The week leading up to this rally was no different to any other, with something big to do to the car. This time it was the putting the gear box back together after stuffing it at Narroma then back in the car with stuff all time to do it and replacing one of the rear cross member bushes. For once it all went back together easily and test runs were great.
The trip down was a long one I must say and very squishy with Michelle, Wes and My self and Matty and His new girl Nell all cramped in the poor over loaded Falcon. We arrived in Bonnie Doon at our friends place about 9pmish to a huge spread, mmm very filling after a long drive.
We awoke to a very foggy chilly day, and after some quick rearranging and finishing off jobs we were off to the start at the pub. A trouble free docco and we were waiting for the staging area to take shape. The main car park was to be the staging area and would have been a great way to start but at 9pm there were 6 cars mine included all lined up. For the next hour that’s all there were. As the first car headed out to the bush there were still cars doing their halda checks which was a shame. This is no fault of the organizers but the competitors who should have read their regs. Meh, we were still at a rally and I was keen for some fun.
Stage 1,
On the way there the thick fog had started to lift in places and I was hoping it had for the first stage, but no it was still rather thick but looked like lifting. People had talked about this stage being much like Bega’s shire roads, and it mostly was just the roads were a lot thinner and it was only 4kms long. This event had a high number of Evans in attendance and the start line up on the hill was Simon having a look. It’s a cool thing having an ARC champion watching us dudes from Nowra roaring up the road in the Datto.
The stage started and 2ish mins later we were finished, wow very short stage but a heap of fun.
Stage 2,
Up into the forrest where the roads were now quite damp from the previouse weeks 3inches of rain. The stage started with a 100m straight into a R G R then up a steep rocky road. The Datto struggled up but not as bad as some. The first half was wet and tight with steep drop offs on my side which I mindered around thinking the grip would not be there, but to my surprise the roads were like driving on tar with the exception of the Ausports I was running on the rear that had no forward grip. The second half was a climb up the western side of a hill and the roads were dry and sandy and OH so much fun. Each corner was chucking the car ready for the next. When im sober I have no dancing skills (when im drunk I just think I do!
) but dancing the Datto was so much fun and worked well. Matty and I finished the stage on such a high and for me that stage had made the trip down all worth it.
Stage 3,
At the drivers briefing they had warned us about a quarry on this stage that was a triple caution !!! as it was very rough. The start controllers once again warned us, which was great. The start was a mostly straight progressive climb up hill and once we hit 4th near the top I was very thankful for the box being fixed and back in. The roads were nice up to the quarry and as they had been so heavily warned about I slowed down so not to wreck the car. Well we drove through it and were both asking where was the !!! and a little further on the roads were rough but nothing too bad. Well having spent a lot of time on rough NSW/ACT roads this was not the worst I had been over. For some cars im sure the !!! would be very appropriate.
The end of the stage our Terratrip was about 800m out??? And we came to the specie point to find it was tighter than we were expecting, which resulted in us stuffing the corner
. We found out later so had 80% of the field.
Stage 4,
After a quick service, only requiring food, some fuel and the right rear wheel nuts to be tightened (Matty said they had about 2 threads on each left, Ooops) we were off. 400m into the stage there was a R G R that I think should have been called as we almost rolled off and down a steep embankment, somehow the ‘Hand Of God’ put us back on the road. After a small climb up the hill the stage then followed the contour of the range. Ever corner had a perfect camber, the road was a nice width and the surface was the best I had driven on.
All in all this stage was the best I have ever driven on in any rally, by far. The finish was a fast high speed pass to finish off a sensational stage.
Stage 5,
Not much to say other than it was almost as good as the previous stage
.
Stage 6,
Second run through this time we had fitted a very used set of Dunlop’s to the rear instead of the brand new Ausports we had on just to see the difference. Wow what a difference they made, the straight line take off and cornering grip was miles in front and the stage time showed.
Stage 7,
We pushed harder this time and once again the rears just had so much more grip with only about 6 to 8mm of tread thickness left, Dunlops are a great tyre!!!!. We finished the stage to find we had the second fastest time, only a few off 1st. The both of us were cheering
.
Stage 8,
Knowing what we did from the first pass I decided to hit the !!! flat out and that’s what we did. Hitting it at full noise was better than slowly as we skimmed across the top of a lot of the rough. Well I think this bit of extra speed gave us the stage win as we finished 4 seconds in front of the next car, to give us out first stage win in any rally. This was one of my proudest achievements in rallying.
Stage 9,
A repeat of the most perfect stage in Aus, well that’s what I think!! And that’s just what it was, just this time we did it with extra grip, OOOOHH how im in love whit that piece of road. This time with the extra grip we passed the finish boards in 5th flat out. We were told boy the finish control that the flying finish were very impressed at how fast we passed them, Yeeeeharrr.
Stage 10,
Same again, and a great way to finish the event, but finishing at 3:30pm in the arvo was an experience in its self.
All in all a perfect event, on fantastic roads run by very friendly organizers and officials and great competitors that were very welcoming to us two NSW yacks. A huge thanks to all involved with the organizing and running, we will be back there any time they want to run it, and if they will take us.
Highly recommend to any one else!!!!
Other thankyou’s to my wife and son who have put up with lots to see this happen and raced around the bush all day.
Mum n Dad, who helped out and Dad for driving to the service points to keep us going.
Narelle, who made the huge trip down and spent the weekend with a group of complete strangers and fitted in perfectly, you are welcome with us any time.
John and Cathy who put us up for 2 nights and fed us all for nothing, thank you very much.
Everyone on here that gave us some support, thanks guys.
Carl Stewart
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