West Midlands Motorsport Junior Team - Trackrod National Rally

Members of the West Midlands Motorsport Junior Team had a very successful day at last weekend's Trackrod National Rally, when they scored an unprecedented 1^st, 2^nd and 4^th places on the latest round of the Quaife Peugeot 205 1.9 Scholarship. Tom Curtis and co-driver Dai Roberts took their third consecutive win of the 2005 season by 1 minute 3 seconds from Matt Barker / Richard Walker, with Jody Bowcott / Gareth Evans chasing hard, 1 minute 55 seconds in arrears.

The Trackrod National Rally consisted of eight fast, slippery stages in the Dalby Forest complex in North Yorkshire. It has a reputation for being a rally for the brave, with long straights - sometimes more than half a mile - linked by narrow, blindingly quick corners that are often hidden by blind crests.

Curtis, as usual, was unfazed by reputations and after a short spectator stage in Pickering, set off into the forests in second place. But he had a problem, as he later explained: "Dai had been comparing route notes with another navigator before the start, and they both picked up the wrong set of notes when they got in the car. We use a completely different system to the other crew, so we had to convert their notes to our style on-stage, until we could swap them back at service."

Roberts's efforts at frantic mental conversion obviously worked, as Curtis was consistently fastest through the first loop of stages. He took the lead, before pulling away from Barker and arch-rivals Simon Moore / Huw Mathias in the middle of the day. The Welshman was particularly fast through the 16-mile long Givendale stage, stopping the clocks 21 seconds faster than the rest of the field.

The destiny of the winner's trophy was decided not on the stages, but at second service. Moore incurred more than a minute of time penalties for being late out of service after his mechanics needed to fix a rear suspension problem. Despite mounting a strong fightback, Moore had conceded too much time and Curtis was able to back off in the closing miles to secure the win. As a bonus, Curtis finished eighth overall in the rally, beating many more powerful four-wheel drive cars.

Barker's up-and-down season received a timely boost with second place, and tenth in the overall rally standings. The Birmingham driver led after stage one, but then, by his own admission, was too cautious through stage two and dropped to third. Fading brakes on stage three compounded his problems, but swift work by the West Midlands Motorsport mechanics, changing the brake pads at service, renewed his confidence and he was back to full pace throughout the remaining stages. After Moore's time penalty, Barker cleverly backed off just enough to preserve Curtis's lead, but without jeopardising his own runners up spot.

Jody Bowcott fully justified West Midlands Motorsport's faith in him by having a fast but safe drive to fourth place. For this rally, the promising young Midlander was drafted into the full Junior Team due to Alex Evans's enforced sabbatical after his frightening accident on July's Swansea Bay Rally. Gear linkage problems on the first loop and overheating brakes on the second set of stages stunted his pace early on, but timely repairs at service solved each set of problems as they arose, and a good run through the last three stages reaped their reward. Jodie now leads the championship.

West Midlands Motorsport also ran a customer car for Dominic Hodge and co-driver Ian Harden. Pre-rally preparation at the West Midlands workshop sorted out a handling problem and gave Hodge, who has returned to rallying after a 23-year lay-off, the confidence to push as hard as he dared on stages he has never driven before. A high speed visit to the scenery on Givendale, which tore off the front bumper and smashed a headlight, failed to dampen Hodge's enthusiasm, and he gained his best-ever finish, eighth in the Scholarship and 25^th overall in the rally.

The WMM Junior Team's next event is at the Conrad Euregio Rally in Holland on 5^th November, where both Curtis and Barker have a chance of the overall Quaife Peugeot 205 Scholarship title.