Boardman Motorsport

ONE of East Lancashire most well-known rally drivers has died at the age of 88.

John ‘Johnny’ Boardman was famous for his exploits on events such as the Monte Carlo Rally, the Tulip Rally and the Liege-Rome-Liege events in the 1950s.

Born in Great Harwood in 1920, John taught himself to drive at the tender age of 11 in a wagon around the family farm.

After demonstrating his prowess behind the wheel, John started out in motorsport by competing in trials and hillclimbs, quickly progressing to rallying.

He contested the Monte Carlo Rally four times, starting in 1952 in a Jaguar, and the Tulip Rally eight times – winning his class, and silver awards, every time…

Before hearing the good news, Daniel had at first been too nervous to switch on his mobile phone, in case the news he received was not what he so desperately wanted to hear. “When I finally took the call from Chris Moore, Innovation Motorsports director, the nerves immediately lifted, but I think it will take some time for this to properly sink in. I cannot express how much I wanted this opportunity.

I know it will be the most important year of my life because it would be my big break; I will give it my all and work my socks off to give myself every best possible chance of success. I know what is involved and what I have to do. It will be hard work. I want to win the championship and also win the sponsors so I can keep rallying and move up as a top British driver” says Daniel.

Daniel battled it out in the final, held last Saturday 29th October 2005, against 28 specially selected finalists from all over Britain for what turned out to be a gruelling weekend of tests and assessments at the fabulous RallySchool UK forest test venue near Bradford. Each and every one of the finalists gave it their all, making the final decision very difficult indeed for the panel of judges, which included Ian Grinrod, co driver to Jimmy, Colin and Alistair McRae. It took many hours of deliberation, but in the early hours of Monday morning they finally reached a unanimous decision. Continue reading →

Recent Innovation Motorsports Rally Scholarship winner, Lancashire lad Daniel Boardman, is a late entry into next weekend’s Grizedale rally using this as an opportunity for both a preview and shakedown for next season.

Daniel will be driving Innovation Motorsports’ Peugeot 206 Supercup car which he hopes to be driving next season, although this decision is yet to be taken. The scholarship prize was intended to be an entire season competing in the Peugeot 206 1400 Challenge, which is a lower level of championship to the 1600 Supercup. However due to how much Daniel’s talent and potential impressed the scholarship judges, the Innovation Motorsports Team Manager is currently exploring whether they can raise the additional sponsorship necessary to fund this much higher profile championship.

“I am looking forward to driving the new car at Grizedale competing against mainly 4 wheel-drive turbocharged cars which are much more powerful than mine” says Daniel. “I have been seeded at a modest 68 but am hoping to finish in the top 20 as my new Peugeot 206 should be quite competitive for a 2 wheel drive car.”

Sitting beside Daniel for this preliminary event will be experienced co-driver Chris Camble from Burnley, as the new scholarship rally team co-driver Yolandie Walsh, from Rishton, is still undergoing intensive training for next season. Continue reading →

Lancashire rallyman, Daniel Boardman, is thrilled with his first ever class win (class N1) following the RBS International Manx Rally this weekend.

Not only is this his first class win, but this was his first ever tarmac rally, the first time he had competed in the newly built Suzuki Swift rally car, and also his first time alongside Manx local co-driver Gina Shelly.

Dan now plans to enter the Manx International rally in July this year, a 3 day event, and based upon this weekend’s performance, we can expect yet more exciting first class results.

Dan started the rally as car 91 (seeded highest in class N1), in a Suzuki Swift 1300 GTi, and finished the event in a very respectable 51st position and was even faster than Harry Dodd driving a £300,000 world rally car on some stages who finished 49th and the Dorset Police backed 300bhp Subaru which finished 56th overall. “We entered in the standard Suzuki Swift as it is a relatively cheap car to run and to gain some tarmac experience. Despite being in one of the slowest and most standard cars in the rally and that I had never made my own pace notes or competed in night stages we managed to beat several 4wd rally cars which produce around 3 times the power. I made a rather spectacular start to the event, spinning near the start of both the first and second stages, much to spectators’ delight, but then soon settled into the event. We broke an engine mount at the end of the first nights stages, which a fellow Fiesta competitor helped me fix, at which point we were lying some 3 minutes ahead in the class. I am ecstatic with my results as it was the first time I had ever driven on roads like this, to beat local crews in much higher powered machinery is just about the best credibility I can get. I hope it proves to everybody that I have the all round skills, passion and talent needed to take my career to the top!” says the TVR Design Engineer. Continue reading →

Lancashire rallyman, Dan Boardman aims to replicate the class winning form he established in the RBS Manx National rally earlier this year by entering the Manx International Rally, on 3rd August, Round 4 of the British Rally Championship.

The classic Manx runs over two and a half days with 180 Special Stage Miles on some of the fastest tarmac roads in the world. This is a World famous event, previous winners include Colin McRae, Ari Vatenen and Toney Pond and Dan is hoping to put his name alongside these all time greats. “The Manx island roads are extremely technical yet rewarding with open fast and flowing A roads which turn off on to the narrowest of B roads (or rat runs) across fords and ‘hairy’ big jumps with wonderful scenery. It’s one of the only events in which I can drive on the same stages as all the World Champions have done in the past” says Dan. “It’s very well organised and a great event to watch too as there is good access to all the stages so there will be thousands of rally fans to lend their support”.

After his win on the island in May, he is confident of another class win but is sure the competition will be fierce as this time the rally is part of the British Rally championship.   He will again be driving the Suzuki Swift 1300 GTi .  “This will be the biggest and longest event I have done by far.  I am more used to the forest events, which are around 40miles in total, the longest forest stage I have done is 12miles but some of the Manx stages are 25miles long.  On the longer stages it is more difficult as a driver to keep concentration to a maximum whilst still processing information from the co-driver and car.  I have therefore put in a lot of extra preparation before the biggest rally of my career so far” says Dan.

Dan is very professional about every aspect of preparation of the team before events. He is sponsored by his local gym Total Fitness in Preston; he believes that if he is physically fit it also improves mental fitness. He has been keeping in shape with a bespoke motorsports training regime with his personal trainer. Continue reading →