Fresh from his August bank championship success, Simon tackled the wet and windy Knockhill Circuit in Scotland as the next round of the British Rallycross Championship.

After the last round at Lydden Hill, the new Subaru Impreza supercar had received quite severe front end damage after a collision with another competitor, which required a lot of work to correct by the Hortonracing team. However all the required repairs where completed on time and the car was in showroom condition ready for Knockhill.  Scotland however has been a tricky venue over the last few years for the Clitheroe based driver, having destroyed a previous car in a heavily rolled 2 years ago, Simon was understandably cautious about the possible outcome from the race weekend.  To add to the dangers of motorsport was threat of torrential downpours at kept appearing over the Scottish circuit.

On the morning of the event, Simon took to the circuit in dry conditions and declared himself happy with the new car and infact stated it was the best car he had ever driven round the extremely fast knockhill circuit in 8 years of competing at the venue.  However, all that was about to change as Simon entered the qualifying heats.

Heat 1 was still early in the morning and the dry conditions meant that the lap times for all the competitors was extremely fast and every driver was pushing to the limits to get the best time for the day whilst the weather held out.
Simon too was pushing extremely hard, and slightly overstepped the mark on lap 3, catching the trail end of the Impreza hard on a barrier as he joined the pit straight, causing him to temporally back off and regain composure, but costing him valuable time, eventually finishing 7^th overall. Heat 2 was when the trouble for the Clitheroe driver, as a sudden heavy downpour hit the circuit as he took his position on the grid, but only with semi dry tyres fitted. Simon made a fantastic start off the line and led the first lap, before being caught out by one of the huge rivers of water running across the tarmac on a bend, causing him to spin out at high speed and loose the lead.  However, despite this, Simon made a fantastic recovery and claimed 4^th overall in extremely tricky
conditions.

As the day progressed, the weather became worse and Simon slipped back down the time sheet due to his slow first heat time and only qualified for second place in the B final alongside veteran Irish competitor George Tracey in his Citroen Xsara WRC. The day went from bad to worse as Simon made his only poor start of the day and was forced to follow the Irishman into the first corner and the subsequent first lap.  “The conditions where horrendous” claimed Simon “the car in front was chucking so much mud on the screen it was impossible to see, I just had to hang on the best I possibly could” Entering lap 3, Simon had to concede he couldn’t follow the irish driver anymore as he ran out of water in the washers to clean the screen any further and was driving
effectively blind for the remainder of the race.

However, the hortonracing team can again be very proud of their achievements and again scored very solid championship points with an official 7^th overall finish. Also, very importantly the new car survived with very little damage from this extremely tricky event, which is more than could be said for the majority of Simon’s competitors and allows the team to spend more time on development rather than repair work.

Simon’s next race is a double header weekend at the Croft International Circuit near Darlington (Nr Yorkshire) on November 5^th & 6^th.  This is the end of season highlight for rallycross and their promises to be fireworks both on and off track.  This is also the most local event that Simon has to Clitheroe in a season, so please come along and show your support.

The HortonRacing team have been looking forward to finally
showcasing the new 2011 car after an encouraging test day at Cadwell, and what
better place than at the teams favourite circuit ‘Lydden Hill’.

Previous to the Bank Holiday weekend the car was taken to
Townend Garage in Carnforth for some final tuning with Steve Simpson. Simon
knew that with hard work, and continued development, the car would finally
start to get among the front running competitors.

Having Marcus Gronholm pull alongside Simon in practice was
an amazing sight, and his presence amongst the supercar drivers added an
entertaining edge to what was a fantastic weekend.

The first practice lap flagged up a problem with the
throttle position sensor which resulted in limited engine power. Adjustments
were made to the ECU to try and resolve the problem but a second practice lap
confirmed that there was still an issue. However on a positive note all other
aspects of the car ran smoothly.

Again, further tweeks were made to the ECU before the first
race which saw Simon on the second row behind Pat Doran and Marcus Gronholm.
Simon had a good start off the line but unfortunately slipped back as he found
his feet in the new car and was acutely aware of making sure that everything
was working correctly, this being the first time it had been driven
competitively. ‘’Looking back I could have pushed it a lot harder but I was
conscious of not stressing the engine before being comfortable that everything
was running smoothly’’.

Sat on the back of the grid for the second heat Simon knew
that he could push the car a lot harder, which resulted in what was to be the
greatest race of the day for the team. Simon got off the line well, hit the
Ford KA of Colin Anson in an unavoidable accident, and tore the front bumper
off the brand new Impreza. He drove really well, and the car ran beautifully,
resulting in a fantastic second place finish after Kevin Procter. ‘’In the race
I started to get to grips with the Impreza, but I was a bit disappointed to
damage it so early in the day. It felt good to start to push the car hard and
the lap times showed we were on the pace with the lead cars’’.

A review of the damage after this race revealed that the
accident had torn off the front bumper support completely, which was a surprise
as this is a heavy crash structure and just shows the severity of the impact. A
run up to the top end of the circuit in Steve Rattues van enabled the team to
retrieve the bumper which was beyond repair as it had completely shattered. A
quick run to the Dorans team to retrieve some wire mesh with the use of some gaffer
tape, and we were ready for the last round.

In Heat 3 again Simon had a good start and was tussling with
Liam Doran in his Monster Energy ERC Citroen C4 and Belgium driver Jos Jansen
who was driving Koen Pauwels brand new 2011 Ford Focus. Simon ran one lap and
was part way through the second in third place when the throttle cable broke
coming down ‘Hairy Hill’, which meant that Simon only qualified for the B Final
alongside Pat Doran and Jos Jansen.

Again Simon had a great start in the final and dived into
the joker lap emerging close behind Jos Jansen who inevitably would have been
passed after lap one if it were not for a highly unusual and unpredictable
failure of part of the fuel rail assembly. ‘’There was nothing we could have
done to prevent it as it is nothing you really check. It was just a bizarre
failure as a result of loss of fuel pressure, and after landing back in the
pits and opening the bonnet it was apparent that I was VERY lucky not to have
had an engine fire’’.

A look at the results of the day confirms that Simon
officially finished in seventh place.

Only three weeks to go until the next event at Knockhill.
Whilst the car is looking a bit worse for wear it is mainly cosmetic and should
be looking as good as new in no time.

Whilst there were a few problems throughout the day the team
are aware that Lydden was the first time out for the new car and came away
being encouraged by its fantastic performance in Heat 2. We look forward to
another great days racing at Knockhill in three weeks time. See you then!

Onboard video footage of heat 3 when the throttle cable broke

lydden hill round 5

This years traditional august bank holiday event at lydden hill will be extra special this year. Not only is Simon debuting his new Subaru Impreza supercar at the MSA championship event, but he will be joined on the grid by none other than 2 times world rally champion Marcus Gronholm! Expect a packed supercar grid at Lydden as the top flight drivers queue up to try and beat the finnish legend.

Not only that, but there event also has classic group B action with cars such as the might RS200 and 6r4′s on the grid, plus all the rest of the fantastic rallycross action from the other classes.
Expact a full packed entry, huge crowds, great atmosphere and spectacular racing.

Here is a quick sneek peek of the new colour scheme on the 2011 Impreza

Exciting news from the hortonracing team this week with news that the brand new subaru impreza supercar will hit the track for the first time next saturday for a private test session.
“I’m extremely excited to be driving the new car on track for the first time next weekend” commented Simon “It’s the start of a new chapter in the Hortonracing teams history and we are expecting to be on the tails of the front running cars in the class very shortly. There will obviously need to be a few competative events to learn the new characteristics of the car and maximise the setup as it’s totally different to the previous Subaru, but once we get some real world competative data i’m 100% sure we can fighting at the sharp end of the grid for the rest of 2011 and into 2012.”

The site will be updated next weekend with an update from the test session and also images of the cars new livery for 2011.

“I’m bitterly disappointed to miss this event as last years event was one of my highlights of last season and the perfect debut event for the new car.”

The new Subaru Impreza is 99% ready for it’s debut and will be on track very shortly.

Apologies to all that are waiting to see the new car on the grid, we promise it will be worth the wait!

“The build up of the car since the shell was painted a few weeks ago has gone extremely well and we are ahead of schedule” commented Simon. “We are aiming to fire up the car for the first time in the next 10 days, so shortly after that we will hit the track with a clear testing plan and start collecting data before we hit the grid for our first race”

Also Simon has hinted that he may attend the scooby shootout to showcase the new car as a public demonstration outside of the usual rallycross events, more details tbc nearer the time.

new supercar interior is taking shape

The supercar driver has ran the past 2 seasons with the number 22 on the side of the car, but for the 2011 season he will now be carry number 12. Images of the new sign written car will be online in approx 3-4 weeks.

the old number 22

It’s not fully finished, but should be ready to take to the grid in approx 6 weeks time.

new hortonracing subaru impreza supercar

The brand new Subaru Impreza is going to the bodyshop for the last time on March 12th for the final paint job.  The new paint work is being completed by the teams sponsor Greyhound Ford in Accrington (yes a Ford dealer backing a Subaru driver!)

The new car should be ready to reveal a few weeks after once the final build up has been completed. The new rallycross challenger car is having a bare shell spray so there is a considerable amount of work to fully compete the build process, but most of the component modules such as engine / transmission and suspension are pre-built and ready to install.

Unfortunately due to some unforeseen delays during the prep work, it has taken longer to complete the build than we original estimated, so at this time we are unlikely to make round 1 of the british championship, but should be ready to join the fight at round 2.

More news will be coming thick and fast in the coming weeks as the hortonracing team ramps up the preparation for the new season.