LINTON BROTHERS ON WORLD STAGE AGAIN

Double Barbados Rally Club (BRC) Driver’s Champion Adrian Linton was missing from last Friday’s (November 23) Annual Prizegiving at the BCTSA Clubhouse. While wife and regular co-driver Jackie received the trophy marking his second consecutive victory in Modified 7 on his behalf, Linton was already on a flight across the Atlantic.
With his European-based brother Jonathan co-driving, the 2003 and 2006 BRC Champion will be competing in this weekend’s (November 30-December 2) final round of the World Rally Championship, Wales Rally GB, which will settle the battle for the title between Marcus Gronholm and multiple Champion Sebastien Loeb. Sponsored again by Ravensden, Linton’s regular backer in local events, the brothers will campaign the same Opel Astra OPC in which they finished the British event at their first attempt last year . . . but many things have changed.
Before leaving the island, Linton said: “Wales Rally GB 2006 was an awesome experience for the Kickastra Rally Team; having finished a round of the WRC, our thoughts immediately switched to the inevitable "what do we do for an encore?" Since encores generally happen in the same location, and given that the homologation of the OPC was due to run out at the end of 2007, we felt it was fitting to do it again . . . but with some changes based on the experience gained first time around.”
Last year, the Astra was essentially a standard road car fitted with a roll cage . . . and was lucky to survive the rigours of what is acknowledged as an extremely tough event. Linton remembers: “The ride height was basically standard, and we spent a lot of time bouncing off the sump guard, tank guard and the bottom of the car in general. We now have the ability to raise the car close to 11 inches off the ground if required, and with more travel than last year.
“Second on the list was losing weight . . . lots of it. Try as we might, we could not find the extra three and a half bags of cement we seemed to be carrying around. The car weighed in at 1312kgs at scrutineering compared with an homologation weight of 1065kgs. Jonathan found an Italian company called Barbolini that had been involved in the homologation of the OPC and with a one-make OPC series in Italy. A whirlwind three-day visit to their facility in Modena, just down the road from the Ferrari factory, resulted in the loss of close to 170kgs and all sorts of other mods - fitting a full group N exhaust, replumbing fuel and brake lines, installing a decent sumpguard and a very clean interior.
“The third major change has been the gearbox: while we were at Barbolini, I drove a customer’s car prepped to Group N spec, including the homologated dog box with close ratios and low final drive. The difference between our OPC and theirs was chalk and cheese . . . thanks to Jonathan’s efforts, we have now sourced the requisite parts, some new, some almost so, and the dog box has become a reality.”
Adrian and son Dominic flew from Grantley Adams International Airport on Friday evening and, after a six-hour coach journey from Gatwick Airport, arrived in Swansea on Saturday afternoon to be reunited with the rest of the team; Jonathan and wife Alecia had arrived the day before, having towed the rally car from their home in Blickstedt, Germany. They travelled overnight Thursday by ferry from Esjberg in Denmark to Harwich, on Britain’s east coast, then the small matter of 300 miles across to Wales.
Unlike last year, when they based themselves in a motor home in the Service Area, the Lintons are staying in a hotel this year, which will enable them to update their team web site on a regular basis, as they and their service crew complete final preparations on the car, then take part in the recce this week. Fans can follow their progress on www.kickastra.com; more general news about the event can also be found on the event site (www.walesrallygb.com) and the World Rally Championship site (www.wrc.com), while Globecast Radio, which is providing WRGB’s Rally Radio and on-stage commentary, can be found on www.0157.org.
The Ceremonial Start is at Cathays Park in Cardiff on Thursday evening; the three-day event comprises 17 special stages totalling just under 360 kilometres, including Saturday night’s 1.2-kilometre blast through the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, unique as the only indoor stage in the World Championship. Wales Rally GB finishes at 3.00pm on Sunday.

For further information, robin@bradfax.com
web site – kickastra.com