BrennGP HRC Integrale's break cover!

[ckBrenneke]

BrennGP driver and owner ckBrenneke has today announced that his team will enter the TORA Historic Rally Championship in the new year. With a BrennGP prepared Fiat 131 Abarth, he intends to challenge each round where funds and time permit.

"The car will carry a very similar livery to that run by Markku Alen in the late seventies," ckBrenneke told us. "When I was young, my grandfather used to take me to classic car rallies and I had a toy car carrying that livery, so it is a great priviledge to be able to drive the same kind of car with the same kind of livery some 30 years later."



"The car was very comfortable out on shakedown, I have to say, so I can't wait to run it in a competitive environment." ckBrenneke also spoke about former team-mate garyp3398's entry to the series. "It's pretty much inevitable," ck continued. "Gary has been a huge historic rally fan for as long as I have known him, so I can't wait to see what he comes up with for. GRP have a bit of experience in this area, they have long been involved in classics and historics, so this is going to be right up his street. It'll be good to get out there and trade times with him."



With the car ready to go, the clock is counting down to the media day on the 14th January.

ohh nice looking car there

The BrennGP FIAT 131 Abarth on shakedown in Germany.



Video still being processed at time of posting, so allow the quality to improve.

All plans to enter this championship are canned.

All plans to enter this championship are canned.

How come mate? If driver's are an issue, I can drive for you if you wish for this championship.

It's not that which has put me off it.

?????

BrennGP has reconsidered its position regarding the HRC and will be attending the media day.

[roleyes]Didn't see that one coming![/roleyes]

The BrennGP with GRP Historic Rally Championship entries for ckBrenneke and garyp3398 have been spotted testing on the Italian Riviera. Following from the team's testing of the TRC-spec Subaru Imprezas, drivers, cars and crew flew out in the early hours of the morning to Italy to take part in a local rally.



"Time really has been limited," ckBrenneke told us of the team's scheduling. "When garyp3398 signed on with us to run our second Impreza, we got to discussing my abortive run in the Fiat 131 Abarth we had prepared for the Historics media session. The car wasn't great at the level TORA runs the championship at, so when Gary mentioned he had two Integrale's built and ready to run, we sat back down and drew up a new agreement to enter the HRC together."



"I already had a deal in place with HKS to run with their branding when the opportunity presented itself, along with Shell, and crankandpiston.com. BrennGP recently prepared a Volkswagen Golf for the UAE Touring Car Championship run by the team at crankandpiston.com, so the HRC gives this growing community in the UAE some exposure."



"So we already had a test in the Imprezas this week, when garyp3398 suggested taking the cars out here to the Riviera to get some miles on them seeing as we missed out on taking them to the official test at the media day. It literally meant getting out the Imprezas at Kames, some shut eye, then on the plane out here this morning so the cars could be on the starting line for the start of the rally here at 4pm. It was tight, but we made it!"

After the third round of the TRC at Rally Italia, it is clear the BrennGP Integrales are well off the pace set by the rest of the pack. The cars finished well down the order in Italy, and have left drivers ckBrenneke and garyp3398 scratching their heads.

"When we were developing these cars we had high hopes," ckBrenneke told us. "They are quick and accelerate well, but on the Italian cobbles here all they did was spin. I had absolutely no grip, and during each service we changed the set-up to try and give us something new, but to no avail. It's quite gutting."

Despite a second place stage win in Germany for garyp3398, the Integrale has yet to set competitive times against its competitors, and ckBrenneke lands this squarely on the shoulders of time. "We simply don't have the time to tinker and tune for every race, let alone get much testing in. My first run on the Italian stages was during the recce about an hour before the race.

"Coupling that with the other work we have been doing, such as with the BrennGP Classic Endurance Racing entries, and the GRP BMWs in GT3s, as well as our drives in LMS, TCM and the Minis, our collective efforts are spread thin. I think it's time to write off the historic rallying."

When asked if this meant the team would be withdrawing from the championship, he answered no, that the team would still be attending where possible, but that further development of the cars would be minimal.