News - 6th October 2002

Team News from MRT

October 6th 2002 - Propecia Rally of New Zealand

After gaining an outright result as high as 35th overall, the MRT crew of Brett Middleton and Andrew Benefield reluctantly withdrew (last nite) on the long transport back to Auckland from the 176km of stages North of the Ruawai service park.

With no repairs to be done on the Citibank Ready Credit Impreza, the team had 45 minutes to do routine maintenance of the car before the long transport home, after the 8 competitive stages held today. In fact they had time to even wash the car!

Team driver Brett Middleton was extremely motivated and the event was turning out to be one off attrition, almost 50% of the field had withdrawn, crashed or failed to complete stages.

"Our aim was to finish, and at the same time have fun on our chosen stages at a speed that meant we took no risks, our calculated pace seemed to be correct" Brett said. The car was running the best it ever has, and the preparation by the team and notably Shane McIlvenna the head mechanic was spot on, we virtually had rebuilt the car prior to leaving Sydney!" he added.

However on the transport home the team were dealt a crushing blow, the gearbox oil cooler pump, blew a seal and unbeknown to the crew, it was pumping all the gearbox oil out of the car as they cruised down the freeway!

"The first we knew was the gearbox became very noisy and then started jumping out of gear, by then the damage was done, with no oil in the box and no way to repair it, it was pointless to continue, let alone consider competing the next day" Brett said. "annoyingly the pump is on the opposite side to the exhaust so we did not even smell the oil and had no idea what was happening" he added. The team could have then switched the pump off and continued at a slower pace for the closing days stages.

Regretfully MRT had planned big things for its partners, new ones, Proform Octane Boost and additives, however, the end result was not obviously planned. "We achieved great PR with the thousands of spectators, gained some International TV, so no drive across the finish ramp is not a total loss" Brett said. We have a strong group of partners, GFB, MRT Performance, K'Archer, Dynamic turbo's, BOC, Disc Brakes Australia, Bridal Collections, Premier Panel Beating, Cibie, Shannon's Insurance, EcuTeK, Computer Disposals, Auto Tek, DHL, and Quik Track.

www.mrtrally.com.au/team/sponsors.htm

With support from these and notably Spencer Grammer of Falken Tyres, our trip would not even be possible, outright results are not everything, its what we provide as a whole package that counts" he added

Up front, Marcus Gronholm is leading the event and looks set to win as well as take an unbeatable lead in the 2002 World Drivers Championship, with 2 events to go, whilst local hero's Bruce Herbert is leading Possum Bourne by just over a minute, both in Subaru Impreza's.

Australian Crews Michael Thompson and Gordon Klebba who had their own day of dramas on day one, now look set for a top 30 place whilst Dean Herridge and Glenn Macneal are 22nd outright. Both are driving Group N Impreza GD's
More news here www.dellteam.com
and www.subaru.com.au

The next event for the MRT team will be either the local Canberra State Championship event or a Bitumen rally in Tasmania in February 2003, the team will regretfully have to miss the WRC New Zealand event next year as its re scheduled for April and Co driver Andrew Benefields wife is due to have their 2nd baby.

Instead of a 4 hour sleep over night the team chose to have a relaxing day and then head into Auckland to watch the inter country Rugby league battle of Australia Vs New Zealand!

For final and on line results:
www.WRC.com.au and
www.rally.com.au

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