Ti Motorsport December 2009

Welcome to our Christmas newsletter!

As you will all know Ti have just spent the last couple of weeks gallivanting around East Africa reliving adventures of old on the Classic Safari Rally – our reward was third in class after ten long and arduous days. Read about all of our adventures, and an in depth feature on our star driver, Gogi, in this, our Christmas special edition. Plans are already well under way for 2010 and we all hope that you will join us again in the New Year, but until then I hope you have a fantastic festive season. Thanks for reading

Dave

Hardev Sira became interested in rallying from a

young age. Born in Eldoret, Kenya his huge interest grew from following this annual African rally and it had always been a childhood dream to compete in one of these gruesome, unpredictable, mammoth events. Hardev, or Gogi as he is affectionately known, moved to London at the age of 15 to pursue a career in Mechanical Engineering. Once fully qualified Gogi went on to establish his successful body shop in Essex. With intense aspirations, Sira Racing was founded in 2003.

When the East African Safari Classic Rally was reborn in 2003, Gogi, Iqbal Sagoo of USA and their crew decided to tackle this immense event. The UK prepared Peugeot 504 Coupe, bought from TI Motorsport, was kitted up to tackle the very first affair. Although the car had completed the London to Sydney marathon - It was Hardev’s very first attempt at the 6000km venture! The crew was seeded 43rd out of the 53 entrants. After ten days of grueling abuse over the rough East African roads Hardev brought the car back in 24th position overall. This was an amazing achievement for such a novice team. Hardev's passion for rallying saw him return to Kenya in 2005 - this time armed with Manjeet Degun as his navigator (an avid Hockey Player in the Midlands, UK). The 504 came back in the 70's works colour scheme. Hardev’s luck took a turn for the worse in this event after the rest day when he hit a stray Antelope in the Mara. At this stage he was 21st overall. Later on, during one of the sections, the brakes failed suddenly, resulting in having to complete the stage brakeless. However, his persistence in repairing the car and attempting the rest of the event paid off in finishing a commendable 26th overall! 2007 was a full on attack by Sira Racing, this time navigated by Uwe Kurzenberger of Germany. The Peugeot 504 coupe had an engine transplant from the small 2.0L to the big V6. However, this year too saw some bad luck striking on the very first day when the tie rod end broke. The damage was extensive but Hardev managed to put it together with some steel cable and drove in reverse for 22km to limp out of the stage! Even after so many problems when most would have given up – Hardev showed his die hard attitude by bringing the car back to the finish ramp. And now to 2009 - the team went back to Africa, this time armed with a 1972 Ford Escort Mark 1 and co-driven by experienced World Rally Championship co-driver Denis Giraudet! The support of family & friends in UK & Africa, TI Motorsport and all the sponsors have made this possible for Sira Racing for this biannual event.

Sira Racing survives grueling Safari to take 2009 podium! After ten days and over four and a half thousand kilometers of driving through East Africa the Ti Motorsport run Ford Escort Mk1 of Hardev Singh Sira and Denis Giraudet completed the 2009 Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic with a total stage time of 30 hours and 16 minutes, almost the same time as Sebastian Loeb took to complete the entire World Rally Championship season! During this marathon event, the fourth time that Hardev (aka Gogi) has competed on the classic, the team had to overcome recurring electrical gremlins caused by a faulty LED warning light, suspension woes and a brush with a high speed bus meaning that thirtieth overall and third in class was ill reward for all the hard work and effort that the team put into just getting to the finish… this is their story! Pre Rally Test – Vipingo Ridge, Mombasa Gogi takes the opportunity to drive the first official section in order to acclimatize himself to current World Rally Championship co-driver Denis Giraudet who has kindly agreed to call the notes for the next 25 special stages. This is also the first time that Gogi, who previously used a Peugeot 504 Coupe, has the chance to drive the Ford Escort mk1 properly – and immediately pronounces himself happy, but admits he will need to adjust his driving style! Day 1 – Prologue (19km) After taking the ceremonial start underneath the famous tusks in Mombasa Gogi hustles the Escort around the lush Vipingo Ridge Golf Course 34th fastest, offering him a good road position for the first ‘proper’ day of rallying. Erik Comas in the gorgeous Renault Alpine has suspension issues and has to super-rally!

Day 2 – Mombasa to Taita Hills (241km) The opening stage showed what a remarkable rally the Classic Safari is- Gogi and Denis caught and passed the car in front mid way through the stage only to spy some headlights behind them a while later. Thinking that it was a quicker car catching them they pulled over to allow it past only to discover it was the car they had previous caught, thus handing back the road position and having to eat dust to the finish! After three rather uneventful stages the crew had moved up to 24th overall and 2nd in class! Day 3 – Taita to Ngurdoto (Tanzania) (211km) The day began with suspension issues in the first test when one of the rear Proflex canisters came loose and needed to be tie wrapped back in place. This small issue was then followed by the beginning of the headache of the rally. Gogi informed the team that the alternator light had come on and refused to go off again. The car then stopped enroute to the overnight service and required a new ‘dizzie’ cap and rotar arm to get her mobile again. It had been hoped to change the alternator as well but the ‘spare’ was not a working component and thus Gogi would need to keep an eye on the battery charge level the next day. Day three had been full of high speed tests and despite only having a 1600cc under the bonnet Gogi and Denis were now up inside the top twenty overall! The major talk of the day was the lucky escape for Wayne Kieswetter and Steve Harris who had a high speed crash in their Datsun, rolling a number of times. Fortunately both of the crew were ok but their rally was run! Up front Ian Duncan led in his Ford Mustang, two minutes ahead of Bjorn Waldegaard in a Porsche.

Day 4 – Ngurdoto – Mbulu Hills – Ngurdoto (119km) The first stage of the day was cancelled after heavy rains had washed out a couple of bridges. This meant that crews headed directly to the second stage, Mbulu Hills. The day began with the alternator shedding its belt, even before the stage had begun! This was a precursor to the car dying completely less than 8km into the section! Gogi and Denis were then rescued by the official team photographer, Geoff Mayes, only for his car to breakdown whilst towing them out of the stage!

After an extensive test of the electrics the Escort fired up but the team were concerned that they could not trace a definitive fault. This also meant that Gogi would miss his first ever full day of rallying, incurring hefty time penalties and dropping the team down the order!

Day 5 – Ngurdoto – Amboseli (Kenya) (228km) With the team nervously waiting to see if the electrical gremlins would resurface they were not disappointed – the car grinding to a halt 3km from the end of the opening test of the day! With so much time lost recovering the car and looking into the problems the team skipped the rest of the day and headed straight to Amboseli, well aware that they had a full day to find and fix the problem as the crews enjoyed their ‘rest’ day! Day 6 – Amboseli Rest Day When the team descended on the Escort the next morning it was left to Andrew to find the electrical issue whilst the rest of the team, Denis

included, began reprepping the car for the final four days of rallying. Eight hours later the frustration in the camp was deepening as the problem had still not been located… that was until it was discovered that an LED warning light system not suited to the alternators had been fitted to the car. This was

replaced with a 5 watt side light bulb and hey presto – problem solved!

Day 7 – Amboseli – Naivasha (250km) With the rally now entering its second half Gogi and Denis and the whole team were hoping that all the obstacles were behind them. As far as the rally car went it was a relatively trouble free day, making up nearly ten minutes on the car in front! However things were not so rosy for the service crew. The service barge had damaged its radiator and was struggling along with overheating problems whilst Dave Gough, team principal, was nursing a dodgy stomach!

Up ahead Duncan and his Mustang had really stretched their legs and was now some 12 minutes clear of Waldegaard! And further back – both Renault Alpines were still soldering on!

Day 8 – Naivasha – Rumuruti – Naivasha (256km) A broken service van created some headaches early on in the day but at least the Escort was running reliably and no major work was required – that was until Gogi was turning in to begin the last stage of the day. A local mini bus, affectionately known as a matatu, chose the wrong moment to overtake traffic and sideswiped the rally car, doing extensive cosmetic damage to the drivers side but, thankfully, with no injury to either

Gogi or Denis. Incredibly the Escort was still mechanically sound but the driver’s door was so badly damaged that Gogi was unable to open it! Once back in service mechanics from surrounding teams all came forward to offer their manpower or tools as the car was restored to a semi presentable state.

Day 9 – Naivasha – Taita (234km) The service van had been replaced with a new, functioning model and with just two days and almost 400 kilometres left to go the rally was almost run. The issues with the alternator were long since forgotten and the only issues were the soft rear dampers and a minor issue with the rev counter which had taken to working intermittently – quickly traced to a faulty earth.

Day 10 – Taita Hill to Mombasa (176km) The final day of the rally took in more stage mileage than an average British Rally Championship event, except that Gogi and Denis were driving through African savannah teeming with wildlife! The day went without hitch and with the Escort running healthily once more its stage times were very respectable, but when you’ve lost almost FIVE hours there is nothing to gain and everything to loose on the last day. A champagne celebration for third in class was welcome but still small reward for all the effort the entire team had put into this rally.

For more information on the rally please visit www.eastafricansafarirally.com or www.siraracing.com