Blendline Rally Team - A 2023 Round Up
Author: Blendline; Pictures: Blendline, Simon Dalton
2023 has brought fewer than usual rally events for Blendline Rally Team (BLRT) for no other reason than we've been focusing on other things...
Aside from 2 new arrivals to the "Junior Team" in the early part of the season - and some other business and travel commitments for most of our team members covering WRC events, the motorsport entries have been a bit few and far between this year, but nonetheless, there have been a few results to report on:
Rallynuts Tyre Drama
For the Subaru Impreza crew of Simon Dalton and co-driver Jamie Vaughan, the season began with a trip in April to some well trodden turf for BLRT, the forests of mid Wales and the Rallynuts Stages. Based as normal with the service park in Builth Wells and some classic forest stages in Hafren, Myherin and Cwmysgawen, the Impreza N12 crew started seeded car number 36 in the B13 class (see previous BL Mag articles for more info on the change between N4 to B13).
The first loop of stages on Rallynuts saw a couple of jumps up the leaderboard up to around 34th overall and lingering around the 10th in class mark. During stage 4 the Subaru picked up a puncture towards the end of the stage, so on the timed road section afterwards the crew quickly swapped the punctured Pirelli for the spare. Unfortunately a second slow puncture developed thereafter on the road transit back to Builth and, with only one spare carried as standard BLRT procedure on most single day gravel events that meant a delayed return to the service park whereby the car arrived past the organisers enforced Time Limit (OTL). The Blendline team continued to service the car and fit it out with a new set of tyres ready for the next loop of stages, in the hope they could take a time penalty and continue with the rally, however they were not allowed to do this and therefore forced to retire.
Mewla Madness
The second outing for the Impreza was the Mewla Rally on the infamous tarmac Epynt ranges. With a mixed record of asphalt rally results in the N12, this would mark Dalton's first entry on tar with the B13 machinery (and first sealed surface rally since 2016!) The team were confident that the uprated engine and far greater performance would improve pace, as with previous tarmac rallies with the car in Group N spec the car felt a little underwhelming in terms of power and torque on some of the twisty, steep sections Epynt has to offer. Ten special stages and 70 competitive kilometers awaited the crew on a typical mixed-weather, British summer August day, with some rain threatening in the clouds above.
Finding speed on tar was the first aim of the day, and that soon came, with Dalton finding himself around P4 in a Class 6 which consisted of 8 cars (all well-tuned Lancers and Imprezas, bar one Fiesta Rally3). Another change was a swap from Pirelli to Michelin tyres (pictured) for the first time, making a real difference in grip to previous tarmac experiences, according to Dalton.
The traditional "Dalton bale-rub"
A consistent day of running with only a couple of minor altercations with a haybale led to a tidy result of 4th in class and 28th overall for the Blendline Impreza. Check out a couple of minutes of Nightingale Media's Youtube video of the N12 ripping up the Welsh tar, here:
3 Shires - a stones throw from home
The next event for the Impreza, and what would turn out to be the last rally of the season, was the 3 Shires Rally based mere minutes from Blendline's roots. The main service park was in Much Marcle and the stages taking place in Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire (over 240km of road & stage running awaited) this would be the third running of the rally but surprisingly the first ever entry on the event for BLRT.
Pre-event preparation at Quick Motorsport
Scrutineering took place in a small car garage in Much Marcle, where it was nice to see a couple of classics on display, sometimes it's simply brilliant where rallying can take you behind the scenes.
Lovely classic racers in the event scrutineering
Buoyed on by their consistency on tarmac a few weeks earlier on Epynt, this event was actually a two-dayer with the ceremonial start happening on Saturday evening in Ledbury town centre and the first stage start at 0848 for car number 1.
Cars and crowds gather in a busy Ledbury for the ceremonial start
Unlike Epynt, much of 3 Shires takes place on narrow, hedge-lined country lanes which have been closed for the weekend, so it is very fast and very tight and often with mud from nearby fields pulled out from the inside of many corners. A field of 15 cars in the open 4WD class meant the going was going to be quick, and consistently running in the top 5 for the first 5 stages was commendable on Dalton/Vaughan's part.
More chicane visits in the morning loop led to a couple of quick repairs on the car on the road section (you can't beat cable ties when it comes to a quick fix on a rally machine).
Refuel after midday service
Sadly on SS5 a transmission problem halted all play with the car unable to go any further and the team retiring the car whilst running P5 in class.
The trans fault picked up actually later turned out to be a snapped linkage component which had only been replaced during the 2022 season, so efforts have since been made to reinforce its replacement, and stop it from happening again. While the 3 Shires didn't bring the promising finish the team deserved (and actually is the first year BLRT suffered a greater ratio of DNFs than rally finishes) it does mark a new era with a full season in the faster "open" class for Dalton and the Blendline N12. Big thanks to all who have been involved with the team in '23 and a special shout out goes to Q, Charlie and Dave at Quick Motorsport.
Also rans:
Tom Magnay has only had one competitive entry in 2023 following a busy year of hillclimb and sprint racing in 2022. Other than a co-driving stint at Race Retro alongside podcast partner Sion Ellis in the GC8, July did bring one telephone call that turned out to be worth answering, in a very late invite (late on the Tuesday evening, to be precise) to drive at Goodwood Festival of Speed on the world famous rally stage.
Tom will be adding his own full report of his FOS outing alongside the greats of world rally in due course on Blendline Mag, so keep your eyes peeled for that one.
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