MINISPARES EUROPEAN HISTORIC RALLY TEAM

EURO CLASSIC AND HISTORIC RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP 2000

Round 1            -          Rallye des Géants 4th & 5th March

Location            -          Armentieres (near Lille) France

Car                   -          Austin Cooper S MK1, 1293cc, registration 277BRX

Crew                -          Driver                -          Peter Horsburgh

Co-Driver          -          Mark Appleton

Service Crew    -          Spencer Horsburgh and Leigh Alexander

The first round of the European Tarmac Stage Championship was held in Armentieres and consisted of 152km of closed public road special stages held over Saturday and Sunday 4th / 5th March.

We left work on Thursday night to catch a late ferry from Dover, however, gale force 8 winds in the Channel meant only one boat was leaving or entering the port at a time and after a 2 hour delay and a rather choppy crossing we arrived at the Novotel at Englos at 4 in the morning. Also staying at the hotel were Gordon Howie and Wally Wright who were bringing out their recently acquired ex works Roger Clark Escort RS1600 MK1, the Team Embassy car PVX 400K.

Friday was spent recceing the stages and preparing our own pace notes for the co-driver to read back.These notes describe the severity of the corners and the junctions on the rally proper. The recce was carried out in torrential rain in the Volvo support car and we were not sure which tyres to use on the rally with the large amount of standing water.

Scrutineering on Saturday was very relaxed the only problem being a fused spotlight which was fixed by the service crew. A novelty was that all the cars were weighed, ours tipping the scales at 780kg somewhat more than the allowable of 650kg for a Mini + fuel and tools and spares.

The car was then put in Parc Fermé in the town square until our start time at 16.15, so we found a typical french café for a well earned dejeuner ( lunch).

As Saturday had dawned bright and sunny we opted for the Yokohama A0032R’s and the harder compound brake pads EBC Red’s.

The first two stages were only a short 15km link section out of Armentiere and were perfect and dry. Over the 15km of special stage we were second fastest historic after the Alfa Guilia of Marc Allayes and had already pulled out a 20 second cushion over the Cooper S of John Vandevenne and Luc Pyncket. Then we went into first service with no problems to report, we filled the tanks to the brim with Super Unleaded as the new Brian Slark prepared head has been converted to unleaded.

Stage 3 was going well until the clutch went solid and then disappeared altogether. We completed the stage without much time loss as the straight cut box allows slick changes without the clutch if you exercise a little care. We persevered over the next stage, starting the car in gear on the ignition key with the car eventually staggering down the stage as the engine came onto the cam.

At the next service we could see that the alloy housing had sheared behind the clutch lever as a result of the double nut vibrating up to the stop. Not repairable as we did not carry a spare housing! Total dismay!

We completed two more stages now in the dark, but we were losing so much time on the start line it was pointless continuing and risking a major off if I missed a gear.

So we reluctantly retired after stage 6 and reconciled ourselves to spectating on Sunday.

Still we have proved the speed is there, we now just need the luck! Roll on the next round which is the Monteberg Rallysprint in Belgium on 12th and 13th May.

Many thanks to the Minispares team at the new location in Potters Bar especially Justin Jeffries and Alex Cleland for their help in sourcing the necessary bits to get the ready for the season ahead.

Look out for the next report in May, and if you want to
know how to get started in Rallying send your questions in to the MINISPARES web
site.