Great Lakes Classic Rally a Great Success!

[rallyit]

Yes thats right despite all the banter regarding the ARC and State component the Classic event was a fantastic addition to NSW Classic Rallying.

I am well aware of issues that happened with timing and communications and no it was not perfect but if you look hard enough you will find even the most successful event such as Targa etc have these issues.

I reckon the NSW Classic rally fraternity owe congratulations and support to the two Mikes and the entire orgainising team for thier efforts. The roads in the region a first class, the venue is perfect, the event was challenging to say the least , it had a great variety and distance which included a moving event. it had the public display element with the showground, it had tarmac element, it had entries from guys who had not competed for many years, and it finnished with first and second 4 seconds apart after 300 k competitive!!!.

Well done fellas and cheers!

We will be posting a more detailed report on the rally following this weekends recce at AMSAG

Cheers

Matt

[phil]

Was servicing and its the Best service park location.

[Swill]

The roads maketh the rally and despite all the communication problems ill be looking on heading up there next year after hearing how good the roads are

[Ric Cary]

Originally Posted by Darryn Snooks Classic rallycars.com

The event was marred to some extent by a seeming lack of organisation. I think many individual issues arose that in their own right would have been okay but collectively they had a big impact.

Originally Posted by Darryn Snooks Classicrallycars.com.au

Not much to report. Like much to do with the event, there are no results available so nobody has any idea wtf is going on.
73km competitive remain for the classics tonight in what looks to be terribly dusty conditions

Originally Posted by Richard Opie

Sorry to be brutally honest, but the classic event was a shambles.

Don't want to go into all the details, started at doco when we were the last classic crew to arrive and they said the roadbooks had run out and it would be a couple of hours before more were printed, this at 7.30 pm Friday.

Originally Posted by Richard Opie

Drove up Knodingbull, roadbook distances wrong, calls should have been there missing. Event checker, what gives.

Originally Posted by Richard Opie

Night stages, waited another hour at Dingo tops waiting for stage to be greened, My Stanza doesn't car far on tank so we needed fuel at different spots, but no allowance made on transport times so had to drive like a maniac to keep to schedule? No wonder the locals were getting upset.

Originally Posted by Richard Opie

Made the effort to run the event to support it and feel let down because of the poor organising effort, and that shouldn't happen because all the people there are very experienced. Too much to do to run interlocking events?, this is from my view as rally competitor for 35 years, event as is doesn't cut it.

Originally Posted by Jim Gleeson

However there is one thing that can't be left unsaid and that was the Roadbook for the Classics. Knodingbul up was just plain wrong on numerous calls...the distances did not match the features on many of the calls some out by hundreds of metres. Then other stages were just spot on. There were many typos due I suspect to cut and paste issues and then of course we had Manning Hill where thank God we had a hold up as the 00 discovered some 4km of additional and unrelated calls that were not needed but some how made their way into the Roadbook in the middle of the stage...another cut and paste error???? Guys there is no exuse for the poor roadbook. It clearly hadn't been checked on the road and that is just a recipe for disaster and bloody dangerous...especially on the awesome roads that you gave us.

Different event Matt????<!-- google_ad_section_end --><!-- / message -->


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[legend]

Originally Posted by rallyit

Yes thats right despite all the banter regarding the ARC and State component the Classic event was a fantastic addition to NSW Classic Rallying.

I am well aware of issues that happened with timing and communications and no it was not perfect but if you look hard enough you will find even the most successful event such as Targa etc have these issues.

I reckon the NSW Classic rally fraternity owe congratulations and support to the two Mikes and the entire orgainising team for thier efforts. The roads in the region a first class, the venue is perfect, the event was challenging to say the least , it had a great variety and distance which included a moving event. it had the public display element with the showground, it had tarmac element, it had entries from guys who had not competed for many years, and it finnished with first and second 4 seconds apart after 300 k competitive!!!.

Well done fellas and cheers!

We will be posting a more detailed report on the rally following this weekends recce at AMSAG

Cheers

Matt

the road book hadn't even been checked. It's lucky someone wasn't killed.

These people couldn't run a choko vine over a **** house.

[geralds]

Dear Mike, Sarah and Mike C,

I just wanted to say a big thanks for all your efforts in trying to pull off what was always going to be a difficult exercise, running two separate rallies at once. For me and my service crew, we had a ball. :-) (even though I only ran a couple of stages before jumping out of gear causing a massive over rev and engine detonation!) . The mix of stages were great, servicing on the go was fantastic, (brought back memories from my rallying days in the UK during the 70's and 80's) Forster venue including rally headquarters was great, The close result was great............. Well done :-) .

On the other side I know some of the difficulties you had and if you want my advice you need to call a meeting 9 months before the next event and form an organizing committee to be responsible for all the other details that were lacking in the event. Mate, you and Sarah are only human! You can only do so much for yourself, reach out and ask for help early on.

Have regular meetings throughout the year, create a monthly newsletter and email/post to all concerned and to Brindabella and Rallysport news to keep the interest in other words: communicate, communicate communicate. ;-) (We have the location!)

The message that needs to be got over to people in this State is that this is OUR opportunity to show the rallying world that we can run a brilliant event to make us proud to be rally mad New South Welshmen and women. I had observed a number of people and factions groups who could only bag the event from the onset, WHY FFS? Are we not all on the same side? People need to say what needs to be done to make it better not just what was wrong with it.

I truly hope you will run the event in 2008 either as an ARC/Classic event or just as a classic event and offer my assistance in any way to help you make this happen.

Many Thanks and regards



Gerald Schofield
Fibertech Medical Rally Team

cc:
Peter Whitten - Rallysport Mag
Brindabella and NSW Classic rally websites

[Griffo]

Spot on Gerald.

[Matt Sosi]

I agree with what you are saying Mr Schofield and congrats for sending the letter to Mike and Sarah. I wish I was there, however due to work it wasn't to be. I know when a date has been set for 2008, I will be putting my leave form straight in to ensure this event becomes a success as it ought to be.

One final point, we all know how to run events in this state and have the most competitive local championships in Australia. Whoever the promoter of the ARC event is, or people's attitudes towards certain people, forget those little infights. Lets all work together to ensure the Great Lakes Rally becomes the premier rally in Australia, and the classic part equal to Otago in New Zealand. The roads up there on the north coast are awesome and the infrastructure is, IMHO, the best area to host a round of the ARC in NSW.

Regards
Matt Sosimenko

[rallyit]

Originally Posted by Ric Cary

Different event Matt????<!-- google_ad_section_end --><!-- / message -->


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No Ric

Just different opinions and perespectives which is ok , I have been to many events over the some 30 years or so! where events have not been perfect ...even yours, but I will still appreciate the effort put in and try to highlight the positives.

Classic Rallying needs support and we continue to support those that support us as we did with ROL this year as best we could, hopefully next year will be better.

There is no doubt that from a state champ point of view that things were not as expected or probably as good as they should have been, however whilst State champ has reasonable stakes up for grabs, Classics is much more relaxed and the issues were probably far less disruptive.

Richard is entitle to his point of view and I accept his comments I would not argue with any particular point other than to say that if he had run in the original Otago rally he may have experienced similar difficulties/ disruptions.

Classics is really designed to be a different type of rallying which is why it is so popular overseas. The organisers of GLCR had the balls to give us a seperate event and it worked well if you talk to the majority.

Cheers

Matt

[Chad Vowles]

Brillant.....

What an event. Both myself and my navigator are still on a buzz after 2 days of great roads, good competitive spirit and a challenging course.

The people involved (competitors, controllies and service crews) that i met over the two days were of a most part happy with the rally. Sure, there are a few sticking points which a minority have managed to cry about, but overall it was a top event. We did lose the first two stages, but there were 20 or so to follow that more than made up for this. I have competed in many "rain shortened" rallies, where whole stages and even legs of rallies have been canned.

This was my first 'longer distance' event and i was able to get my teeth into it. The guys up front had a super competitive battle and everybody seemed to comment on the top roads (both conditions and selection).

The major boost for the classic rally was NOT having to return to Forster each service. This simple idea of being based in Taree was fantastic and allowed the cut down transport times.

A big thanks to ALL the organisers for putting on a top event, trying something different (to what is normally on offer) and providing a great weekend - see you again next year. Hopefully i can make the finish of Manning Hill Road in 2008 !

[ropie]

Just because this was a rally for older cars ( and us older drivers? ) and call it a classic rally doesn't mean that the standard of the event can be lower.

I regard myself as spoilt living near the north coast rally roads which are the best in NSW and QLD possibly, and the clubs which run the events in this area do so to a high standard.

The GLCR was not run to the same standard. As I said before the organisers are very experienced and maybe just tried to do much with the interlocking events. Whatever all the causes of the problems, those problems gathered together like a snowball and just turned the weekend to

The people in the field were amazing, the course cars and controllies, able to keep the event going. But if they get shagged and say stuff this, that is a loss to us all.

An example, one of the crews on Potaroo Stage that we talked to on Sunday at about 2pm had been there since 5am on Saturday, had not taken enough supplies because they were to be relieved end of Sat but didn't happen. Not happy campers.

The people who live on the turn off from the Mt George Rd onto Knodingbul must have got really pissed off with the cars going past their places, as us competitors got a notice to say take it easy for that 550 metres. Now when the Taree club want to us that road for their event next year, what reception will they get?

Did someone approach those residents and explain for 2 days and 1 night hundreds of cars will be using their bit of country, and it'll be noisy and dusty? Not just for a short time and with limited traffic as rallies have been?

Don't know about the original running of the Otago as far as stuff ups go, it was 10 years ago I think. Can tell you about the 2007 version which was a great experience.

[rallyit]

Originally Posted by ropie

Don't know about the original running of the Otago as far as stuff ups go, it was 10 years ago I think. Can tell you about the 2007 version which was a great experience.

I think you missed the point!

Cheers

Matt

[Mike Morris]

Originally Posted by rallyit

...................I would not argue with any particular point other than to say that if he had run in the original Otago rally he may have experienced similar difficulties/ disruptions.

Cheers

Matt

Richard,

I think what Matt was saying is that if maybe you had run the Otago approximately 10 years ago, then maybe that great event had similar problems, not maybe unlike every other event you could enter, but because

Originally Posted by rallyit

...................Classics is really designed to be a different type of rallying

you maybe perhaps dont have to worry about it much.

This thread is a bit of a laugh really.

On the one hand..........

Originally Posted by legend

the road book hadn't even been checked. It's lucky someone wasn't killed.
These people couldn't run a choko vine over a **** house.

and the other

Originally Posted by chad vowles

Brillant.....

What an event. .........................

A big thanks to ALL the organisers for putting on a top event,

Interesting.

Anyway, the two Mike's may have had their problems, but they've been round long enough to sort it.

Cheers

[Ausrally]

No one was going to be "killed" in the rally. Bulletins were issued for the mistakes in the road book, so it was up to the navs to point them out.

Thats what 0 cars do for those who are not sure they CHECK the stages first!


Just lilke the old days remember?

I can recall standing at many drivers briefings getting last minute changes to road books.

Mike is right...........as always!
Dallas

[norm]

Originally Posted by rallyit

Richard is entitle to his point of view and I accept his comments I would not argue with any particular point other than to say that if he had run in the original Otago rally he may have experienced similar difficulties/ disruptions.

Classics is really designed to be a different type of rallying which is why it is so popular overseas. The organisers of GLCR had the balls to give us a seperate event and it worked well if you talk to the majority.

Cheers

Matt

Hi Guys

Its been fascinating reading all this from across the ditch. You sure are passionate about your sport. I don't want to make much comment except to say the first Otago Classic went OK - and so have most of the subsequent ones although there have been some hairy moments along the way.....!

I do have empathy with organisers who try to incorporate new initiatives in their events and it seems to me that we face many of the same problems here in NZ.

cheers

Norm
otagorally.co.nz