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Horton Racing News - 2004News Archive - 2007 : 2006 : 2005 : 2004 New car breaks cover! - 24/12/04
“The Rover Metro GTi is a very quick little hot hatch with massive rallycross prospects. With the combination of the hard revving 1.4ltr 16v Rover k-series engine and a good handling chassis, we should be capable of challenging for wins in this coming season” commented simon. More detail on the car will be made public soon along with details of new sponsors for the 2005 season.
Simon horton’s stockhatch 1.6 205 gti (748) has now been reduced in price to £1500 ono as the space is required, so the car needs to be sold quickly ****NOW SOLD****. Please check in the “for sale” section of the website and contact Simon with any offers.simon@hortonracing.co.uk
New project on the horizon - 13/12/04
Simon is not yet willing to release details of what will be built for the forthcoming 2005 season, but watch this space. If you are interested in buying simon horton’s stockhatch 1.6 205 gti (748) please have a look in the “for sale” section of the website.
Seasons end - 09/11/04
The day started with a gentle practice on a bright and sunny Saturday morning, with a slightly “green” and slippery circuit. The track was very much to the liking of the cousins who where both quite surprised by the length of the pit straight and the tightness of the first corner onto the loose. During the first heat Richard horton and fellow stock hatch 205gti competitor Jamie lea, had a coming together at the first corner which later lead to an exchange of words in the pits and a slap on the wrists for both drivers by the officials. Both cars 702 and 748 ran well during the heats, and Simons’ car was subject to a slight change in aerodynamics after clipping the barriers after a nudge in heat 3 after a small nudge from behind. With such a large competitive field, both drivers only made the “C” final and it was to end in disappointment for both. On the second lap of the final, simon had a gear linkage pop off whilst in 5th position on the knife edge section of the track and retired before the pit straight. Richard however was in second place, challenging for the lead, for most of the “c” final till the last corner of the last lap. As he turned onto the final back straight he selected 5th gear instead of 3rd, which resulted in the car being hit from behind from another competitor who couldn’t avoid him and also loosing 2 positions in the process. After the final, both drivers comments on how enjoyable the track was and how both had enjoyed some very close and entertaining racing. Simon horton (748) finished the 2004 championship in 9th position in the stock hatch class on 276 points & 22nd overall in the BTRDA championship Richard Horton (702) finished the 2004 championship in 30th position in the stock hatch class on 96 points & 75th overall in the BTRDA championship (not bad for just 2 races this season :) )
Rocking and rolling on the rollers - 11/10/04
From the first initial run, it was clear that the car was very, very out of tune and was only producing 86bhp at the wheels. The car was running far too lean and was in danger of damaging the cylinder head. After tinkering with the fueling and the ignition, things where now starting to look up looking up. At the end of the session, the engine was far happier and was generating much more horsepower than it first arrived with. Hopefully at brands hatch we should have a quicker car than the 2 previous events and (fingers crossed) a little bit of reliability, which unfortunately seems to have hampered the years events. A big thank you goes out to the LAD Motor sport lads for there help setting up the car. A small video of Simon’s car on the rollers is HERE
Wet in Wales - 03/10/04
Simon secured his qualify and was positioned on the front row of the B-final. The car set off perfectly for the first 60ft, but then dropped power (suspected water / electrics problem), but it regained normal performance after the first hairpin and Simon was charging again. But as Simon came round to complete his 4th lap the throttle cable snapped and the car coasted to a halt on the grass. This was just an unlucky ending to a wet and frustrating day. Both cars are now been carefully checked before the final race of the season at brands hatch in a bid to secure some final vital points.
More footage of "the roll" at Blyton - 25/09/04
Tricky trip to knock hill - 25/09/04
Once back to the pit area, and a small helping hand with a spare injector from fellow competitor Steve Heppenstall (cheers Steve), the team soon fixed the problem and it was time to race again. Heat 3 ran perfectly apart from a spin on the first lap. With all the heats finished, Simon in car 748 found himself on the back row of the A-final and finished 7th in the final (not bad considering the problems earlier in the day) Simon Horton would like to thank everyone who was involved with fixing the car that weekend. Particular thanks go to Alan & Ian Thorndyke, Steve Heppenstall, Peter Horton and Rachel Leeming.
Track day disaster for Richard Horton - 30/08/04
All systems go for Knockhill - 06/08/04
What Horton racing team get upto when they are not racing..... - 20/07/04
“Track days are great fun and it’s also somewhere where we can run the rallycross cars when they are not racing” The current project for the pair is another 205gti, which is currently being fitted with a MI-16 engine (Peugeot 1.9 16v) and will be on track late in august at Elvington airfield. The car has been prepared to the same standard as the rallycross 205’s, but with an extra 40-50bhp on top!! (Pictures to follow)
No show for Horton Racing at Lydden - 05/07/04
Both cars have had major work rebuilding / repairing after the last event at Blyton, in this event Richard blew and engine and Simon rolled his car. (Pictures will be available from Lydden, courtesy of Luno.net) (Now added to the Gallery)
Great debut for Richard Horton at Blyton - 21/6/04
The 205gti ran perfectly in the practice and the 1st qualifying sessions, only to develop a water leak and faulty water pump in the second heat. However, having travelled all that way, Richard was determined to race, and with a bit of help from the rest of the team (filling up the header tank just before each race) he was able to complete the rest of the heats. During the B final, the cars water leek had become much worse and the engine was in danger of overheating and stopping. After a great start in the B final, Richard hung on to claim his first finals victory on his debut and progressed to the back of the A final. The 205gti was then topped up with water (again) and sent out to race in the A final. This was a mixed race, with Richard going off on the 3rd corner, but rejoining the race shortly after, only for the engine to finally over heat and give up on the last lap of the race. Download the video HERE Congratulations to Richard on his debut from the Horton racing team.
Mixed weekend for Simon at Blyton - 21/6/04
The heat qualifications where described as “difficult” due to small teething problems with the 205gti. During the heats, Simon and Richard where both placed on the front row of the second heat, only for simon to jump the start and get pushed to the back of the grid (bad lad). After the qualify period was over, Horton racing’s team was able to have a look at why Simon’s car was so far off the pace, which resulted in the timing being very far out and a pipe to the dizzy being loose. With these corrected, car 748 went into a 2 car battle for the C final. With the problems fixed and the car pulling better, Simon won the C final easily and progressed to the back of the B final. Once the car was re-fueled, it was rushed out onto the back of the B final grid ready for the start. Once the lights went out, Simon flew off the grid and into 5th position by the first corner, but in the sea of dust and cars, he got tapped on the rear offside corner and resulted in a big impact with the tyres. The impact caused the 205 to flip onto side and slide for a number of yards before coming to rest on its roof. Download the videos HERE , HERE and HERE Simon was un-injured and the car will be repaired and ready to race again soon. (Picture’s in the gallery section)
Simon Horton back in action - 11/5/04
This involved a large amount of man hours to strip the engine, suspension, and safety equipment from the car in preparation for the re-build. We also had to replace the damaged components (sub frame and other suspension items). The car has now just been re-assembled and was finished this weekend, just in time for this weekend’s action at Blyton.
Richard Horton makes his debut - 1/05/04
Both Simon and Richard will be competing in the same stock hatch class event, which promises to be a very interesting tussle.
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Simon horton has just announced his new rallycross car. He will be use a Rover Metro GTI to compete in this year’s stockhatch championships and superseries events.
For images of the donor car in standard form, please have a look in the new gallery section for the car. This will be regularly updated as the project progresses.
The time has come for someone to try something different on the rallycross scene, says simon horton who has just put his stockhatch peugeot 205 up for sale. “It’s not a case of the good old Peugeot 205 (748) being competitive, but I just want to try something different to the rest of the field. I think it would be good for the sport for people to try other cars rather than everyone using the same old 205gti. At the moment, 90% of our stockhatch field is made up of this trusty old peugeot.”
Brands hatch played host to the final race of this years BTRDA championship. Both of the horton racing cars where entered for the days racing, and it was very eventful.
After the recent technical problems and lack of setup time between Knockhill and Pembrey, it was decided that car 748 should now take a trip to our local rolling road to discover why the car was “off the pace”. Early on the Saturday morning, car 748 was taken to local Peugeot specialists LAD Motor sport in Morcambe (lancs).
Pembrey played host for probably the wettest round of the BTDRA championship this year. After the incident free race at Knockhill the week before, there where very few changes that where needed to be made to car 748 before Pembrey. The conditions on the track (lots of mud and big puddles) made driving very challenging. Simon made 2 trips onto the track in the practice hour to adjust tyre pressures and make slight changes to the timing and braking. Simon started from 5th on the grid for the 1st heat and resulted in a 4th position finish after some “moments” on the circuit. “The car was very hard to control and also get the power down on the muddy loose section of the track. In the second heat we also had a big problem, as did most drivers, with the car misting up towards the end of the race, making visibility very poor.”
We have been given some more footage of the roll at Blyton. Its about 3MB and can be downloaded 
The knock hill trip was an event that pushed the limit for the Horton racing technically! 748 was basically prepared and ready to race weeks before the event, but a few last minute problems nearly ended the entire weekends racing. As the car was been loaded onto the trailer on the Friday before the race, it developed an unusual over-fueling / under-fueling problem. Both Simon and Peter Horton spent most of Friday afternoon trying to resolve the issue, but it was decided that all possible spares should be packed and travel up to the circuit. Saturday morning arrived and work commenced, trying to solve the problem. A very large portion of the cars air / fuel management system was replace such as the airflow meter, ECU, injectors, fuel pressure regulator and the throttle position sensor. None of these made any difference to the running of the car. One final telephone call from Richard Horton (on his holidays at the time) advised looking at the cold start sensor on the back of the engine block, which turned out to be the problem. With the car now running, but completely untested, we finally joined the rest of the field racing in heat 2. The problems then continued with a failed injector, which resulted in the heat been run on only 3 cylinders!
With only a few weeks to go till the BTRDA round at Knockhill, disaster has struck for Richard Horton. His Peugeot 205 was involved in a track day accident this weekend, which resulted in the car been rolled at quite high speed, heavily damage to the front drivers side corner and both of the rear quarters. Fortunately no one in the car was injured and no other car was involved. The Horton racing team commented that it will require quite a lot of work to repair the damage. Due to the time required to repair the Peugeot, it means that unfortunately Richard will not be competing the Knockhill event in 3 weeks time. 
Both Richard and Simon Horton have confirmed that they will be attending the BTRDA event at Knockhill in late September. Both cars are being fully rebuilt ready for the end of this season’s grueling schedule, with Pembrey only 2 weeks after Knockhill and brands hatch only a few weeks later. Simon commented “Everyone will have to be quite careful at Knockhill as there is such a short gap till the next race and no one will want to miss a round due to damaged cars.” 
When there is a quiet patch in the season, there are only 2 places to look for the Horton racing lads. Either on a race track or in the garage!
Neither Simon or Richard Horton unfortunately will be able to make the next round of the BTRDA championship at Lydden Hill this coming weekend. However, both will be participating at all of the remaining events in the calendar this year. 
Richard Horton made a fantastic BTRDA debut @ Blyton race rallycross circuit last month. Richard finished 2nd in every heat event and was placed in the B final.
After having a big accident at Blyton in March, which resulting in significant damage to the original shell, we decided to completely rebuild the 205gti.
This coming weekend’s race at Bltyon (Lincolnshire) will be the debut event in the BTRDA championship for Richard Horton in his newly prepared Peugeot 205gti.