The Team In Action At Millbrook

Stages: 10 – Starters: 101 – Finishers: 70

After the Four Counties event at Longcross, Mark II headed north to take part in the second round of the BTRDA National Asphalt series event, the Tamdown Milbrook National Rally. Based at the ex Vauxhall proving ground at Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire, this daunting Nurburgring style venue has over the years seen everything from Tommi Makinen losing the rear wheel of his Mitsubishi on the Network Q rally of GB to James Bond (aka Daniel Craig) rolling his Aston Martin DB9 in the film Casino Royale!

Seeded at car five, Welch was cautious about the teams’ chances. “I think our seeding is ambitious – in front of us we have 2 previous winners here (Steven Hendy, Focus WRC and John Indri, Metro 6R4) and some very quick boys behind us”. “Not only that, but this is a very tricky venue that’s more like a roller coaster than anything else and I haven’t competed here for 8 years!”

Add to all of this the fact that the weather was rain, rain and more rain plus co driver Hollie Roberton had never even seen Milbrook before and you knew it was going to be an interesting day………

The quality of the field was probably the best the team had come up against for some time, with further threats from Gary Le Coadou in a Toyota Celica, championship leader Chris Davies in a Darrian T90 as well as 2 further Darrian kit cars driven by James Hoseasons and John Harland. Lurking further down the order was Simon Gudgeon in another super quick Metro 6R4 and Chris Jones in his Focus 4wd.

Not surprisingly, Welch took a conservative approach to SS1 to play himself and Hollie in to the twists, turns and many blind crests on offer at Milbrook. Without too much drama, the duo were pleasantly surprised to find they had posted 5th fastest time but were off the pace of Hendy who set the fastest time just ahead of Davies and the Darrian. The good news was that 6th fastest driver; Tim Wilson was 10 seconds adrift of Mark II.

The heavens opened whilst the teams lined up for SS2 catching many on dry weather tyres including Mark II. Mark elected to let Davies (car 6) start ahead of the Cosworth. “We’ll let him worry about us now” was the advice to co driver Hollie. Another 5th quickest time was posted, 0.9 seconds behind Indri and 6 seconds off Davies in the Darrian. Mark II further increased the gap on 6th place which was now occupied by Hoseasons, nearly 30 seconds back!

With rain now really set in the team made some adjustments to the Cosworths (new) suspension and fitted wet weather tyres. “We are not going to beat the 4wd cars ahead of us, but we could catch Davies” said Welch. “We are also now comfortably ahead of the rest of the pack so the objective is a class win and maximum championship points if we can catch that Darrian!”

Further steady runs on SS3 and 4 saw the team consolidate 5th position and really start to enjoy the challenging venue. In fact on SS4 they started to eek a little time from 4th placed Davies taking 4th fastest time and was now over a minute clear of Hoseasons who had Le Coadou breathing down his neck.

Things changed on SS5. Coming up to one of Millbrook’s highest corners, Welch and Roberton came across the stationary Metro of 3rd placed Gudgeon. Assuming the car had broken down, Welch continued to the stage finish but something was missing – the Darrian of Davies. Hollie had spotted that although the Metro had stopped, signs from the side of the track indicated another car off which later turned out to be Davies.

The Darrian crew had experienced an enormous accident, rolling over the crash barriers and 30ft down an embankment. Co driver Brandon Parker was unscathed but unfortunately Chris Davies was hospitalised with a cracked rib and damaged vertebrae – we wish him a speedy recovery. The whole incident happened in front of Gudgeon who stopped to offer assistance to the stricken crew.

So SS5 was cancelled.

Mark II, now in 4th and able to meet its objectives, rattled off the final 5 stages at 9 tenths pace setting 4th fastest time on each stage and ultimately finishing over one and a half minutes ahead of the next championship contenders Gary Le Coadou and Paul Hollingham in a Toyota Celica GpA. 17 seconds further back was the Focus of Chris Jones and Richard Williams.

At the front, the event was won by Hendy in his ex works Focus WRC from Metro 6R4 duo of Indri and Gudgeon.

“We’ve had a great day” said Hollie, “This place is a roller coaster ride and really challenging”. Welch was also full of smiles. “We’ve got maximum points for our first BTRDA event, bagged maximum points for the South of England Rally 2008 Championship and taken first in class, I’m well pleased”.

So, a big step in the right direction for the team who are now 7th in the BTRDA rankings (see www.asphaltrallying.com). The next round is the Midlands Rally on 20/21 June. More News soon.

Mark II Motorsport Would Like To Thank Their Sponsors :-

Posted 29th May 2008