The Brosis Motorsport Team.

The Brosis Motorsport Story.

Brosis Motorsport - The Early Years.

Simon was first introduced to motorsport at a very young age by his Dad Ken, and was often found during his childhood helping marshal on special stages or standing between the front seats in his Dads Mk 1 Escort shouting faster, faster!

At the age of eight, ken built Simon a go-cart - a cement mixer 4 stoke engine and the throttle operated by string tied around Simon's boot - no brakes!! Simon was hooked!

Once turned 17 Simon bought his first mini which Ken turned into a 1970's rally replica, over the following years Simon was the local motor club autotest champion 3 years in a row before the first special stage rally Mini was prepared and in 1995 Simon, navigated by Ken took part in his first multi-venue special stage rally - The Tour Of Lincs.

For the seasons of 1995 and 1996 Ken navigated Simon with Simon benefiting from kens huge experience as both a driver and navigator. In 1997 Hayley, Simons sister first took to the navigators seat and Brosis Motorsport was born.

1997 was a very successful year for their first season together with them never failing to win their class by margins of upto 11 minutes.

1998 was Brosis Motorsports first season competing at national level in their class B9 Mini. Lots of new rally's, learning pace notes and seasoned competition to push their skills to the limit - but they learnt fast, being young and keen with plenty of natural ability, they rose to the challenge and in 1999 won the Safety Devices National Tarmacadam Rally Championship - class B9! What was even more impressive was some of the overall results the pair were getting against much more modern, powerful machinery. They could be relied upon to regularly finish in the top twenty overall!

Brosis Motorsport - The Story Continues.

In the millenium year, Brosis Motorsport finished runners up in the Safety Devices Tarmacadam Rally Championship - another impressive result! They were by far the quickest in their class but sporting a new more powerful engine the team experienced teething trouble, with the drive train needing some serious re-designing to stand up to the additional power and torque, this resulted in some non-finishes which ultimately cost them the championship win.

During the Autosport International Motorshow 2001, Brosis Motorsport took the decision to switch to a one make championship - The Ford Racing Puma Challenge to try to further their rallying career. The one make series was to use the Ford Racing Puma 1400 kitcar and the faithful Mini was sold to help finance the 2001 season in the Puma. The engine from the mini was kept, read more about that in the section about the car.

The season was a complete disaster for Brosis Motorsport, although they managed to finish fourth overall, it financially ruined the team and the puma was sold at the end of season to try to recoup some funds. Interestingly, Ken kept the tarmac supension from the Puma - already he was thinking about re-developing, re-designing a more modern, competitive tarmac rally Mini, capable of keeping up with the very quickest cars over the bumpy tarmac lanes of the national championship the team had so much success on in the late 90's.

2002 - 2004 saw the Brosis Motorsport team absent from any competition, but during early 2004 Ken, along with Simons thoughts and input, started the development of the car they compete with today. Have a look at the car spec to see exactly what they came up with, but to summarise using the words of Track And Race Cars magazine - "This is a very, very well sorted mini, and a stunning acheivement", "Modifying Mini's has seen plenty of imaginative tweaks, but here's a Mini sporting some ground-breaking new developments", "It's a Mini quite unlike any other we've seen before - A 21st-Century Rally Mini". 

2005 and the Brosis Motorsport team are back in action on the Grand Prix Racewear National Asphalt Rally Championship. Mick Edelston joined Simon in the rally car as Hayley was having a break due to family commitments. The season was going to be a challenging one - a brand new rally car and a rookie co-driver! Simon and Mick spent many hours before the season started practicing writing pace notes of the narrow lanes around the area where they live. This was important to get Mick up to speed with the terminology used in Simons pace notes as any hesitation in the delivery on a rally could have disastrous conscequencies. A test day sorted out a few problems with handling and the team was ready!

Missing the first round on Epynt, the team made their way to the Isle of Man for the second round of the championship, what an event for their first rally! Have a look at the Rally Reports section to read all about how they got on.

The season went very well with the team learning lots about the car. Changes were made on every rally to the set up and it wasn't long before they were once again pushing for 1st place honours in their class. Mick came quickly up his learning curve as a navigator and was doing really well, Simons wife Sam stepped in for Mick on the Jim Clark and Mewla rallies and did remarkably well with Simon feeling 100% confident to push hard. Unfortunately they failed to finish due to alternator failure on the Jim Clark rally and a diff bolt working loose and damaging the diff housing on the Mewla. To summarise 2005 - a fantastic first season back, some non finishes recorded but lots learnt about the new car. Watch out 2006!

So with the car further developed in 2005, the team were confident of some good results in 2006, however problems with the gearbox, in particular the pinion wheel saw the team once again record some non-finishes. Towards the end of the season Ken had managed to locate another Jack Knight 5 speed dog box gear casing to replace the one damaged beyond repair on the Manx National rally earlier in the season, and the team had a really good run on the Cheviot National rally, winning the class and finishing inside the top twenty over all!! Whats more they finished first in their class on the Prima Motorsport National Asphalt Rally Championship!

A lack of funds saw the team absent from national competition during 2007, Simon and the Brosis Motorsport girls had been working hard to try to secure sponsorship to enable them to compete but without luck.  So where are we now? Simon was introduced to Specsavers of Grantham at the end of 2007 and negotiations started about support and sponsorship from the local branch of the national brand - Specsavers. Discussions were very positive and Brosis Motorsport are delighted to have Specsavers of Grantham as a sponsor for the season of 2008 where the team will compete on the BTRDA National Asphalt Rally Championship.

Have a look at the engine of the rally car.