Testing times for 5th placed Marcus

HPM Motorsport driver Marcus Dodd ended his season with a solid fifth place on the Bulldog Rally, final round of the MSA National Gravel Rally Championship.  Driving his Flitewise.com and Pirelli Tyres backed Hyundai Accent WRC, the Poole driver and his Hove based co-driver Andrew Bargery endured a frustrating day in the forests of Mid and North Wales.With nothing to play for in championship terms, Marcus was keen to use the Oswestry based rally as a 'pre-2006' test for the striking black and silver Hyundai, also being backed by Petards.com for the rally.  With new gear ratios to try on the car, multiple National Rally Champion Dodd was looking forward to a strong battle with the National Championship regulars as he entered the Dyfnant stage, the opening 10 mile test of the rally.Unfortunately for Marcus, a day of niggling problems began before the car even left the start line, as the intercom in the Hyundai stopped working with twenty seconds to go, and Marcus could not hear co-driver Bargery over the noise of the car.  With Andrew frantically having to adjust to try and make himself heard above the clatter of stones underneath the car, Dodd struggled to get any confidence over those ten miles, and he dropped over 10 seconds to the fastest time.With the intercom problem fixed, the pair continued to the Dyfi Forest complex, and Dodd soon realised that the new gear ratios were not best suited to the demands of the North Wales forests.  Try as he might, he could not guide the Hyundai to the top of the stage times, and the Pirelli and Elf Oils backed machine was also struggling with brake problems.  The Accent consuming brake discs and pads at an alarming rate as Dodd continued to push as hard as he could to close the gap on the leaders.A slight throttle sensor problem was also giving Marcus the occasional scare, but a switch to a slightly harder compound Pirelli K4 tyre for the afternoon stages improved the Hyundai's traction and handling, and Marcus was able to get much closer to the pace of the leaders as he began to set Top 3 fastest times.  Despite not being able to challenge for the victory due to a late puncture, the test had been a success in that the team had found out what worked and what didn't in preparation for another crack at the title in 2006.  Marcus was pleased with the outcome as he finally ended the rally 5th overall and 3rd in class A8, exactly one minute behind eventual winner Paul Bird:'It has been a bit of a frustrating day' commented Marcus.  'We wanted to try out some new things with the car today to see if they worked.  Some of the things we tried were a success, and some of the others were not so successful.  That's the nature of rallying though - you don't know if something new is better or worse until you try it - so at least its another box checked on a list of things to do in readiness for next year.  I was much happier with the car in the afternoon stages, and although we had some brake issues, on the whole, it was a very positive test for the HPM team and we'll certainly be confident ahead of the 2006 season.  There is plenty to be done prior to Rallye Sunseeker in February, but today showed that we are definitely on the right track so I'm very pleased with progress so far.  The whole team put in a good performance, and I was very pleased with our switch to a harder Pirelli tyre in the afternoon - it worked very well for us and overall I'm pleased with the way things went.'Fellow HPM Motorsport drivers Harry Dodd and Peter Egerton were also competing on the event.  Marcus's father Harry finished 30th overall and 7th in the A8 class in his Flitewise.com machine, whilst Egerton took 6th in class and an equally well driven 22nd overall.  Both were competing in HPM Motorsport run Hyundai Accent WRC cars.