The Team In Action At Bovington

Stages: 8 – Starters: 85 – Finishers: 50

As in 2009, Mark II Motorsport opened its 2010 account at last Sundays Bovington Stages. With a more limited program of events planned in 2010 due to changes in the BTRDA Championship rules, Mark II were looking for a strong finish at this high speed venue although due to the popularity of the rally, a very good field was assembled! The team finished 5th in 2009, and seeded this time at car 3, driver Mark Welch was conservative about the team’s chances.

“We would love to get a podium finish but looking at the quality of the field, I’d be happy with a top six result” was his prediction. Co driven this year by the very welcome team newcomer, Helen Thompson, the team knew it would maybe be a bit of a learning curve.

The winter spruce up of the car had revealed one or two surprises including a badly cracked turbo charger, so there was a prospect of a bit more power from the blue Escort Cosworth. The competition would come from last years winner, Anthony Wilmington in a Mitsubishi Evo6, the husband and wife team of Steve and Yvonne Furzeland in a Subaru Impreza WRC, event sponsor Mark Worley in another Impreza WRC and a host of very quick 2 wheel drive Escorts and Darrian kit cars.

SS1 saw Mark II quickly out of the box. Great calling from the new co driver Helen who had quickly relaxed into the left hand seat saw a confident Welch pushing on. However, in an attempt to get the average speed down, the event organisers introduced a very tight hairpin chicane that literally stopped the Cosworth in its tracks. Welch had to reverse up losing valuable seconds and then had the same problem on the second lap! So effectively a brace of overshoots which must have costs somewhere between 15 and 20 seconds.

“It’s not just the time taken to carry out the manoeuvre” said Helen afterwards, “It’s the decision process in deciding to actually reverse as well!”

The timesheets didn’t look too terrible – sure, Mark II was down on leader Wilmington who was closely followed by Adrian Browns rapid Escort but the team still managed 4th fastest time.

SS2 was a repeat of the first and this time no such problems for the team. Joint second fastest time moved them to 3rd overall and there were a lot of smiles around.

Those smiles faded quickly as on SS3, the Cosworth picked up a vibration somewhere in the drive train. Even though Welch backed off, Mark II again recorded 4th fastest and held on to 3rd place. However, an inspection of the car by team mechanics Bruce and Dan revealed that 2nd gear had broken and retirement was the only option to save further damage to the gearbox.  

“I’m bitterly disappointed” said Welch afterwards. We were on the pace and I really felt we would get at least third if not better”. “It’s been a very long time since we’ve had 2 retirements back to back and I really don’t want another one for a while”.

The event was won again by Wilmington with Brown second and Furzeland 3rd.

So, promising pace, disappointing result. The next event will be the Monteburg Rallysprint in Dranouter, in West Flanders, Belgium. The team will be hoping for better luck there!!

Mark II Motorsport Would Like To Thank Their Sponsors :-

Posted 6th June 2010