Boardman Motorsport

Lancashire rally driver Dan Boardman is delighted with his 2nd in class at the weekend in the ‘John Price Rallying’ Tour of Epynt (Sunday 2nd March 2008) at which he debuted in his new Peugeot 206 Challenge Cup rally car.

“The stages were absolutely fabulous – smooth and fast.  We didn’t make any mistakes, the car ran faultlessly as did the team and the pace notes went well, we couldn’t have gone much faster at all. We only had one scare on one of the fastest parts of the rally at the end of SS1” says Dan.

As relaxed as Dan is in his driving style, he was looking down adjusting the brake bias when he put an outside wheel in the grass into a flat out right hand corner. “The car went completely sideways and we thought it was going to dig in and roll but Dan managed to steer into the slide whilst I held my breath” says co-driver Dean Quaylan “It was a bit of a moment and I thought we were going for a biggie”.

And the result?  “We thought we had won until the official results came though telling us that they had got a minute wrong on the first stage meaning we finished 31 seconds behind the class winner.” The team had to enter class A5 which is a modified class because the 206 is not homologated for the standard N1 (Up to 1400cc) class. This engine is standard as Peugeot 1400cup regs. However, they managed to finish 11 minutes in front of the N1 class winner!

“You can really see why power is everything on the big steep long hills where we were going to sleep waiting to get to the tops!!” adds Dan.  “Basically we were competing with 90bhp against two MGZR’s with 170bhp, all singing and dancing 1400 16v race motors. Although we were second in class, if you analyse each separate stage time they show we took time out of the MG’s on a few stages”

So what’s next?  Later in the season Dan aims to repeat his record of outright class wins on the Isle of Man competing in the May stages followed by the Manx International in August.  “We’ve shown we are quick. It’s now just a case of getting a competitive engine in the car. If I’d had a 170bhp we would have won by miles as usual. I’m looking for a 2ltr 180bhp 206 which is homologated so I can put the running gear in this car and do the Manx International in August. In 2006 we were 29th overall in a standard 1300 Suzuki Swift, against some serious machinery”.

Of course none of this would be possible without the support of BMS team sponsors: Boardman motorsport, LNT Automotive, Malton Laser, Lifeline Extinguishers, Pro Tyre (Kumho), Lancashire Salvage and Grange Lane Garage

Dan and his team Boardman Motorsport offer bespoke hospitality and PR solutions in association with the rally team.

From the beginning it was hard to imagine what a marathon is like, but once you have spoken to a few that have done it, it’s clear it is no easy feat.

It was 12 weeks before the race that I was handed the ticket by St.Catherine’s Hospice. I was prepared to take it seriously and started my 10k a day run but after the first 10 days, I strained my achilles heel. It was 3 weeks until I could start training again and managed 4 weeks and a 14mile’r before it happened again, just 3 weeks before the start.

With minimal training due to the ongoing injury all I could do was rest the achilles and hope it would hold up.

With the 36000 starters crammed into Grenwich Park, I was ready to start. The weather was perfect, sunny and cool. Just two miles in my outer right knee was very painful but I thought it would loosen up. Tower Bridge 13 miles in 10 minutes under my finish target time of 4 hours, managing to ignore the worsening knee pain by lapping up the crowds and fellow runners support, I was feeling good.

20 miles, a hail storm, “the wall” and excruciating knee pain forced me to a dreaded stop with a St John’s physio who pointed out the typical runners injury advised me to stop or take it easy. I couldn’t stop, he pulled me to my feet and I could hardly move, frozen with stiffness I hobbled and tried to get back into some form of run, my legs felt like two steel tubes.