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Hockridge halted by throttle issues in Ireland

Posted on Monday, 08 February 2010 05:48PM by Geoff Mayes Media

Andrew Hockridge’s hopes of another strong finish across the Irish Seas was stymied by a faulty throttle body on last weekends Galway International Rally, the opening round of the 2010 Citroen Racing Trophy, but retiring whilst leading his class was small consolation for the rapid Welshman.

Hockridge and co-driver Darren Garrod were back in action in their Geoff Jones Motorsport run Citroen C2R2 Max for the first time since the Fastnet Rally in October. Despite the lengthy layoff Hockridge was fast out of the blocks, with his Signature Cheese backed Citroen topping the scoreboards even though he thought he’d been too cautious in the foggy conditions!

The positive start to the event soon disappeared though as Hockridge and Garrod came to a halt with a faulty throttle body failing to deliver fuel to the engine. Although the part was easily replaced their rally was over! The pair did return on the Sunday and were once more buoyed by their pace, regularly trading times with the top Citroen runners despite consistently catching slower cars. Hockridge took the decision not to contest the final loop in order to conserve the car.

To lead early on was fantastic, especially considering how tricky the conditions were, but when we came to a halt I was pretty frustrated! The car handled perfectly and the tyres were just awesome! Once again the organisation was great and even though we ended the rally with a DNF we still enjoyed the experience.