round is Swansea Bay in July.

Pirelli Disaster

Matt Cotton and Anthony Godden have hired the C2R2 for this years C2 cup. The first round was the Pirelli Rally based at Carlisle. The event started on Friday night but unfortunately they suffered fuel pump failure, but were able to restart on Saturday under super rally rules. Saturday was progressing ok when they rolled out of the event!
The silver C2 1.4 is being used by Tony Simpson and Stefan Arndt on the BRC Challenge which runs in the National section of the BRC rallies. They lost all their water when a hose split on only the second stage of the event!Red Dragon Rally

Well done to Richard Phillipson and Brian Cammack, who finished 43rd overall and 5th in class on the Red Dragon rally. Unfortunately they were still without the new gearbox as it was returned to us the day before the event without some of the bits!

North Humberside Rally

Congratulations to Dominic Hodge and Stefan Arndt who took the 1.4 C2 to 73rd overall and 3rd in the rally first 1.4 class on the North Humberside rally.

Some you win - Some you lose

Congratulations to Chris Hellings who won the first round of the 1400 205 challenge on Easter Saturday at Manby. Commiserations to Lucas Hunt who rolled the ex Barry tottie car! Lucas has never competed before and drove the car for the first time in anger at the 205 test day at Blyton earlier this month.
Chris Hellings has joined the Ti line up in the 1400,s for 2008. Chris has been around in the challenge for a couple of years but this is the first time we have had the opportunity to work with him.
Last year Chris suffered reliability problems, particularly related to head gasket failure though on investigation this was more likely to have been caused by one of the liner seals failing. Cooling system pressurised similar symptoms to head gasket failure different caused.
Chris will be using the engine that powered Paul Dark to his Championship and in its current form is producing 93bhp. During the year we are looking to find that extra couple of bhp to bring it up to the injected 106 version. [Not the XSI version which is rated at 100bhp]

Wyedean

Congratulations to Richard Phillipson and Brian Cammack who finished 72 overall and 4th in class on the Wyedean. The car should have had a new Quaife gearbox but unfortuantely the parts did not fit and so they had to use the original box.
Richard is planning to do the Welsh Association of Motor Clubs championship this year with the possibility of doing one or two forays over the Channel. The next round is the Red Dragon at the beginning of April and the new box will be in for then.

2008 Season OpenerMartin Head and Neil Billingham have got their 2008 season off to a good start with a class win on the Southdown stages at Goodwood. The sequential box has been rebuilt and the paddle system revised and, while the system was not perfect, it worked better than it had on any of the occasions the sequential box was used in 2007. The crew were lying 10th overall after the 5th stage but Martin planted the car on a tractor tyre at a chicane on stage 6 and the crew lost some 2 and a half minutes. Luckily for them the next in class suffered head gasket failure so they remained first in class but dropped to 23rd overall.