| |
 |
|
|
|
Rally
Reports 2000 Season - Millbrook Rally
|
New Car
May bank holiday Monday
saw the return to the National championship of Mark
II Motorsport in their new Escort Cosworth WRC.
Seeded at 7, the serenity of the team in the service
area prior to the event belied the almost unbelievable
activity involved in building the new car of the
past 10 weeks.
Mark Welch explains: -"Since writing off our trusty
Cosworth at Longcross in December, we have been
putting together the WRC Escort. Because of tight
budgetary constraints, we have had to be very alert
to the purchasing of parts etc but we have succeeded
in putting together a car which a year ago would
have cost you around £60,000 to buy!". "We have
to thank all of our sponsors who have made this
possible".
In true rallying style, the car was finished less
than 24 hours before scrutineering, and many thanks
also has to go to Dino, Dennis, Snipe, Colin, Stan
and the rest of the lads at DOME. In view of the
tight timescales and the extreme nature of The Millbrook
proving ground, this first rally was little more
than a competitive test using fellow competitors
as benchmarks. Add to this the fact that is was
Mark Welch's first drive in anger with a left hand
drive car, his first rally since the huge accident
and Co-driver Mark Norris's first event for a year
made the whole prospect very interesting to say
the least!
Faught Affair!!
SS1 was a fraught
affair. Immediate intercom failure meant a blind
run through the stage, but never the less, 12th
fastest was the reward, much to the team's surprise.
Having got the dreaded first stage under their belts,
the team set about SS2 with much more vigour! Mark
Norris takes up the story. "We flew around the course
and at the halfway mark were over 15 seconds up
on our first time. However, just after the merge,
the power steering failed at a most inopportune
moment nearly sending us into the Armco". The car
limped out of the stage losing about 1.5 minutes
and dropping the team to 38th out of the 155 runners.
Rapid repairs were made so SS3 could be attempted.
A mediocre time moved the pair up 10 places. At
this juncture, more teething problems had been encountered
such as low turbo boost, a broken rear anti roll
bar giving "interesting" handling, and no water
injection or anti lag making the car sluggish off
the line and out of the slower corners. These things
were only to expected and hopefully accounted for
the majority of time being lost on the stages (about
2.5 seconds a mile to the leaders).
Into The Groove.....But!
After SS6 Mark
and Mark had actually got back into the top twenty
and their pre event goal of top 15 was firmly in
sight. Sadly on SS7, the penultimate stage, a transmission
failure (which again nearly sent the car off the
road) and resulting puncture put the team out. It
later transpired that a front driveshaft had failed
giving the car 3 wheel drive in mid corner, hence
the excitement! Out but certainly not down! "Its
been a fantastic day, we've learnt so much about
the car, found its faults, exorcised a few demons
and proved we will be competitive next time out"
said an enthused Mark Welch.
Many Thanks
Mark II Motorsport
would like to thank
their sponsors: - Bluecol Brands, TotalFina, SFL
ltd, GP Engineering and Springwood Aviation Services.
Special thanks to DOME and RallyGallery.com
|
|
|
 |
|
|
