This weekend, for the first time ever, the BTRDA Clubmans Rallycross Championship will be streamed live on YouTube!

Check back here in the afternoon of Sunday the 25th to see us battle it out for the Championship with the countries fastest supermodified cars.

Despite a successful test day at Blyton Park - the 2020 BTRDA has been put on hold, as has every other UK motorsport event. The series will resume, hopefully, in August with 2 rounds on the 8th and 9th of August at Pembrey Rallycross Circuit in South Wales. Testing itself was great for the team, a rebuilt engine was faultless, once we found the fuel surge issue we came across initially, and we ran for the rest of the day without issues.

​Testing on the Saturday gave Todd the opportunity to push hard as soon as he hit the track on Sunday, refining the set up on the car and tyres in the short practice. With a full grid, Todd started on pole for Heat 1, yet struggled off the line compared to the RWD cars. Despite extensive traffic holding up the Mini racer once into the race, he scored 3rd behind the fast starting Lotus Exige of Guy Corner and the ever rapid Pat Ryan’s Nova.

Due to a few issues for other drivers, Heat 2 started as a grid of 3 for Todd’s race. He used that to his advantage to get a completely clear track for 4 laps - setting laps 1.5 seconds faster than his competitors and winning the overall heat by 3 seconds and 50 seconds ahead of the others in his heat race. ​

The 2 heat wins secured a Pole position start for the Supermodifed A final, alongise Corner and Ryan, with Bovill and other championship contender Alan Crockett on the second row. Out launched again by the fast starting rear wheel drive cars, Todd found himself 5th as he entered the loose section. ​

A close race with the Belgian driver Raf Verheyen in the B final resulted in second place and a ticket to start the A final from the back row. The back to back races and the warm south coast weather had taken its toll on the race car, with the residual heat creeping up, Todd battled up through the multinational field and brought the car home 7th overall, but importantly 3rd points scorer. 
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“Another challenging weekend for us and the team,” Remarked Todd. “But as usual, it all came good in the end, with a decent result and serious points, keeping us in championship contention. Every round is a learning curve for the team, finding teething issues with the new car - we never thought we’d even be in contention before round 1, so coming into the final round in the hunt for the title is a real delight”

In Heat 2, Crooks had a back row start, so opted to use his older, slower tyres, in order to preserve his best slicks for later in the day. Despite this, he made a good start, battling his way past the S2000 Corsa of Alan Tapscott, until a driveshaft failure brought his race to a premature end on Lap 2. The team frantically repaired the car ready for heat 3 where a front row start was gifted to him due to some early retirements. ​

​After morning practice, a misfire that did not appear on our test day reared it’s head. Extensive investigation work was undertaken before the first heat, where we started on pole, however by the time we made it to the grid the misfire was back. Despite this, Todd made it to the first corner ahead of all of his rivals and held his lead until half distance, where a loose component in the cockpit resulted in a driver error and the lead was lost. This resulted in a 2nd in the race and 5th overall for heat 1.

Sometimes, race weekends don't always go to plan...

Our bank holiday weekend started well; a good days testing for Jordine, some good results for my cousins in their Super One Karting Championship and a reasonable couple of results for us on the Monday morning. In Q2 we'd finished 3rd in the field - the same position that we held in the overall Super National Championship table going into the weekend.
In Q3, however, things went downhill - literally. After a close battle with one of our fellow competitors all day, coming out of North-bend hairpin and feeling more competitive than ever, a racing incident began to unfold of which nobody was to blame. We made contact with each other meaning that the car turned sideways and gripped. As the two wheels lifted I realised I was nothing more than a passenger and sat tight as sky, then floor, then sky, then floor flashed before my eyes. It all happened in a matter of minutes, and the car was firmly planted on the floor before I could realise what had happened. After realising that it was so bright as the roof had come off, and a quick check that my legs and arms were still intact, I jumped out to let my supporters, and the rest of the crowd know that after all that, I was OK.
From what I can gather from videos, pictures, and peoples comments, the roll was pretty spectacular going end-over-end approximately 9 times and shedding all of it's panels. The integrity of the space frame and the roll cage, which still mostly resembled the mini cooper shape are a huge testament to Duncan and those who have worked to build my car - it could not have been safer or protected me any better - some may not have been as lucky, but I escaped with a bruised foot (an x-ray has revealed that there's nothing broken) and a stiff neck / shoulders. My helmet, belts and hans did an excellent job of protecting my head, neck and keeping me in the car too and I couldn't be more thankful that they stood up to the job they were intended to - and maybe now I'll be able to get that fancy Stilo I've had my eyes on :P
A quick look back on the car, and we've made the decision not to use the spaceframe or roll cage again as it is weakened in areas, but the engine runs with no smoke so we'll find a way of getting that into something new! The fact that the engine has survived is just another testament to how well built our car was.

A big thanks again to Duncan, for building me the safest and quickest car I've known, to mum, J, Linda and all my other supporters for looking out for and after me both before and since the accident, and to everyone else who has sent well wishes. I must also send my thanks to the marshalls, the medical and recovery crews and the management / organisers of the British Rallycross Championship who handled the situation excellently.

I've chosen not to share any pictures of the roll as it progressed - I'm not really sure it's appropriate - just know that I'm alright.

We're not sure on what our future plans are, or when we'll next be competing with that engine, but rest assured that this roll has not put me off, and I'll be back on the track as soon as possible :-)

I went to Lydden Hill full of optimism, as it was only the 3rd round of the British Rallycross Championship that we have contested this year. The fast and flowing track suited our car, and the dry weather forecast made a pleasant change from the last 2 British Championship rounds at Pembrey. Not only this but we took with us a pair of nearly new and newly available Michelin rallycross tyres, which had proved to provide incredible traction during the final of the last weekend at Pembrey.
Practice went well, the car felt great and the Lydden Hill circuit was the most grippy I've ever known it. I spent the session chasing and keeping up with the current championship leader Tony Lynch, which proved to me our capability to keep with the front of the field.  For the first heat I started on the inside of the second row, surrounded by fast starting RWD cars. I headed for the standard lap from the start, alongside the BMW of Vince Bristow and behind the older BMW of Gary Simpson, both of which I passed coming out of the long loose right hander of Chessons drift, leaving just Paige Bellerby in her super-fast starting Lotus ahead. As I came round through Chessons for the second time, some tyre rubbing started from the rear of the car, followed soon after by a small amount of movement from the rear axle.  This small movement steadily got worse throughout the race, until I the point where I had to back off and cruise to the finish. Once we got the car back to the pit garage, we were able to identify the problem as a broken rear axle link and coilover. Unfortunately, we did not have a spare coilover, and despite asking around the entire paddock we could not find anything to get us back on track, putting us out of the entire race day.
It was a shame to not make the final at Lydden Hill, as I have done at every other British Championship round I have contested this year, however it was good to know that the car was on pace, and I can't wait until the next round at Pembrey!

`Massive apologies for the delay in updating the blog! Things have been a little hectic in the TCM camp this year. Here's a little insight into what's been going on....

MDA Test Day (All the way back in February)

Unfortunately, the Supermodified Mini wasn't ready for the Blyton test day at the beginning of the year,so I spent the day running and looking after our Classic Mini. The car was driven by a bunch of people, myself, Jordine, Helen and Tom Brookes from Downforce Radio. In all it was a great and relaxed day and it gave several people a good chance to get behind the wheel of our race car.

Round One of the BTRDA Rallycross Championship, Blyton (Way back in March)

By the end of march and the first round of the BTRDA Rallycross championship, the Mini was still not ready. This was frustratingly down to delays in getting hold of various parts for the conversion of the car from supercharged to turbocharged.

Despite this, we still wanted to be able to enter and score good points in the BTRDA championship. So the decision was made to hire one of the Peter Gwyne Motorsport Suzuki Swifts for the first round, to enter into the up to 1600cc class. Despite not being at the front of the field like we were used to, the little Swift still allowed some great racing with both other Swifts and some Mini Coopers in the same class. It  also  allowed good points to be scored in the overall Modified class. The end result was a positive second in class, behind a Super 1600 car, which we were very pleased with!

Round Two of the BTRDA Rallycross Championship, Pembrey

Yet again, down to delays getting parts from suppliers, we did not have our Mini ready for the 2nd and 3rd rounds of the BTRDA Championship at Pembrey. For these rounds we were lucky enough to be able to borrow the production class Citroen C2 VTS of  our sponsor Steve Gaunt at SG Haulage which we again entered into the up to 1600cc class of the supermodified class. We struggled more with this car as it is a near standard production rallycross car, including having to replace the clutch after practice on the first day. Despite this we were still able to closely compete with the Suzuki Swifts in our class, resulting in 4th place on both days.