Red Dragon I.T. Rally Team - Events

Events for 2009

>> Events reports from past events <<

RALLY DAY - CASTLE COMBE

Well last Saturday saw everyone down at the Rally Day at Castle Combe Race Circuit. As you all know this is the biggest show of the year for Rallying enthusiasts and of course the team were there right in the thick of it all.

Unfortunately, Emlyn and Petre couldn't make it but Gareth was joined in the cockpit by old friend Rob Smith who accompanied Gareth

at Goodwood earlier in the year and who, despite being the best man at his brother’s wedding later that day, turned out to join us. Good man Rob! The whole day was truly amazing, with a Feature Stage including performances from WRC stars like Matthew Wilson, Gwyndaf Evans, and many others, with a special appearance by Hannu Mikkola opening the Feature Stage Event in his Escort RS Mk 11 and of course Gareth and the "Cossie"

Obviously everyone’s thoughts were with the family of Colin McRae and a minute silence was observed at midday in respect of the man who was arguably the best rally driver that Britain has ever produced; but the day was about rallying and cars and Colin’s many friends recounted anecdotal stories about the great man and made us all smile.

Talking about smiling ......  the grin on Gareth’s face when Matthew Wilson, WRC Stobart Team’s top driver parked his Focus behind the “Cossie”, got out, and asked Gareth if he could sit in her  ( see pics in the gallery!) .....  Well!  You remember we told you that the “Cossie” is a lady with pedigree? Many years ago, before Malcolm Wilson became WRC Ford Team boss, he developed the Escort Cosworth and then campaigned it, in many events around the world and Matthew recognised her! We don’t know who was the most excited, Matthew or Gareth! Is this the start of a new friendship? Enough anyway for Gareth to ask Matthew if he would mind doing an interview for Spire FM’s radio presenter Craig Hicks who was covering the show together with Tim ....... from Bath FM radio. Naturally, Matthew who’s a really nice guy, agreed.

The afternoon continued with a Special Stage Event where passengers could accompany drivers on short course especially set up very tightly for the cars. Of course Gareth and the “Cossie” were very much in demand and took out about 20 very excited people, none more so than our new friend and sponsor Duncan, boss of Fusion Logistics and his son Niall, who were both such a great help to us all on Saturday, thank you again! In fact a great big thank you to all of our sponsors, Rally Day organisers, friends and team members for making Saturday such a memorable occasion. Keep watching this space for details of the next event featuring the Red Dragon I.T. Rally Team ! !

Click below to listen to Craig Hicks (Spire FM Presenter) being taken on a hot lap!

The Teams advert in the Rally Day 2007 Souvenir Programme below.

Click below to play the radio advert played by our sponsors 12 times a day for 2 weeks leading up to the event

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SATURDAY 14th JULY 2007

The team were in action at Colerne nr Bath. Despite the disaster of a small bolt shearing off at the very start of Stage 1, the service crew pulled out all the stops to get the car ready to compete again. Unfortunately, as the team did not complete Stage 1 they incurred a twelve minute penalty, which put them bottom of the leader board. Nevertheless, determined to put that behind them, the boys went out again and set some pretty impressive times in the succeeding stages.

The team fought their way back up the leader board; with only 60 stage miles this was always going to be a difficult task. While the following stages flowed the team was constantly setting clock times within the top fifteen, which due to the impressive list of competitors including WRC cars was pretty fantastic.

Without the mechanical problem at the start of Stage 1, the times that Gareth and Emlyn set over the remaining stages would have put them more or less in 10th place out of a finishing field of 65.

In Car footage from the event here!

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SATURDAY 7th JULY 2007

Castle Combe - RS Owners Club Regional Day

After making a Grand appearance at Castle Combe as part of the RS Regional meeting in July the team are due to be featured next month in FastFord Magazine.

Although the “Cossie” is essentially a rally not a circuit car, she held her own and made a great many heads turn on her demonstration laps, especially when Gareth switched on the Anti-Lag! It was a pretty impressive sight as amazing flames issued from the rear end together with   loud banging and popping noises as the surplus fuel ignited through the white-hot exhaust! It certainly got the spectators excited, even the Marshals who have seen it all before said “it had made their day”

HOT NEWS - We made the very popular magazine 'FASTFORD'

To see the article click here

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SATURDAY 5th MAY 2007

Emcos Stages - Down Ampney, Wiltshire

Bank Holiday Saturday, the team rallied at Down Ampney in Wiltshire. Despite rear suspension difficulties after the 4th stage, Craig and Petre pulled out all the stops and got the “cossie” back on track and Gareth and Emlyn set some cracking times over the remaining stages to finish 8th overall out of a field of 67. Not bad eh? But even better was when they were awarded 2nd in their class!!! This is a team with real potential to go places, having analysed the stage times it was apparent that, without the suspension problem, the team could have finished up in the top three places.

Hear one of the news reports here from the event

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