MINISPARES HISTORIC CREW HEAD TO BELGIUM  

THE 2013 FLANDERS INTERNATIONAL RALLY CHALLENGE (FIRC)

I am currently preparing my faithful Mini Cooper S “277 BRX” for a foray into Belgium to tackle the 5 rounds of the FIRC championship (www.firc.be).

This year the car has been upgraded after an engine rebuild at Southam Mini and Metro Centre. To try and eliminate last year’s head gasket failures we have fitted a Comitech gasket along with the split 45 Webers which give a very torquey extra 20bhp. To cope with the additional power we have fitted a Quaife ATB limited slip diff. I have not liked these in the past as they do add a trickey dimension to the handling on bumpy twisting tarmac roads but after a lot of suspension tweaking it is just about controllable!

As the car was originally prepared for stages in 2007, we have had to re-equip with new Cobra seats, Schroth seat belts, Bell crash helmet and Hans device to comply with the FIA safety regulations where all these items have to be replaced every 5 years.

Each of the events has a day for the recce to prepare the pace notes and a day of competitive stages with a stage mileage of between 85 and 120 kilometres.

The first rally is based in 0strozebeke just outside Ypres , and for the series of events I have to thank Justin and Alex at MiniSpares Centre in Potters Bar for their support in taking on the challenge.

Starting with The ORC Canal Rally on June 2nd , I will be accompanied by David Smalley in the co-driver’s seat, who will be experiencing his first taste of closed public road special stage rallying with pace notes! David is a member of my local car club Kings Lynn & District Motor Club and partnered me in the Mini on the East Anglian Classic last year , finishing just outside the top ten on his first Historic rally.

For the rest of the series I will be co-driven by Derek Webb whose experience of competing on Belgian roads will be invaluable. Derek and I competed very successfully together back in the ‘70s in his Mk1 Escort RS1600, nearly winning the South East Road Rally championship in 1974, just losing out on the final round “The Solent City Rally” with a puncture. Don’t we look young!

 In those days I was the navigator so a bit of role reversal now but the teamwork is still there. 

The rallies come thick and fast as you can see below so reliability will be very important.

You can keep up with progress on the above websites. We will report on how the car , driver and co-driver performs after each event.

Pictures (3and 4) attached from my last Belgian special stage event are from the 2009 Tour of Flanders, which was a round of the British MSA Historic Championship.