1st Quarter 1998
30th March 1998
All well, the teams Tow car and Rally car left Sydney yesterday, and as at 8pm Sunday night they were already at the WA Border!! This is a little surprising considering both the distance AND the fact they broke down just east of the Nullarbor plain!
The crew, Dale and Rob, "luckily" had the Carby fail on the exit of filling with fuel. (we do need some luck BM comment). A quick call to a road side assistance scheme and several hours later, (and many anxious hours to BM) they were on the way again. A loose bolt effecting the float being the culprit! Chances are they will be at the "Vines rally HQ" by PM Monday! With plenty of time to enjoy the stay!
The car is better prepared than ever, with Steve Kennedy and Brett putting in a late night, replacing drive shafts etc And a renewed Steve Bijok, fresh back from Holidays in Bali Dyno'ing the car early Sat prior to the car being loaded...
More news as it happens, MRT with the help From Brendyn Helsham (Microsoft Guru) have a new laptop for in field media and e-mail updates.
24th March 1998
We have completed a late night, tonight, with Scott away on hols we took longer to swap the Standard gearbox with the rebuilt Hewland gearbox.Also we did our usual pre rally check on the car and fitted new rear brake pads to match the front ones we fitted Sunday, prior to running the car in.
Its important on race/rally cars to take the time in advance to bed in brake pads (Or discs) as if its not done early enough severe brake fad can occur in the first few Km until they wear in. And as result is VERY poor braking in the meantime!
The new engine feels strong all for a small oil leak on the crank seal that we will fix tomorrow. The new breather system is a jumble of hoses but seems to work well. No excess oil, (yet) or ever we hope. This time we used really shitty oil to run it in!
We expect not to win in Perth as the roads are VERY unusual with Bauxite ball bearings that make driving unique to Western Australia, no where else in the world are the roads like it! SO the locals are usually quick, EG Ross Mackenzie and Dean Herridge. we aim to get Max points with no mistakes (last year we went off the road it was our first event in the Honda) Queensland is where we expect to be leading the series!
The car is loaded for the 4,000km trip on Saturday and we seem to have spend at much time on BOTH the trailer as well as the Tow van as the rally car!
The Ambulance tow Van has never run better!
Last important thing to fix is a damaged wire stopping the all important air conditioner from working!
For our overseas friends Perth is West of Sydney on the opposite side of Australia, and the guys travel across almost via Adelaide (within 300 km) and onto the Nullarbor plain. Its not unusual to travel 100km without a single (even slight) bend in the road!
The rally is April 4 and 5 and the guys will take about 4 days to get there. We fly in 4 hours!
It costs $1000 in fuel each way and we have two spare trailer tyres a spare axle and spare hubs, plus heaps of tools and the usual rally bits.
All for now, thanks for your interest
22nd March 1998 - MRT announces new partner.
Recently announced first on the teams Internet site, 1997 Australian F2 rally Champs MRT have gained more support from a group of brand new advertisers.
Honda Genuine Lubricants and Parts have chosen to take advantage of the high profile of current rallying with MRT that includes a deal covering the rest of the Super Series.
| Pictured here is Brett Middleton at Honda HO to finalise the deal with product managers, Robert Toscano (National Spares Mngr) left of Brett and Phil Murray (National Service Mngr). |  |
"Honda is one of the few car manufacturers who actually make their own genuine oil, it is this that we will be promoting with its genuine parts". Brett said
"I have been working on this for sometime now and our results impressed the people behind these products" he added.
This, with other major partners, Sanyo, Falken Tyres and Strathfield Car Radios, will put the Middleton Rally Team in an enviable position for their defence of the Championship.
MRT will also carry an in car camera for the rest of the events, 100% of the time to gain the hot footage of the highly contested F2 Championship.
They are also financially committed to the TV production through ARCOM (The Australian Rally Commission), and expect to provide some excellent PR.
Bretts driving was well known from an in car camera, notably at the last round of the 97 Championship, where on the limit driving gave excellent viewer vision.
The next round of the series is in Perth in two weeks where MRT expect to build up some points with a newly rebuilt, faster engine and gearbox.
15th March 1998
After our disaster at Coffs we returned and removed the engine and gear box. Seems even thought the engine still had over 215 PSI cranking pressure (Up from 195 when brand new) it still was not run in properly.
Graham Wilkins (our engine guy) stripped the engine ,plus inspected it for heat damage. This may have occurred when we got the vapour lock on the Sunday of the event.
Luckily it had none (to my amazement) A new set of rings were fitted and it sits down stairs ready to refit (today (Sunday15th))
Peter Muir form Bond Roll bars has fitted a new bleed valve to the opposing side of the radiator. He has also made a oil surge tank that will drain excess blow by back into the engine, but we don't plan to have this problem again. This is a reliability mod only.
Premier Panel have fitted a new door skin and the assy is back on the car, an if time permits it will return for small repairs to the sill, rear quarter and front radiator support (damage from our spin on the first days stage).
I have been away at the GP with Sanyo and Honda plus Lisette, Hayley and myself mad a trip of it and caught up with each's relatives (most in Melb) and went on to Sovereign Hill (Gold town resort) and then Echuca (on the river Murray) where we had a good break and included a lunch on a real paddle steamer. Sound boring now, but it was good. This resulted in about a 3500km round trip and in the RS liberty wagon ( I ) had a ball (Not) Lisette! 235 km/h on the back roads of NSW country was a good chance to stretch its legs!
But I digress, we have 2 weeks to get the whole kit on the trailer and for dale to set of for Perth (9,000km round trip) so we have given the trailer and van another birthday!
Lastly we still wait for more bloody gearbox parts to arrive that presently are lost in Sydney with the freight company, so we will run in the engine with the spare (std) gear box.
I hope we don't have to use this in Perth as we have no time to get more parts now from the UK!
Lastly stay tuned for a major development with a new sponsor for the team and a change with existing ones. You will hear it on here FIRST
23rd February 1998
Its 6 PM and I have just returned from a six hour drive from the rally. No real good news, but it could have been worse!Saturday we had every problem you could think! A spin on the first forest stage, (20 secs lost) a lost bolt from the back engine mount on the longest (another 30 secs) then a broken front eng mount and it goes on. Added to all this the engine was pumping out about 1 litre of oil per 10km competitive with the rings not bedding in properly. We then capped it off with a little 'off' and hitting the barriers on the LH corner of the Showground super special bending the (DVRs) door and smashing the window!
We matched the pace of frontrunner Rick Bates (brother of Neal) in his rapid (new) Charade however we had lost too much time. We succeeded in pulling time off all in front (Rick, Ross, Dean and Simon) in the last few stages to grab 3rd in F2. Poor old Simon was on the pace but again broke a driveshaft whilst Lee (also quick) damaged another front control arm.
Up front Possum and Neal we having a ding dong battle, however Neal clipped a bank on the last stage and damaged a strut forcing retirement. Win 1 to Possum,
2nd was local car club crew Damien and John Long in a Evo 3 Lancer now in PRC form.
Rick 1st Ross 2nd MRT 3rd Dean 4th
Sunday we expected to have all the faults licked!
Well not so! We did well on the first stage and improved by 20 secs from the same stage the day before (Spin) and then proceeded to service, a small water leak necessitated the radiator to be checked and unfortunately Steve K slipped and let the radiator spew out all the water. Resulting in near catastrophe (burns) but a VERY hot engine. Adding water was almost a waste of time as the new radiator is cross flow and gets vapor locks easy. By the time we got to SS2 the car was EVEN hotter and we only made it 2 km into the 10km stage. Many minutes lost and much agro we made it out and withdrew, by this stage looking forward to the pool at Pelican Beach Resort!
Rick 1st Dean 2nd Ross 3rd
Points are approx Rick 40, Ross 30, Dean 30 MRT 14
Possum beat Neal fair and square and the longs were third, adding to a VERY interesting ARC in 98
More details later with Exact points
Perth is next, in 5 weeks. (After engine, gearbox and radiator rebuild!)
Photos soon, when I get some sleep!
15th February 1998
Brett Middleton recently signed a new advertising agreement with National
company Strathfield Car Radios
Seen here with Vinodd Christie-David National Advertising Manager, Brett Middleton was quoted "To have a name such as Strathfield on our car adds value, to have their enthusiastic involvement is even better!" (The contract is for an undisclosed period of time.)
Strathfield are exclusive distributors of Sanyo Car Audio, plus a whole range of other products including mobile phones.
It looks messy but the best way to swap
engine parts is on the floor. Brother Scott shown. over 5 hours were spent checking and
swapping ancillary parts, such as alternators, power steering, water supply hoses, etc
1st February 1998
New Engine Arrives.....
A last the engine has arrived. We were delayed by some parts, but
now the race is on to get it fitted tested and tuned for Coffs Harbour rally (3 weeks) I
have taken some pics of the engine in its bare shape to give you some pics of what a true
race engine looks like, plus the guy who helped build it! Graham Wilkins,
he does a lot of our
machining work and is a whiz with Motorsport spec engines. He also built the engines for
Wayne Bells' Hyundai Coupe Kit car.
The new engine specs are on the SPECS PAGE so I won't bore you with all the techno stuff, but here are the basics. 12.5:1 compression (up from 10.5 :1 fact standard) so we now have to use 100 octane Avgas fuel. Forged, hand made pistons, and a whole host of other bits, (some we can't tell!)
SO stay tuned for the news as we get closer to our first rally for 98 and fingers crossed for a great start to the year. (I hope we make it!)
20th January 1998
Time is passing fast, and we still have not fitted the engine yet! The all new alloy radiator is fitted and the rest of the parts are easy. Premier panel is just finishing the paint on the panels and these will be fitted next week. For the latest on the Coffs rally check out the home page on our "rally dates" page. Good news is things are progressing well with our partners and with Strathfield on board now the year looks like we will be "reasonably" funded. More soon.
14th January 1998 - " MRT Shake Up"
1997 Australian F2 winning rally team MRT have announced several new changes for its title defence in 98.
Announced first on the Internet, Announced first on the Internet, Strathfield Car Radio’s will join Sanyo, Linda Long has been replaced with Andrew Benefield, a new sponsor will join Sanyo and a brand new engine has been built.
"We know this year will be hard, so we have not been idle over the break," Brett said, Announced first on the Internet, Strathfield Car Radio’s will join Sanyo.
Benefield will bring a lot of experience to the team, having navigated for NSW State series driver Darren Williams in a potent VR4 plus a father who originally ran the succesfull NZ Masport Escort team, his knowledge will be put to good use.
The as yet named sponsor is a result of Sanyo’s involvement and will be announced shortly.
The new engine is a closely guarded secret, however we are able to say that it is a significant improvement on the virtually standard engine used last year.
"We have hunted the world for the best bits" Brett said, "It’s a cocktail of local and imported parts and knowledge," he added.
The 98 series starts in Coffs harbour on the 20th Feb and several new crews are expected to compete in what is now widely accepted as the most competitive part of the whole ARC series.
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