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24.12.2006 - Here We Go Again

Well in 6 days time the new rally season is upon us again with Round One of The Tyrespot North Of England Rally Championship at Croft Racing Circuit for The Christmas Stages. We have been seeded at Car 18, 7 better than last year and 2nd class 3 seed. The event starts at 9.15am with 8 stages totalling 42 miles in what could be very slippery conditions.

As for the car it is in fine fettle with a new engine producing awesome power and a freshly rebuild gearbox, so for once the result should be just down to us and not mechanical reliability, see you there and have a great Christmas in between.

Andy Ward/Martin Farrar

11.11.2006 - End of Year Championship Results

Well despite not finishing an event since the Pendragon Stages in August and not finishing an event without having major problems since the Charterhall Stages in March we have managed to accumulate enough points to win our class in both the ANCC and NETRC rally championships, which is not a bad result all things considered.

Next year we will again be competing in both of these championships which commence with a NETRC round, The Christmas Stages, at Croft on the 30th December and then the Jack Frost Stages, which count for both championships on the 14th January at the same venue. Meanwhile we await the return of the engine from Scholar after a major rebuild, which will include a new motorsport head and different cams and the arrival of the gearbox back from our transmission guy with a new diff and crown wheel and pinion, talk about the calm before the storm.

21.6.2006

Never wanting to miss an opportunity to go even faster we have taken the need to sort out the head gasket that blew at Ingliston to have some more engine work done. This time we have gone for a full Monty 1900 cc Scholar engine which we picked up from their premises in Suffolk last Monday. This engine has been dyno run and is producing a healthy increase in both power and torque over the 1800 on pump fuel and we can't wait to use it in anger on The Turnbull Trophy Rally at Albemarle on 23rd July 2006.

 Unfortunately due to the new engine's late completion it has meant that we missed Weeton on the 18th June and that has more or less blown any chance we have this year of one of the major awards in the NETRC, although we still hold a healthy class lead but languish down in 6th overall in both the drivers and co-drivers championships.

16.4.2006

Having got used to being seeded well inside the top 10 and first 2WD car on most events we have entered recently we have been given a sucky seeding of car 18 for next Saturday's DCC Stages at Ingliston behind competitors we beat on a regular basis, we better not get baulked by these slower cars. The good new is that neither Tim Finch (Escort Cosworth) nor Bob Dennis (Subaru Impreza) have entered the event and as they lie respectively 1st and 2nd in the North of England Championship to our 3rd, this is very good news for our potential championship standings after this event ...................... better not count our chickens though, there are a 1000 corners to do first!

26.3.2006

Well spent the whole day yesterday at the XPower auction in Birmingham and bought sod all. Most stuff was fetching strong money and from our point of view the bits we really wanted were locked up in large batches that went for several thousand pounds a piece. The ex-Evans Rally of The Midlands Super 1600 went for £33,500 with a spares package that could have almost build two more cars subject to the Chinese releasing the spare shells from the main Longbridge factory at sometime in the near future. The package included an engine, at least 4 more 6 speed sequential gearboxes, engine parts, suspension parts and a whole lot more that did not seem to even belong to the S1600. It was amazing how people had crawled out of the woodwork for this sale including ex-employees, top clubman rally drivers and dealers from all over the country. There was also pretty strong interest on the web from Finland, France, Germany, Spain and the USA. Highlights of the car sale included,

 

MG ZR Super 1600 used by Gwyndaf Evans and Natalie Barret sold for £33,500	The fastest estate car in the world a 765 bhp MG ZT sold for £27,000
A DTM mock up MG ZT fitted with a supercharged V8 taking it to 385 bhp sold at £19750	The last competition car MG Sport and Racing ever built a 480 bhp MG ZT endurance racer at £33,500
A 329 bhp 1400 K series engined land speed record car that clocked 217.4 mph on the Bonneville salt flats in 1997 sold for £12,600	A 2.0 Judd engined circuit car that sold for £17,500
The last fully completed and unregistered  MG SV that sold for £51,700 including VAT	A 2.0 Cosworth engined development MG TF for circuit racing that sold for £16,000

11.3.2006

Having behaved without fault on The North West Stages the MG is now having a serious overall prior to the pounding it will no doubt get on the forthcoming Charterhall Stages on 1st April. The event this year has 7 stages totalling 55 miles and the clerk of the course tells us a lot of the really rough bit  have been cut out, so we hope he's right. There is an open day at the venue of the 19th March so we may well have a mosey on up and check out the conditions prior to committing ourselves to one or two changes that would be hard to reverse on the day. With a bit of luck the car shouldn't have to look like it did last year, where it would have been more suited to a Speedworth event at Arena Essex! What's up can't you spot any tarmac either?

5.1.2006

Following our showing on last year's Jack Frost Stages at Croft when we finished 2nd overall we have been seeded at  car 8 for a week on Sunday's 2006 event and are the only two wheel drive car in a top10 that features Tony Bardy's Nissan GTiR at car 1, three MG Metro 6R4's, two Mitsubishi EVO 6's, a Cossie, and pair of Imprezas. We really will have our work cut out on this one to get any where near last years success. Our main class opposition is likely to come from Andy Fenwick in his ex-works Nissan Almera kit car at car 11 and Dave Bellerby in his Escort MK2 at car 13, but no Darrians this year which is a bonus, so its just metal against metal.

See you all on the 15th and wrap up warm!!!

2.1.2006

If you needed any encouragement to sponsor the MG ZR with regard to the publicity it generates go look at page 50 of the new 2006 Quaife catalogue, awesome shot by Phil James of Pro-Rally Photography of the car completely airborne over the yump at Weeton last September on the MG Rover gearbox page. Pity is doesn't say who it us but if you had your company name down the side you would sure as hell be able to read it and that catalogue went out to every Motorsport News reader which has an average weekly circulation of 30K plus.

30.10.2005

Well despite all the second half of the season problems we had done enough early on this year to secure two of the major awards in this year's North of England Rally Championship with Martin taking The NEAT Motorsport Trophy for 3rd Overall in the Driver's Championship and I have taken 2nd Overall and The Golden Chip Trophy in the Co - Driver's Championship.

The fun all starts again we assume for round one of the NERC at the Christmas Stages at Croft Racing Circuit on Tuesday the 27th December 2005 so see you there and next year we WILL win this bloody championship ......... please MG?

The final standings in the Association of Northern Car Clubs Tarmac Championship (ANCC) puts both Martin and myself 2nd in class 2 - 1401cc to 1600 which, having only competed on 4 of the 5 rounds allowed and bearing in mind we were non-finishers on two of the four we entered, isn't a bad result . The Association of North West Car Clubs Championship still has a round to go at Anglesey on the 11th and 12th November but with Martin current lying 15th overall and 7th in class and myself 11th overall and 3rd in class there is unlikely to be any cigars from this championship.

Anyway time to start giving the MG a full check over prior to the fun all starting again in 8 weeks time and there is Christmas to pay for and I don't see the MG on the pressie list at the moment but you never know? ....................... Dear Santa, a 6 speed sequential gearbox and a 2 litre touring car engine conversion please!

Then I woke Up!!!

Andy Ward

3.10.2005

We have been seeded at car 7 for Sunday's Keith Wood Memorial Rally at Three Sisters Race Circuit behind the three Darrians of Robert Dick, John Harland and Bruce Edwards, Stuart Deeleys' Banks Lotus Europa, David Burns' Corsa Kit Car and Richard Banks Escort Cossie so we have got some mighty stiff opposition to overcome and that doesn't include good old Brian Whiting in his nutter 2.4 litre Fiesta Cossie straight behind us. The action starts at 10.00am and spectators are very welcome at this excellent for viewing venue, see you there maybe?

Andy Ward

23.9.2005

The engine has been remapped today and we have achieved our goal. The engine now produces maximum power some 500 rpm lower in the rev range than it did as a 1600, which helps in all sorts of ways and has seen a healthy increase in both power and torque producing 215 bhp at 8,000 rpm and 154 ft lb of torque from 3,500 rpm. Dave Walker says it is the most powerful 1800 engine his has ever mapped in a front wheel drive application which from a guy like him who has seen it all is quite a compliment, we'll see on the 9th October if it makes a difference at Three Sisters!

21.9.2005

Following the engine failure on Augusts' Pendragon Stages caused by the bottom cam pulley unbolting itself, we have at last got to the bottom of the problem albeit a little too late to mount any effective comebacks on the Tarmac Championships we have entered this year.
 
The end of the crankshaft has been damaged and is as a result unusable. Steel crankshafts for 1600cc K-series engines are a lot more difficult to come by especially since the demise of MG Sport and Racing, but 1800cc crankshaft and con-rods are fairly easy to come by, because they have been used extensively in engines for several racing series such as in MG TF's and Caterhams. Martin therefore made the decision, due to being unable to find a 1600 crankshaft at sensible money or any time soon, to obtain from our engine builder a set of 1800cc steel con-rods and a steel crankshaft and have the engine rebuilt as an 1800, refitting into the MG being completed today. This of course will move us up a class yet again but since the MG has been built we have had many successes for overall positions on rallies and have beaten most of the 2000cc stuff in any case.
 
Therefore the car is booked in for a re-mapping session at the end of this week and will run in class 3 (1601cc to 2000cc) from the Ken Wood Memorial Rally on the 9th October 2005 onwards. The move to1800cc should not only give us more power for less revs and therefore increase longevity and reliability but should also increase the torque available which was always relatively disappointing on the 1600cc engine.

Engine output figures to follow.
 

10.9.2005

Following a close inspection of all the damage we decided it would be prudent to pull the entries we had put in for the 11th September Weeton event and the 25th September Lindisfarne to give us sufficient time to sort out a myriad of problem not least of which was having to send the engine back up to Scotland to find out why the cambelt had yet again come off and then replace all the valves.

We have instead put an entry in for The Ken Wood Memorial Rally at Three Sister on the 9th October which gives us a chance to get some confidence back in the car and test out a few things before we aim to do the Cheviot Rally on the 25th October and it is a relatively cheap event to do being only 60 or so miles away in Wigan.

27.8.2005

Well after weeks of hectic work on the MG since Weeton putting right all the damage we inflicted the ZR is again ready to roll tomorrow on The Pendragon Stages where we have been seeded 3rd in class at Car 28 behind Barry Lindsay's Peugeot 106 and Carl Tuer's Proton Satria.

The ZR in the interim has had a new bonnet, a new windscreen, an offside front wing, side sill extensions, a Davies Craig electric water pump, 6 new inlet valves which had been bent when the belt came off at Weeton and a rolling road tune at Dave Walkers which proved to be very satisfactory!

Tomorrow will be our 2nd attempt at the Pendragon Stages on which we only managed to do 3 miles last year before the gearbox gave out. We are also trying for the first time pace notes using the number system so it could prove to be a very good or a very bad move, we'll know more tomorrow night. There are 14 stages in all covering about 68 miles with two spectator stages at Lowther Park, see you there.

29.5.2005 - Weeton Seeding

Well someone out there is keeping tabs on our recent results (Proflex Stages apart) and we have been given a well deserved seeding of Car 3 for The Brown's Motorsport Weeton Stages on June 19th behind Dave Willet's MK2 Escort (last year's winner) at Car 1 and Richard Bank's Cossie at Car 2. This event counts again for all three Championships we have entered so we definitely don't want any cock-ups on splits and laps and at Weeton that applies equally to both of us!

22.5.2005 - Proflex Seeding

We have been seeded just outside the top 10 at Car 11 and top up to 1600cc seed for this coming Saturday's Proflex Stages at the Leyland Test Track but what a top ten. Car 1 is Jim Rintoul in his EVO6 followed by Alistair McRae (yes the Alistair McRae) in his new MK2 Escort, then Steve Simpson in his Hyundai Accent WRC.

We will be very lucky to make it into the top 10 overall this time out but we have the consolation of having beaten Car 10, Brian Whiting at Three Sisters two weeks ago and car 4, Keith Davison at Croft in January. However the ultra fast bank circuit will favour high power to weight ratio cars such as Stuart Deeley's Europa Car 8 and Davison's Darrian so we will just have to wait and see.

In class our main opposition we see as Chris Tooze in his Corsa Kit Car at Car 20 and Roger Priestnall in his Proton Satria at Car 19. The action starts for the 8 stage, 44 mile event at 9.30am but unfortunately it is absolutely no spectators at this venue, but hopefully you can follow the event on the British Rally Forum at www.britshrally.co.uk

31.3.2005 - Charterhall Seeding

We have been seeded at a rather disappointing car 21 for this Saturday's Charterhall Stages (Round 3 of the North of England Tarmac Rally Championship) having beaten at least half a dozen of the cars seeded in front of us on the last round of the North of England Championship at Croft back in January. This time our main class opponents are the Iain Grubb in his 106 seeded at car 13 (hope he is not superstitious) and Carl Tuer seeded immediately behind us at car 22 in his ex-works Proton Satria Super 1600. Elsewhere on the entry list there are 15 Subaru Imprezas, 8 Mitsubishi EVO's, 6 Cossies, a 6R4, an Audi Quattro and a Darrian T90 so we have our work cut out for a decent overall finishing position but we would like to think we can make it into the top ten.

On a positive omen looking back over our results for the 38 events we have done together we have only been seeded at car 21 once before at Ingliston back in July 2001 and we managed to finish 9th overall and 1st in class. The event is open to spectators and the first car away for the 6 stage, 48 mile event will be Jock Threadgall at 9.01am in his Impreza, see you there maybe?

5.3.2005 - Roskirk Stages Seeding

We have received our highest seeding ever for next Sundays Roskirk Stages at 3 Sisters Race Circuit at Car 7. In class we have to beat David Burn's very quick Corsa 1600 Kit Car which as a result of winning the event overall last year is seeded at Car 1. John Stone in his 6R4 is a late entry at Car 2 and we also have Robert Dick's Darrian T90, Stuart Deeleys Lotus Europa and Richard Banks' Cossie to contend with as well as various other assorted Cossies, EVO's and Scoobies so it should be quite a battle. First car away is at 10.05 am and the venue is ideal for spectators, see the circuit's website at www.racing-school.co.uk/directions.html for full directions to the venue.

On the repair front since our off at Leyland on The North West Stages, 3 weeks ago we have fabricated and fitted a new front cross member and reset the suspension, repaired the gearbox mounts, replaced the clutch plate and fitted a new cable. We have also fabricated a new front tow hitch and on the improvement front we have a new Pacet competition engine fan fitted and if it arrives on time a new vertical hydraulic handbrake (over to you Demon Tweeks!).

See you next Sunday for hopefully a serious ass kicking session! (but preferably not us).

11.2.2005 - North West Stages Seeding

The seeded entry list for next weekend's North West Stages Rally has been released and is available to view at www.nwstages.bun.com we have been given start number 40 from a field of 110 cars, 3rd class B seed behind David Burn's Corsa at 27 and Peter Jackson's Escort at 39. There are also 27 4 wheel drive turbo cars seeded in front of us (5 at least to WRC spec.), as well as 3 plastic roller skates in the form of Darrian T90's, should be some worthy opposition then?!?!!!!

This makes our due start time from the Cenotaph on Blackpool's North Promenade 9.10 am with us due at the first stage start at 9.20 am for our first of two consecutive blasts around the 2.8 mile spectator friendly Promenade Stage.

See you there.

30.1.2005 - Between Event & Championship Update

Following on from our very successful 2nd foray up to Croft in as many weeks we have been busy putting right all the damage caused by our minor off. Once the front bumper was removed the full extent of the impact with the tyres could be seen, its just a good job we didn't hit the bales or the interestingly positioned fire extinguishers! Both headlights had been smashed from their mountings, the bumper itself has been split and more worryingly the cross member that runs behind the bumper had been shoved back 4" and was touching the radiator itself but luckily had done no damage.

Most of the parts have now been sourced from the local scrap yard and the main dealers and reassembly will be completed this week. We are also looking to mount a another pair of auxiliary lights, low down in the bumper where the original fog lights fitted, as there is a definite blind spot there, when going through chicanes and we will definitely need these for the last few stages on the North West Stages Rally.

Looking at the leader boards  for the various championships we have entered, Martin after two rounds currently lies 3rd in the North of England Drivers Championship and joint 1st in the up to 1600cc class with Barry Lindsay and I am leading the Co-Driver's Championship overall. In the ANCC Championship we are both leading our respective disciplines overall and the Tarmac and Multi-Use elements but with only one round gone there is a hell of a long way to go yet.

Listed below are the events that count for each Championship we have entered this year and those highlighted plus the one-off Tour of Mull are the events we are most likely to enter depending on finances and a lot of good luck!

For the ANWCC Stage Rally Championship if 12 rounds run then best 8 count, if 11 run then 7 count, if 9 then 6, etc for the overall title.

In the ANCC Stage Rally Championship your best 5 results from a 7 possible events count for both the multi-use and tarmac championships with your best 8 results from all ANCC events counting for the overall ANCC Championship title.

In the North of England Tarmac Rally Championship your best 7 results from a possible 12 count for the overall title.

10.1.2005- North West Stages

Our entry has also now been accepted for the 19th of February's North West Stages, which start from Blackpool and takes in stages on Blackpool seafront, Pontins Holiday Camp, Weeton Barracks, Clifton Sewerage Works and the Leyland Test Track to give 18 stages and 80 stage miles on this very popular and well organised multi-venue rally which will mark the start of our foray into the ANWCC Stage Rally Championship for 2005.

7.1.2004 - Jack Frost Seeding

The seeded entry list for next weekend's Jack Frost Stages is now available on Darlington and District Motor Club's website at www.darlington-motor-club.org.uk and we have been given a far better seeding than our last foray up to Croft two weeks ago at car 26. Barry Lindsey is seeded two cars in front of us at car 24 so whatever weather conditions he has to endure we should get the same. The event starts at 9.30am next Saturday morning the 15th January and will consist of 8 tarmac stages over approx. 36 miles, spectators are most welcome. Top class 2 seed is an unknown (to us) quantity in Roger Priestnall in a Proton Satria but we will know after SS1, be there!!!

END