Testing The Car The Team In Action At Smeatharpe

When Mark II Motorsport imported its Group A Escort Cosworth, the team were convinced that a quick clean and re - brand would see them on the stages in September!

However, in true Motorsport style, nothing was going to be that simple. Firstly the engines camshafts needed changing from a race to a rally specification and this in turn meant further modifications with the engine management. When rally engineer Dennis Osborne (of DOME Motorsport and Engineering) looked at the management system, the result was a lot of head scratching.

“I’ve never seen a set up like this” was his conclusion. So, a technical debate then ensued between DOME and Mountune Race Engines. The result was a revised engine management system.

With that sorted, the team was then at the mercy of the DVLA in Swansea in order to get the car registered. Fortunately this was done in the nick of time. All the documentation came through 48 hours before the 1st event, The Smeatharpe Stages near Exeter.

So the cossie was designated K775 EMO (now nicknamed EMOtional). In between the admin and engine sagas, team driver Mark Welch met up with Denis Osborne in order to shake the car down at Pershore Airfield in Worcester. The test proved encouraging, so the team arrived at Smeatharpe reasonably confident of a top ten result despite the fact that this was Welch’s first rally for over 4 years.

“We are seeded at11, so objective no.1 is to finish higher than that” said Welch. “If we get top 6 that would be excellent, top 3 would be a dream”.

The field of 70 lined up at the ex WW2 air base eagerly anticipating the 1st of the 10 stages. Weather conditions were wet and windy and the surface very greasy. Last years winners, Steve and Yvonne Furzeland were seeded 1 in their impressive Impreza S7 WRC. Car 2 was the mighty Metro 6R4 of Duncan Holder/Nick Reeves who as it happened, finished second in 2005.

Car 3 was an Escort Cosworth WRC driven by Mike Reed/Carl Sorenson. In fact, there were 4 recent event winners ahead of Mark II, the closest being Nigel Mummery/Shane Parry who were seeded at 10 and driving a similar Cosworth.

SS1 revealed the steepness of the learning curve! Mark, co driven by brother Paul completed the stage with a huge grin. “That was interesting” said Paul. “The car is very quick and stable, we had a huge moment mid stage when Mark got off line but we got away with it”. Mark was struggling with gear selection – the Fords seven speed box appeared to have a mind of its own. “I’ll get used to it”. So after the first stage, the team were lying sixteenth.

SS2 was much more like it, sixth fastest time despite being held up by a slower car for 2 miles. Up to eleventh overall, but still wrestling with the ‘box.

At the beginning of SS3, Mark learned he could use the “anti lag” system on the car. This all but eliminates turbo lag, but as it generates a lot of popping and banging, it is banned at some venues on the grounds of noise. What anti lag (or ALS) means to a car like a Cosworth is a time improvement of about 1 second a mile!

SS3 went pretty well, another place gained but those gearbox problems still persisted. Mark simply wasn’t getting used to the ‘box.

In service after stage 3, the trusted service crew of Bruce and Julian checked the car over under the watchful eye of Barry Guess. All seemed well. Out on the stages, the course was drying out, but this seemed to escape Welch’s attention. He opted to play safe and leave the intermediate tyres on a bit longer.

Disaster nearly struck before SS4 – the cooling fans had been left switched off. Whilst queuing for the start, Welch noticed the temperature of the engine had soared to 119 degrees. The fans were hurriedly switched on and no obvious damage done.

Gear selection STILL caused time loss, and to make matters worse, the ALS system malfunctioned meaning it had to be switched off. However, the team kept smiling and kept going. The leading quartet of 4 wheel drive cars were now out of reach, but the Cosworth of Mummery/Parry was very much the next target.

By the time SS7 arrived, the Team had got back to eighth, 9 seconds behind seventh and 18 seconds off of sixth. The lure of a possible sixth place was all too much. Another poor gear selection and cold tyres (slicks at last) saw the Welch duo spin off early in the stage losing at least 10 seconds. Ironically, the incident helped Mark work out a technique to improve his gear change thereafter.

The final 2 stages were by far the teams best, but despite finally being consistently competitive, they were unable to get back the time lost on stage 7. The final position was eighth, 10 seconds off of seventh and 23 seconds adrift of sixth. Crucially though, they came in 43 seconds ahead of Mummery.

“We gave away at least 45 seconds today with the spin, the loss of ALS and my inability to get to grips quickly with the box” said Welch afterwards. “That would have given us the sixth place we were after”.” However, we now know the car is good, the driver is less rusty and we will improve a lot”. “I have to say though that we might need to replace the gearbox for a 6 speed alternative to be really competitive as you spend too much time changing gear”.

Here’s to the next event, The Carfax at Longcross near Chertsey on 26th November. More news soon.

Mark II Motorsport Would Like To Thank Their Sponsors :-

Posted1st November 2006