Latest Info. from MRT 1999

8th December 1999 - Middleton keeps his foot down

Brett Midddleton and his team are working flat out to prepare their new car and finalise their plans for 2000. The team's new WRX arrives in Sydney on Friday 10th. The team have many hours ahead of them, going-over the car, logging the technical details and generally getting used to the new car.

"We've taken on a bit of a challenge with this new car" comments Brett, "Not only do I have to get used to driving something with a hell of a lot more grunt and traction, but the team has to learn how to service the car and keep it in top shape."

MRT will be spending their time "fine-tuning" the car before testing in February. A Motec or Possum Link ECU are being considered. The team have elected to keep the car with the
DMS 60mm Super Struts, as opposed to changing to Proflex, the team have been with Murray Coote now for some time.

Currently in Group N trim, the car will have the interior stripped to take full advantage of
the PRC / Group A regulations. "Even though we've now got a much more powerful car, we intend to keep the same attitude that we learnt in the Honda" explains Brett, "less weight,
less weight, and less weight. We all decided that if we're going to do this, we're going to do it 110%!"

The team's support truck will also be receiving an overhaul over Christmas, to accommodate the different components for the WRX. Ingersoll Rand have provided MRT with a new air compressor, and K'Archer have supplied a water pressure cleaner, both of which have to be fitted to the truck. Plus a new larger engine! Some soundproofing will make the trip to Perth in March a bit more human.

MRT will be testing the new car at Oberon on the weekend of the 12th and 13th of February, 2000. Any teams who would like to join them are welcome - please contact Brett Middleton on (02) 9809 2110 or brett@MRTrally.com.au

26th November 1999.

Well, it's been to long since our last update, but here's what MRT have been up to since the Saxon Safari Rally of Tasmania in September.

1. MRT turns up the boost with their new WRX rally car
As you can imagine, the whole team are incredibly excited about buying Cody Crocker's Ex-Subaru Factory Team Impreza! We are expecting delivery of the car in the next couple of weeks. Till then, we are flat-out selling our sponsorship package to potential sponsors for next year. We have one new sponsor, which will be announced soon. For more details on our new car (and some great pics from this season!) click here...

2. More Ride Days planned for next year!
MRT have just completed our Rally Ride Day, which was held over the week of the 15th to 19th of November at Oran park's Rally Sprint Circuit. The week was damn hard work - Brett and Chris somehow managed to feed, entertain, take photos, and thrill nearly 30 people each day with rides in the car!

With the incredible emails we have received from people all this week, we are now planning to have even more ride days next year. Four Ride Days are planned for weekends throughout the year, as well as a number of corporate days and our annual November Ride Days.

If you are looking for a corporate team building day with a difference, MRT will help you to design your own custom Rally Ride Day. For more info, contact chris@MRTrally.com.au.

3. MRT's 2000 Team Partner Package ready to fly!
Chris Meyers, of StreetWyze Promotions, has finished developing our Team Partner Package for next year. Chris will manage all the team's marketing throughout the year. The plan includes a full marketing campaign for the year. The television coverage MRT are expecting to receive by competing in a WRX will increase from our already impressive media coverage.

4. Got some spare time on your hands?
As part of our plans for next year, there are heaps of opportunities to get involved with MRT. From helping to hand out show bags and posters when we're at events or on display in shopping centres, to writing press releases, helping to stuff envelopes, or even feeding 10 hungry guys every Tuesday night....If you would like an exciting hobby, call Chris or Brett and tell us how you would like to be an active team member. It's hard work but rewarding and great fun.

Chris will need help with the full-on marketing campaign we have developed - if you're a marketing student or just starting out in marketing, we will teach you as much as we can about marketing, in return for your much needed assistance.

5. Official Team Launch planned for early 2000
The date and location are yet to be decided, but we are planning a full-on launch event. Keep your eyes on this space for updates over Christmas and New Year as our plans start to roll-out.

Thank you all for your support of our team over the years. We probably don't thank you all enough - knowing that there are thousands of people across the world who support us really keeps us motivated when we're competing.

1st September 1999

Tuesday night was filled with light heartedness and happiness. It was not a late night for us, as almost everything is ready. We are taking 36 (yes 36!!!) tyres with us to the rally of Tasmania, 20 of them were fitted last night, and the other 16 will be fitted at the event. The car will be loaded on the trailer on Friday, with Byron (myself) taking the truck to Tasmania on Monday. The rally car was given a final going over last night, with all being in order. We changed the oil and oil filter, the MRT Performance Gp A ram pod, and left everything else as it is, because the car is functioning properly.

Please take note, MRT is holding a rally ride day at Oran Park from the 15-19 of November. More information can be received by contacting byron@mrtrally.com.au

Please see the web page for Pre-event, during event and post event releases, available as the rally happens.

24th August 1999

The rally team is geared up for a easy fortnight before the rally of Tasmania, as the car ran faultlessly in Melbourne, and just needs tweaking before Tasmania. The truck exhaust system is being overhauled for a third time, as the truck needs more help than the rally car. We are taking a full compliment of tyres (30) for Tasmania, so we can change tyres at every service point. We are looking forward to a great weekend in Tasmania, and if the rally god looks on us favourably, we might even be F2 champions again in '99.

17th August 1999

Rally of Melbourne went without a hitch, except for the fact that it rained and/or snowed the whole weekend. The car ran faultlessly, even withstanding Brett revving the car harder than ever before!! We worked out quite a few different tread patterns that work really well in the wet and slushy conditions. Overall a successful weekend was had by the Formula 2 cars, with Brett and Andrew setting the third fastest speed out of all of the competitors, on a downhill stretch of Don Road. A cool 170Km/h!

We now have 3 weeks to prepare the car for Tasmania, which could see us clinching the Sanyo F2 cup, for a fourth time. Fingers crossed!!!

We had a successful ride day at the Alexandria Speedway, entertaining Sanyo staff and clients. Brett managed to totally obliterate the Falken tyres on the hard packed speedway surface. A good day was had by all. The local paper even turned up, and did a great write up for us. Stay tuned for the release of it on the web site.

2nd August 1999

Hello all and welcome to another timely update of the Middleton Rally Team. We are all extremely motivated after a fantastic finish at Batemans Bay. Sixth overall against WRX's and Celicas and Lancers. We had a great run, testing tyres, and suspension setup, and have the car well balanced.

We won't be testing at Melbourne, like some other teams, as our resources are already stretched by doing a ride day for our sponsors the day after the rally.

By the way, if anyone can get to the Sydney area (ie Oran Park) between the 15-19th of November, MRT will be holding a ride day, with rides available to sponsors and the public. For more information, please email me with the subject intact byron@MRTrally.com.au for more info. Stay tuned for a full report of The Bay.

26th July 1999

A great weekend was had by all. We went to Batemans Bay for a shakedown run of the car with the new clutch, revamped suspension, and overhauled gearbox. a great result with little problems, we came sixth outright, and first in our class. Tomorrow night, we will be putting finishing touches to the car for rally of Melbourne in 3 weeks. Stay tuned for full story of last weekend.

28th June 1999

Work is starting on the car after the hydraulic handbrake and clutch slave cylinder seals failed in rally of Bega. New parts have been ordered and should be fitted on tuesday night. The gearbox has been pulled out and will be shipped back to hollinger for a 'freshen up'. The ceramic button clutch will also be replaced. This is the first time it has been replaced in 3 years. It would have been replaced before Rally QLD, but the replacement clutch was in the stolen 'ambo'.

Our next event will possibly be the Bay Stages rally, run on the 24-25th July. Stay tuned for more details.

12th April 1999 - Wet end to forest battle

The Middleton Rally Team had an early end, (with all other crews) to the first round of the Australian Rally Championship Super Series. Heavy rain overnight on Saturday turned creeks into rivers making the course impassable forcing cancellation of the second Heat on Sunday.

Initial heavy rain made the course treacherous for the beginning of Heat One on Saturday (Apr 10th) however the MRT crew immediatly were on the pace; "I love driving on the limit, especially when its really slippery" Middleton said. "In the past some of our best results have been in these conditions as most other crews back off" he added.

The Sanyo / Falken crew had to "guess" the correct pattern tyres competing on roads that were so muddy the team had no experience in knowing what pattern tyres to use!

The team lost some in early stages before they settled into a "groove", this then allowed them to be on the pace with other crews in F2.

Leading orthodox F2 team (and 1998 Champions) Rick Bates and Jenny Brittan were only 11 seconds in front and the MRT crew of Middleton and Benefield steadily gained timed on them to be within 3 seconds with less than 3 stages to go. However Bates and Brittan extended this to finish 14 seconds in front at the end of heat 1.

The VW Golf kit car entries of Simon Evans and Jason Slott set some impressive times, however a refueling infringement forced them to avoid penalty and they withdrew at the end of the heat whilst the entry of Slot went off the road and became bogged on a tricky right hand corner.

"I am extremely happy with this result as we have now shown that the car is still on the pace after our disastrous result in 1998. The team put in a huge effort over the Xmas break, stripping the car back to a bare shell and removing every possible excess component in a bid to reduce weight from the car." Middleton said.

The MRT crew additionally rebuilt every major component in the car to ensure %100 reliability in the bid for the 1999 F2 Championship.

With the Evans Motorsport entry, of the huge HP VW Golf Kit Cars, the Orthodox F2 cars of leading entries such as MRT (Civic), Bates (Charade) and Peterson (Pulsar) have only one chance of winning, reliability. Whilst they can be matched on the tight twisty stages, the handling of the Civic being one of its strong points, the fast open roads show the potential of the highly modified 2 litre cars. "On one stage alone that was very fast and had lost of uphill sections they ripped 40 seconds off us, they have a 2litre engine, we only have 1.6" Brett said. And that was in the wet! I expect them to set top 5 outright times in the dry!" he added.

Its good and bad for the sport, The orthodox F2 category was very competitive up until this year, and the addition of the high spec big bucks VW's will decimate the field. It had to happen and was only a matter of time. However crews will now be forced to chase similar high cost cars, push the limit, except defeat or simply withdraw. Past F2 Champion Ross Mackenzie is one, having elected to sell his factory built Charade at the end of he 1998 season when Daihatsu withdrew funding, Ross simply did not have the budget to compete at such a high level.

Middleton and Bates both finished in the top ten, (6th and 7th) showing that a well prepared front wheel drive F2 car can be very fast even in these conditions beating home NSW State championship hopefuls, Grove / Sinclair (Lancer turbo 4wd) and Myers / Harris (Celica GT4 turbo)

OUTRIGHT
Outright Crews of Neal Bates Corolla WRC were beaten by the Impreza WRC of Kiwi Possum Bourne when they had gearbox problems, Bates finished second outright.

Stewart Reid in a Lancer Evo 4 on Falken tyres won Group N.

The next event in the drivers Championship is the Falken tyres Qld rally June 5th and 6th.

29th March 1999
Brett Middleton is preparing to hold nothing back as he aims for his fourth title. After a hectic off-season of development and re-building, Middleton is quietly confident that the technical problems of 1998 will give way to the form he showed in 1997 on the way to his third title.

"The engine is the same engine that finished the Championship last year and it’s 100% reliable because we’ve fixed the bugs from 1998," stated Middleton. "We’ve got a back-up engine if we need it, which was the engine that we used to win Formula 2 back in 1997."

After two years of campaigning the Honda Civic VTi-R in the Australian Formula 2 Championship, Middleton is ready to step up a gear, a move which will see him deploy a ‘win at all costs’ style of attack.

"We’ve got a car that’s now been running for 3 years so we know all there is to know about it, it’s strengths and it’s weaknesses," said Middleton. "Our attitude is we are going to win no matter what, and were willing to write the car off to do it!"

The 1999 ARC pre-season hasn’t been focused solely upon engine development though, the team at MRT have thoroughly stripped the shell in order to remove every unnecessary milligram of weight, while the gearbox and suspension have been re-built to "make them 150% reliable!".

Coffs Harbour will also see the unveiling of an up-rated Honda Civic bodykit and a revised paint scheme. "We’ve add all new ’99 specification guards, bonnet, front and rear bumper, and headlights," said Middleton.

Footnote: This article written by others.

3rd January 1999
The latest pics of the "car", yes it is the Civic, and it is almost ready to go to the sandblasters next week. We have all but removed EVERY possible un used item, we have worked out at the start (just before Xmas) it was taking 10 hours Per Kilo , now we beleive its about 20 per kilo, as we are finding it harder and harder to find items to remove! The car will be blasted with grit on the chassis, plastic beads on the cage, and trim areas, AND ( ! ) wall nut shells on the panels to be painted.....

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