Welcome to the Horton Racing website

Here you can find the latest Horton Racing and Rallycross news and pictures. For this season we've a new look website which we hope you like. As well as the usual information we've added a video page where you can watch Horton Racing in action at events throughout the season.

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Post 2009 season – Subaru Update & 2010

It’s been quite a few weeks now since the curtain closed on the 2009 season now, so it’s about time for an update on what’s

happening behind the scenes. The item of the most important piece of news is the preparation of a brand new race engine for the Impreza. After the failure of the old unit, the engine and the internals where so badly damaged that nothing was salvageable from it and so it’s a fresh engine for 2010. The engine follows the same core structure and is based around a Subaru 2ltr closed deck block, but with up rated Cosworth internals but has had a new up rated and revised oil supply system included. Also helping with the re-configuration of the engine has been the input from Kent Performance Cams, who have provided a new profile to help with the midrange response and performance to compliment a new design of turbo charger for 2010. The team would also like to thank CDF racing (Upraded Subaru Parts) for help in providing the vernier timing pulleys for the engine and also from miller’s oils for their help with the choice of oils for the car and introduction of their revolutionary “Nano” oils the 2010 car will be using. The engine should be fully completed and installed within the next 2 weeks, before a rolling road session to evaluate the cars performance and a track session to shake it down.
The Hortonracing team is planning to participate in the 2010 winter series in preparation for a full 2010 British rallycross championship campaign.
Also for 2010, Simon will also be contesting a fully Scooby Sprint Championship in the Pro class, providing there is no clash of dates with the rallycross season.
Both the rallycross and scooby sprint champion calendars are to be finalised, so watch this space.

Subaru / Mallory Update

After the recent catastrophic failure of the engine at Lydden Hill the HortonRacing team is pleased to announce that the Subaru will be back out at Mallory Park on the 18th of October for the final round.

After Lydden the car went back in the garage to ascertain what the problem was. It is apparent that there was oil starvation on cylinder no. 3 which caused a big end bearing failure and destroyed the crank in the process. The replacement parts have been sourced, upgraded and are in the process of being installed which includes oil control components from Cosworth.

Mallory Parks coverage will also be broadcast live on Motors TV.

Top of the Podium at Pembrey! 19th and 20th September

With the Subaru out of action Sunday at Pembrey was an opportunity for Simon to go back to his roots for the day and compete in the BTRDA Stockhatch class in Steve Rattues Peugeot 205 GTI.

Steve had already proved the day before that the car was running well by winning third place in the final which gained him his first and well deserved trophy. So it was down to Simon on the second day of racing to hopefully continue the cars winning streak.

Practice was somewhat different to usual with Simon having to get used to two-wheel drive and less grip compared to his usual 500 hp Supercar.

“The day was only meant as a bit of fun and a chance to play out again in the Stockhatch class which I always enjoyed. I chose the BTRDA as I wasn’t eligible for any points and did not want to interfere with any of the major championship battles”.

The car took some getting used to in the first heat as it felt very tail happy and was not riding the rough sections particularly well. In the last lap Simon went wide on one of the corners and Darren Clarke pipped him to the finish line with Simon finishing second.

After the first heat was run we softened the suspension and lowered the tyre pressures, to help ride the rough conditions on the loose and gain more heat into the tyres, thus improving the grip.

In the second heat Simon made the perfect start off the line and sprinted clear of the field to maintain first place throughout and started to find his groove in the Peugeot. Heat three was almost an identical re-run of heat two to within 0.1 of a second at 3.16.430 minutes.

With the times that Simon set throughout the day he qualified on pole position for the A final with Dave Martin and Darren Clarke joining him on the front row. Again Simon got an excellent start and led from the first corner and was leading up to the second lap when the race was red flagged due to John Rook rolling his 205 just before the hairpin. Thankfully John was o.k., the car was not too badly damaged and after a discussion with the other drivers John was allowed to take his place on the grid for the re-run of the final.

In the re-run of the final Simon did not make as good a start and he also noticed that the car was smoking badly which was probably due to a valve stem oil seal leak at high RPM. This meant Simon had to short shift the car which meant he was not able to use full power throughout the race to help preserve the engine. Dave Martin was on his back all through the race but it was Simon who finished first. Simon claimed the top step of the podium for the first time in two years.

“I would like to thank Steve for the loan of the car and to my team and sponsors for all the help over the weekend. The second run of the final was touch and go, every time I went into high revs the engine was developing oil smoke so I had no idea how long the engine would last or the exact cause of the problem, so I drove a conservative race to help preserve the engine and made sure we made it to the finish. Dave Martin ran me very close but it was a good clean race”.

As a separate note Simon and Steve would also like to thank LAD Motorsport at Morecambe for their help in setting up the car at short notice before the event.