2016 is set to be a really big year for me and Todd Crooks Motorsport. As I write this, the team and myself are working on massive upgrades to both the engine and the handling for the Supernational R53 Mini. Simultaneously we've been doing some maintenance work on the classic, making sure it's ready for it's new driver this year. More on that later!

Firstly though, the supernational. For 2016 we're working with our new sponsor AET Motorsport. Between us and AET we're converting the car from supercharged to turbocharged. This will give us big gains in power and torque, allowing us to compete better with the high powered cars of the British Rallycross Championship. This has had it's downsides though, unfortunately time has not been on our side and we've not been able to have the car ready for the first rounds of either the British or BTRDA championships. We'd rather not rush it though, do it right and do it once!

For the first round of the BTRDA championship, we've organised for me to drive a Suzuki Swift Sport in the up to 1600cc Supermodified Class. These little cars are fast, great fun and reward good drivers. Not only that but it will suit the tight and technical circuit at Blyton Park and will hopefully allow me to score some decent points towards the overall BTRDA and Supermodified Classes.

The classic mini will be returning to Blyton Park this weekend at the hands of it's new driver, my Mum, Helen Crooks. Helen has always had a love for racing and has been dying to have a go at rallycross ever since we got involved in the sport. The new classic class in the BTRDA rallycross championship gives Helen a chance to stretch it's legs against equal machinery and we hope to have the car and driver out at as many rounds as possible for 2016!

It's official - we've won the BTRDA Clubmans Supermodified Overall Championship!

It was a very wet and muddy weekend at Croft and there was some very stiff competition, with people coming from Norway, Belgium, Ireland and all over the UK to compete at the north Yorkshire circuit for the final round of the 2015 season. Despite the puddles and the competition, I set some consistently fast heat times throughout the day earning myself 5th on the grid for the final. The final was a close run race with my and Irish competitor and last year's champion Kieran Curran running nose to tail all race. In the end the Corsa driver finished 4th and I finished 5th. The modified A final was won by Norwegian competitor Herbjorn Haug in his obscenely fast Ford Puma, so a big well done to him and all of the other competitors, especially my girlfriend Jordine Wadge who impressed everyone on her rallycross debut!

I had entered the round level on points with my championship rival, Gary Cook. Gary qualified his MG for the B final, only to spin out of second place and the opportunity for me to race him in the final. This did mean however, that I took my first ever championship! I can't give enough thanks to my team and all my sponsors, especially my mechanic Duncan for providing me with an awesome car capable of taking me to this championship!

We're now on the build up to the last round of the season at Croft with the BTRDA Clubmans Rallycross Championship and it looks set to be a mega event! With 80 cars entered in total and more than 20 Supermodified cars, including Belgian, Norwegian and Irish competitors, it's going to be some fierce racing.

To add to the excitement I'm coming into this final round level on points for the lead of the overall Supermodified championship. This is huge for me, it's the first time I've ever been in the hunt for the championship, but I'm confident that I can come away from Croft with more points than my rival, Gary Cook.

To top it all off, it will be the debut of my. Girlfriend Jordine Wadge! She looks this  website, and deals with all of the customers looking to buy our panels, so it'll be great to see her finally getting out on track and racing! She deserves it.

This is going to be a great way to finish off the year, I can't wait to get out on track.

Thanks to NikonMonkey for the above picture!

Pembrey was a great event for us, but first, I'll tell you a little about racing the classic Mini over at Eurocircuit Valkenswaard. To have the little red classic out of the container for the first time in 2 years was a great feeling, it may not be as fast as the supernational but it's great fun to drive, and starting 6 minis abreast at the historic European circuit made for some awesome nose to tail racing. Unfortunately due to a few mechanical problems I didn't finish the second and third heats, and ended up starting on the back of the grid for the final. The final went without a hitch though, I managed to finish in third place! On board video of the final can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a273n4HCAo

Pembrey started off really well, with second fastest supernational in practice, this was immediately followed by 3rd placed supernational in all three heats. This of course put me third on the grid for the final, alongside championship leader Dan Rooke and the mighty Ka of Gareth Wood. Off the line the Millington powered fiesta of local man Mike Howlin got a flyer of a start from the 2nd row and I followed him into the joker lap on the first lap. This wasn't the best for me as his RWD car was very slow through the long loose sections on the circuit but was fast through the tarmac sections where there were more opportunities to over take. This meant that for the first half of the race I was stuck up behind the fiesta and very severely held up. The blue Citroen AX of Dan Rooke emerged from the joker lap just in front of the battle between me and Howlin, but immediately had a problem with 3rd gear. Mike managed to power past the stricken Citroen on the tarmac straight but it forced me to slide round the outside on the transition to the loose surface. This dropped me back towards the cosworth powered Clio V6 of Steve Cozens, who, on the next lap pulled along side me out of the hairpin and fired past me and dropped me to 4th where I stayed till the end of the race despite hastling the Clio round the rest of the lap. There wasn't much could do about this as the Clio probably has twice the power with the same weight, which as a driver was incredibly frustrating. Power is something we will be working on though, with potentially some upgrades coming before Lydden Hill in August.....

What a weekend! The 600 mile round trip to the County Kildare circuit was certainly worth it. 

Saturday was a very steep learning curve, it was the first time in a few years that I'd visited a brand new track to me, so after taking it easy in practice, a fresh set of rubber saw me ready to take the fight to the Irish locals. The track made for some very interesting racing, with sections that suited my car along with sections that suited some of the higher powered rwd cars, meaning that in some sections of the track I was repeatedly held up! Despite this I secured a grid spot on the second row of the B final, with championship leader Dan Rooke on the front row just in front. It was then that things started to go wrong. On final lap, having passed the Lotus of Paige Bellerby, I was chasing the similar Irish Lotus of Lloyd Spendlove when while pushing too hard, carried too much speed into a fast right hander and ploughed the car straight into a grassy bank. From in the car, I felt like it was going over and seeing the left front wheel bounce across the track to my right didn't fill me with overall confidence. A quick trip to the medical centre later, I joined the car back in the paddock and alongside my chief mechanic Duncan and set to work to get the car out for the next day. Amazingly, by the next morning, thanks in no small part to a very late night, and the borrowing of some spare parts (I must extend a massive thanks to both Tony Lynch at Team Geriatric and David and Tony Bell for this)  the car was ready to race again. We replaced effectively the entirety of the front suspension, steering system and both driveshafts.

A cautions start with a not so straight car on Sunday meant that in the first heat I wasn't quite up to speed, however by the second heat I was 8th overall and second Brit. Despite this success, I only managed the C final, and after an accidental knock of the ignition switch at the hole in the hedge on the first lap, I fell back to second to last with the other Mini of Tony Lynch to chase. Unfortunately I couldn't catch Tony and that was where I stayed

Next up is the annual Classic Mini trip to Valkenswaard in The Netherlands, followed by the British Rallycross Championship at Pembrey.

Rounds 2&3 of the BTRDA clubmans rallycross championship out at Pembrey in south Wales really were an international affair, with a huge group of Irish competitors crossing the water to take part and give us brits a run for our money.

Round 2 on Saturday started poorly for us, with a poor start in heat one caused by driver error only getting us 6th place in that heat. However for heats 2 and 3 we vastly improved on this by finishing second overall in both. After the unfortunate retirement of Tommy Graham in his mk2 Escort due to engine troubles, it left me and the Irishman Kieran Curran to battle it out for overall honours in the final. The Corsa driver got a slightly better launch than I did off the line, meaning I had to fight my way through the clouds of dust to keep up with him. We streaked ahead of the rest of the field, finishing a massive 12 seconds ahead of third place, but remained in that order by the small margin of 1.4 seconds by the end.

The light of the following day showed us that we had a potentially race ending problem in the race car's driveshaft. However, due to the resourcefullnes of our chief mechanic Duncan and the spare parts of fellow David Attiwell a replacement part was constructed using a combination of MINI and Peugeot parts. A big thanks goes out to David and his team for letting us use his valuable spares! A very wet circuit led to us only scoring an eighth in heat one, but this was succeeded by a 3rd and a 4th in heats 2 and 3 respectively placed us on 3rd for the A final. The field had increased in competitiveness massively overnight with the arrival of Steve Cozens in his 400+BHP clio v6 and Irish 205 driver Peter McGarry stepping up his game overnight. A freshly wetted track saw the RWD clio struggling for traction in the A final, resulting in an epic battle between myself and Steve, resulting in me taking 2nd overall and in class with McGarry taking the win.

The next round I'll be competing at is the 'BRX vs IRX' double header round held at mondello park, which means another chance to go door handle to door handle with the boys from across the Irish sea. Bring on another great weekend's racing! 

Competing at Pembrey for rounds 2 & 3 of the BTRDA Clubman's Championship was not anticipated, but a last minute decision saw the team packing all the necessary things into the back of the van and embarking on the long drive to the South of Wales, which promised a great weekends racing.
The weather upon arrival was the opposite of that which is usually experienced in Wales - the sun was shining and there wasn't a rain cloud in site. Despite a couple of heavy showers throughout Saturday this weather remained; and problems with dust began.
Another problem reared its head as a result of the heat, however, but the cause of this problem could not be identified - was it to do with fuel, oil, dust, a lack of cooling? Changes were being made between each heat, yet once the car got going and began to get warm it'd cut out and refused to rev much higher than 5000 RPM. The final laps of each race were a struggle, and after a strong race and position the car began to drop back in the ranks - that was until I got to grips with driving the car the way it was and ensuring I used the revs effectively and carried speed through the corners as much as possible.

When back at the workshop, the car was plugged into the computer which showed us the problem - the fan was set to come in at 50 and retain this temperature, but at 50 the revs were limited to 6000 RPM.
With this problem resolved, hopefully the next race weekend would bring more positive results and show the real power and potential of the car..