Caltex Starmart DNF's

[Dave Ferris]

who crashed at the caltex starmart last year?
what happened?
who's to blame?


Well I did, ticked up my 1st DNF there.... Doh!
Badly bent the lower contol arm and other stuff on the passengers side "of course" on a sharp right hand turn in transport ...another Doh and then speer'd off the track through stage three, and just our luck it was run twice, so 4 & 1/2 hours later we got out. ah, the cold, the snow, the cold

Lessons: always take extra jackets
: Don't crash car
: Don't bend in transport
: It gets very cold at Captains Flat
: There's only so much you and your nav can talk about that makes sence.
: Have a working heater
and no Tamsey wasn't there

[Matt Sosi]

If I can recall, where you went off was originally part of the stage, but unfortunately due to the weather conditions, it was shortened.

That corner, if I can recall, is very tricky and slippery, and to make things interesting, you approach it at a great knot of speed following the fenceline and there is a stump on the outside. One of our leading stage commanders hit that stump couple of years back, and thus receiving off of the year.

There were a lot of crews that DNFd. Bede was one, and Fro's incident, "Road Goes Right, no left" with Glen Kellie. Oh yeah, it was also the scene of my famous chuck as well, which will definately not happen this time.

Matt Sosi

[Dave Ferris]

Yeh down that bloody fence line

The only funny thing for us, was when Tim "Maddog" and stew came past, pissing them selves laughing and then we heard a crash! after nearly being fully stuck and running over there terratrip button they got going again.
laughing to hard I think

[Spac]

Matt, bullsh*t! You chucked several times! And one of the last ones was near the stump - you musta been running low by then, 'cause the others all made way more mess (except the one in the last stage - you must have been really close to empty by then).

Can't believe nobody has mentioned Bede's effort yet...

Damo put the Subie onto its side at the same spot as Glen and Fro lidded the Corolla.

I put the RX-5 sideways into a bank at the speccy point in SS3, but didn't even go close to DNFing... Well, we had a think about it when the fuel pump stopped at the end of SS4....

[Matt]

I nearly DNF'd last year. It was my first ever event, and on the transport after SS3 the brake master cylinder chewed all its rubbers up. Result: no brakes at all!

I ended up calling myself "Pussy!" a few times and continuing in the event, while the service crew went home to get another master cylinder.

I did the entire South Forest way stage without touching the brakes - well, I did touch (stamp repeatedly on) the brake pedal, but it didn't do anything!

So the challenge is laid down - anybody game to try and better my time of 37.22 down South Forest Way this year? All challengers must see me at the start of the stage so I can sabotage your brakes...

[Damo]

Yep, as Spac so kindly pointed out to everyone, I managed to stick it into a bank pretty hard and roll it up onto the passenger side. And I can tell you now, 1000kg’s is damn hard to rock back onto its wheels with just the two of you! (Note to self – next time, make sure you roll it somewhere near spectators, or get a Sumo as a navvie).

Broke the control arm, radius rod & other kinda important stuff that helps you stay on the road!
And also managed to move the rear chassis rail a few centimetres, and ding most panels on the car….
(And consequently spent the next month or so at Ty’s so it looked all pretty again).

After we’d righted the car, Glen & Fro did exactly the same thing, in exactly the same spot.
Although not good for them at least it made me feel a lot better ~ I wasn’t the only one to stuff that corner up!

[Rallyray]

I have a funny feeling that 000 will not finish!

[fro]

Originally posted by Damo
After we’d righted the car, Glenn & Fro did exactly the same thing, in exactly the same spot.
Although not good for them at least it made me feel a lot better ~ I wasn’t the only one to stuff that corner up!

Yeah, my first real roll...

It was a corker of an event up 'til then...my second event as nav, and I was really enjoying it. Glenn talks a lot as a driver, and it took a little while to get used to him cracking jokes mid stage, but all was good.

And then I turned two pages of the road book at once. Well, at least, that's what I think I did. The next call was all whacky, and I didn't know where we were. I told Glenn I was off the book, and spent the next 2-3 calls trying to figure out where I should be according to the cumulative.

So I got back on the book, and it was prolly the third call back on the book again that I had joined up in mine...RGL, then 100m RGR. I don't know if I was unclear, or Glenn misheard me, or what, but when we get there, he's all set up for a right-hander. I yell "Left", and for a second I thought we'd gotten away with it. I saw Lyndall standing in the background waving (?), and I thought "We'll just slap this bank with the right rear, and keep on truckin'". Wrong.

The right rear hit the bank, pulled the front around and up the bank, and over we went. Glass. Dirt. Snow. All in my face. For a second I thought we were going to stop on our roof. Great. Across the road, with the next car not far away. But it kept rolling, and we finished on our wheels. So we wheeled over to the side of the road, waved at Damo, stopped and put out some triangles.

Quick check around the car to survey the damage, check the oil and make sure the rocker cover and radiator were okay, and trucked on again.

Made it to the end of the stage very slowly. I think two cars passed us. Saw tortfeaser at the Stop control, and I was pretty cold by then, with snow coming in the windscreen. Get to service, and everything was bent. Diff, Axles, Sills, Doors, Hinges. The wheel arches had pulled away from the firewall so you could see through the gap. Bad.

I don't want to do that again. It really sucked.