2002 Sharp National Capital Rally

[Rallyray]

Originally posted by Daniel
Damn thats a good photo of Mr "I lost 10 minuts because I don't know how to change gear"

Yep and its already on its way...

Hey Daniel,
If your so keen...Lets organise with Matty D for me and you to Run RDF. I'll pay an extra $100 to kick your arse.
Or are you just all talk?





...Taking the bait

[jamar]

Ray,

I'll pay an extra $100 to kick your arse.

I think it'll cost you more than that for a sex change..

Cheers

Jason

[tamsey]

How good is the Nat Cap? Bloody awesome.

Being the last round of the series, there was a lot riding on it. The crews of Mark S/ Martino, Raymond/Mark F and Bede/Girlie were all in close contention for second and third in Clubman, so we knew it was going to have to be a battle of great proportions. Also Mark Kent and Dave had beer bet on, so a lot was riding on the event.

SS1, was really looking forward to this, as we did really well in the Kowen stages at Caltex. We knew it would be rough but knew the RX could handle the conditions. After 21km of the car getting knocked around on rougher roads than last event and calling the TR before the Tunnel as Dave was going through the corner, we were anxious to see our times against the front runners and Mark S. Got to the end of the stage and we had knocked 17 secs off Mark S and weren't that far behind the front guys. We both felt pleased with this effort and hoped it would continue throughout the day.

SS2, went just as hard as the first stage knowing how well that car had been built., but was still glancing across at the temp gauge far to often. Went a bit wide on the specie point but Dave kept the power down and we took off out of it.. At the end of the stage found we had knocked another 20 odd seconds off of Mark S and also that we had beaten Mark K by a minute on the previous stage. Although we ran well through the first two stages, Dave was a little concerned with the burning oil smell entering the cabin and a slipping clutch.

Got to the service and Dave explained the conditions and the oil leaking onto the sump guard. As Dave looked on and Luke and the others worked on the what turned out to be leaking rear main oil seal, I decided to wander over and check times with Martino, Sosi and Bede. Found out we were ahead of them all, was stoked and preceded to tell Dave the good news.

SS3 was as most already know very soft and slippery due to the conditions and the front-runners deciding to chuck hackies up the road : ). About 5kms from the end of the stage Dave was a little concerned with something and after checking the Fuel gauge, found we were apparently on empty. Backed off a bit and lost a little time but when stopping at the control we found the gauge go back to1/4 of a tank.

Heading into service, I yelled to Raymond’s crew to see how they were going. After hearing some mumbling through all the noise I gave the thumbs up to them. It wasn’t til we got out and Wade from Ray’s crew came up, that I found out I had just giving the cool symbol to Raymond having a fire in his cabin. Oh well, it is a Pieceof****ty. : )

SS4, was very confident and felt as if we were starting to really sync. We flew through the specie point and felt really good about the feel of everything. Turned onto Bullocks Paddock road and called the RGR around the ROC jump and then the THR, Hard to see. Dave agreed,
”Yes it is rather hard to see isn’t it” (Edited to be more family orientated). All was ok though the rest of the stage Dave was starting to get a great feel for the car, even throwing in a few Scandos. Arrived at the end and found we were still beating everyone we needed to.
Heading into service we heard a rattle, which started to grow coming from the front left wheel. After further inspection, we found that three of the four nuts were about to fall off. Tightened and off we went.

SS5, Got to the end of the bloody long 29km stage and felt stuffed. Was tough calling some of that due to the quick calls, rough then slippery changes and the blinding light through the trees. Apparently Raymond beat us on this stage (must have chucked that turbo on) but we beat the people we needed to even though Mark S had lost his front brakes.

SS6, having never run Sherwoods myself and I’m not sure about Dave, found it new and challenging. After dodging roo’s, getting blinded by the sunlight and getting crap in my eyes, we made it through to the end where we tried to check our competitors times but were told “to look after our own first”.

We had a while at Service and regroup had time to catch up with people and compare times. Found out that we had beaten Mark S, Mark K, Raymond and Bede couldn’t get his car started. The Tams Curse live baby!! We were absolutely stoked and overjoyed with our results for the ACT Series section, but we knew we had 2 stages left and that we would like to still give it a go.

SS7, mostly the same as Sinclairs except for the end. Really enjoyed these stages and once again flew past the specie point and also got some nice sideways action on the TL before the ROC jump. Finished the stage and found we were again gaining time on Mark K.

SS8, Greenhills, I loved this stage. Coming down the Parkway, I could see most of the stage and started to get really excited. Although it was changed from the original stage, it turned out to be very cool. Dave also looked as if he was enjoying himself, backing off and having a good run to finish the event.

We then proceeded back to the Pub for numerous stories and the having of ale and the getting of trophies, even after I got told I wasn’t registered for Clubman. Got corrected and we were very pleased with the whole day. Thanks for keeping us in check to Mark K and Sosi, it was good to have someone on our heels.

We both loved the event, and thanks to all the organisers and volunteers for all the work they put in on the day and before hand.

[Martino]

Good work Tamsey and Dave we were planning on pegging you back in the second half of the rally but it was not to be.

Hopefully next year we will not have to carry our car over the rough stuff and use of feet as and engin/breaks (Flint Stone style)

[Daniel]

Don't you worry Martino - next year Dave will be getting his tail kicked by the intercooler brigade in Gold Cup And Mark will never have to back off for anything short of a !!! again

[Spac]

And what makes you think Mark and Martino won't be in Gold Cup?

[Dave Ferris]

what makes you think I'll be in gold cup? or have you changed the yard stick again?

[Daniel]

Sorry missinterpreted - I didn't say they wouldn't just that Davie boy would find the competition a bit stiffer.


It'll be good to see the numbers in GC swell a bit with people who actualy compete on a regular basis next year.




Davie old son should have gone slower if you wanted to stay Clubman

[Martino]

Dame Daniel you worked it out we have deberatly been breaking stuff so we have to slow down and will not make the xx% cut for gold cup.

[Mark]

To answer Spac's question: I'm pretty sure that we will be in GC?

Pre-Event Preparation: Spent two weekends before the event in private practice learning to drive with the LSD and improve my general driving instinct. Plus a chance to fang the Spacspeed Monster RX7 In practice, I luckily found out the hard way that the new wheel studs I fitted at the rear were rubbish as they had worn the splines out in the space of 300km, rotating freely and falling out. I was glad to find this in testing rather than in competition.

Scrutineering: Passed Scrutineering with only two minor fixes to do, high tensile seat bolts and holes in the floor to be sealed. Gave Jem V. a lift out to his car that unfortunately broke down on the Odometer check of the day. Along with Kate and Daniel, we rounded up quite a few ACT Competitors and people for an impromptu group photo which should look good when developed.

Strategy: The aim for the event was primarily to finish. We were really in the running to do well in three categories, NSW State P2 where we were 4th, NSW Clubman P2 where we were 5 or 6th or something and ACT Clubman where we resided 2nd that Pete Ewing had already won in the previous event. We knew Dave Ferris (3rd in Clubman) was on a charge especially after scrutineering when Dave said that he had bought 6 tyres for the event and I hadn't planned on buying any. Basically, if we finished the event, due to no other competitors in the P2 classes at a state level, we could finish up 2nd in State P2, 3rd in Clubman P2 which is a pretty nice thing considering the competition in it this year. The fact that the front right hand chassis rail of the car was a bit knackered from the years competition was a real concern. A temporary fix for the event was the welding of 700mm of right angle steel into the car to stiffen up the front and transfer some of the load around the structures. As such, the aim was to avoid heavy, heavy braking, ruts and anything that would punch the front right wheel around too much. It already sat 28mm further back than the front left wheel...

SS1 & SS2: ...so Kowen was the less-than-ideal stages for the car. The aim was to be conservative to preserve the car for the remaining stages of the rally that I thought would be smoother and slower that would suit us. In all the corners that had ruts on the apex etc, and in the really twisty parts or rough parts, we really slowed down, often to 1st gear. I was just trying to keep it tidy and not revving so hard in what was probably the hottest part of the day. The spectator point in stage two was a laugh though. The new LSD made the difference from spinning out entirely - and keeping it on the boil. I wrong-roaded (grammar?) briefly about 1 km or two after the spectator point but only lost about 8 - 10 seconds. Baring Pete Ewing, who is now in a league of his own ACT Clubman wise, we'd only dropped about 1 sec/km to Dave, which is good enough because no one else was splitting the two crews. Nothing to worry about or to do at service baring the usual maintenace checks. I was really impressed with the various members of our service crew who came up near the end of the service and voluntarily gave me a report on the status of the car and what nuts and bolts were loose etc

SS3 & SS4: These were fun stages. For me, these are typical NatCap and Canberra stages that we love. Except for the new, last two kilometers of SS4 that were rough, uphill recently logged roads and it was first gear up it. I punched a rock with the front right on the way up (at about 40 kph) and just grimaced at what it may have done to the car. Dropped just under 10 seconds to Dave Ferris in about 35 km's competitive. Not too shabby. Martino's calling had been right on and he was making an effort to slow down his calls and pronounce the words clearly. Nothing extra for the service crew to do. The rear Dunlops were looking a bit ordinary now (thanks, Kowen) but I had nothing to put on the rear that was any better so just made do.

SS5: Tidbinbilla. It's official. Tidbinbilla hates me. NatCap 2000 - Tidbinbilla - ran out of fuel 6km from the finish - my fault. Dell 2002 - Lost 2 minutes on Tidbinbilla due to over heating engine, lost the rally. Tranbell 2002 - Blew away second gear on Tidbinbilla. NatCap 2002 - Tidbinbilla - Lost the brakes about 11 - 12 km from the end of the stage. Coming up to a TR at TJ or something similar. The entire area had been deforested recently but the amusing Forestry people had left a rather large tree smack bang in the straight ahead position in the rapidly approaching intersection. The only tree. That's my hurried recollection of it. I braked a bit further out as part of the 'conserve it' attitude - luckily - and it gave me a few more meters to play with. When I lost those brakes, I can't remember the exact sequence of events but it involved taking the escape road to the left of the intersection and washing off the speed pretty fast using something along the lines of the a crap handbrake, and the gears. I was really utterly p!ssed funnily enough. In one swoop, the chance of us keeping 2nd in the ACT Clubman had gone. All we had to do was finish within six points of Dave Ferris and that'd be it. Now that wasn't an issue any more. We lost about 1 1/2 minutes over the 11km and had a lot of scary moments. Approaching the spectator point at 5-ways, I made sure I braked 300m's out because I doubted our ability to slow down. The handbrake had lost some effectiveness, and I imagined all the brake fluid draining out of the pipes. When we stopped after the control at the end of the stage, I took a peek under the engine bay. Fluid reservoir was full, no leaking brake fluid. Go figure. In retrospect, it looks like the master cylinder seals have gone or something thereabouts. Nothing the service crew tried could fix it. We used a fair bit of late time trying to diagnose the problem.

Oh well, on our merry way with a marginally ineffective handbrake.

SS6 & SS7 & SS8: Fun, with a capital F. Mindful of the fact that ACT Clubman wasn't worth worrying about now because there wasn't much that we could do about it... we just concentrated on finishing. I nursed it through these stages. We dropped 3 minutes on SS6 over 28 km's, often spinning to wash off speed on quite a few corners rather than hitting something. The rear tyres were gone now as well but we finished each and every one of them without being overtaken which was a major concern of mine. Every time we did a hairpin I tried looking back to see if there was anybody behind us so I could move out of the way. I got used to driving the car without the footbrakes after a while. For example, when you come up to the corner (besides starting to brake at the 200m call), I alternated between dropping the car down a gear, then pushing the clutch in to use the handbrake, then dropping the clutch again. You start forgetting about looking at the corner and start choosing an escape road/scenary nearby. Deep down I suspect that if we didn't lose the brakes, I would have had an off that would have put me out of the rally anyway because the rear tyres were getting worse, especially in SS6 and 8.

So, where did we end up? Ultimately, we did okay. I ended up 2nd in NSW State P2 for the year. I think I also ended up 3rd in NSW Clubman P2 for the year. And, we ended up 3rd ACT Clubman. Adrian D. amused us by giving us 1st in P2 for the event - thank you. These are all gu-estimates though. The car survived the event with only one visible crack in the front end. It's off for a well deserved holiday where it will get aligned, straightened, plated, made battle-proof so we shouldn't ever had to back off for a rut, hole ever again!

As that brings the year almost to a close, baring sitting in the Spac-Mobile for RdF (???), I would like to thank a few people that have helped me out throughout the last 14 months that I have owned the Trueno. In that time, I have done eleven rallies, did sweep for RdF, and probably been out to the 'farm' practicing about 10 times which is about 300 km competitive in itself. I privately feel astounded that these people have given to me so much of their time and energy for what return I don't know.
-Peter Dowling at AutoTech, Fyswhick. For the countless hours donated on his dyno so my car could be in tune due to whatever change I had made to the engine. At one point, Peter had two Porsche Cup cars to tune and let me on first for an hour and a half to tune to the car. Peter knows how to get 100% of the total potential out of the engine.
-Col and Rob Ogilvie and the staff at Ogilvie Automotive, Mitchell. They have given excellent advice on how to setup and drive a rally car plus some pretty amusing stories. I took three days off work to build my latest engine (around mid year and still going strong) and everyone there gave me great advice on how to build a rally engine properly for which I am very grateful. Sorry for drooling over the Evo's and WRX's you have in there from time to time.
-Bill and Jason at Phillip Exhaust Centre for looking after the exhaust side of things and being great listeners. They know their stuff at damn good prices.
-Simon Leigh, for spending hours and hours welding up all the cracks in the front end of my car at the cost of Simon not finishing his car - something we are all waiting for. His advice on rally cars in general and in car preparation has been very beneficial.
-Ben Wilson and Daniel Andres, for also contributing to improvements in the car's structure. Daniel built the handbrake that the got me through the last three stages of the NatCap2002 and helped in the welding of the rollcage tagging. Funnily enough, everything that he manufactured are the smartest looking parts of the car. Ben is the engine guru. He knows everything about setting up the 4AGE and knows a damn lot about rally cars in general such as putting new gears into gearboxes and Haltechs.
-Gemma Ellero, my partner-in-crime, for coming along and servicing at EVERY single rally in the last two and a half years. Like most of our partners, she has to put up with us gibbering on about rallying 24 hours a day. She rocks. Since NatCap 2000, when I ran us out of fuel, she has taken over the fuelling of the car with a passion - and we have never run out of petrol.
-My navigators, both permanent and temps. Brad Cooper and Kate Murray - thanks for taking a chance. Brad was there when we had the closest thing to a perfect run on SS2 of Bega and it all came together. Kate and I ran down Conrod Striaght at Bathurst together at 185 real kph with an open diff and drums on the rear. I won't forget either moments.

Martino Ellero, thanks for being silly enough to sit in and put up with my antics and keeping me pointing in the right direction, revving me up when I was down and calming me down when I am off the planet and being untidy. All those times that you got us unbogged are very appreciated. We've had a ball haven't we?

Thanks to all of you, one and all. I felt like I've made huge progress this year and I have you all to thank. I'm already planning the party!

The mods for next year are already being brewed up in the shed.

Mark Sessions

[Swill]

With 10 seconds til we start, I realise that I haven't got my gloves on. Convinced we are going to end up DNFing on this stage, I insist that we wait till I put them on... and so we lose 20 seconds before we even begin.

Luckily he Fro had already adjusted his cravat and arranged the bowling hats on the rear parcel shelf or he could of lost hours... stile it up Fro....

[Spac]

Look, when you're running last on the road by 35 minutes, in that 180B, stYle is everything....

[Daniel]

Originally posted by Mark
Oh well, on our merry way with a marginally ineffective handbrake.

SS1 – Well, girlie was *****ing herself in the control trying to put her seat belt on but she managed it and we were ready to go. The first stage went okay; I drove fairly badly (bit rusty).

Girlie very cranky. How the hell did I manage to put on 20 extra kgs in a matter of minutes???????

Took me a while to get back into this “telling someone where to go thing” (thanks to Bede for not telling everyone exactly how crap I am).


SS2 – Driving a bit better, but about half way through we lost the tripmeter (and didn’t girlie tell the tripmeter what she thought)… always fun going flat out in Kowen with no distances to go off. Much to girlie’s annoyance, I didn’t listen to her calls well enough (something about a left and a crest and then a right and maybe a gate) needless to say I ‘wrong road’ed… But apparently so did about half the field. I stuffed up the spectator point just to cap off a great stage.

Girlie, still cranky from stage 1, now even more cranky! Bloody terratrip. Terratrip is not girlies best friend L Bede done good though. Oh, and bloody terratrip that tells co driver how fast driver going???? WHAT THE…………………

SS3 – What can I say… I don’t like this stage. We did okay. I hit a bank (on the co-driver’s side of course).


Nervous, very nervous girlie. Girlie DOES NOT like heights, so gotta love champagnes!!! Don’t quite know how Bede kept the car on the road. Very slippery, no rear tyres. Good work mcaustin. Ah well., love this sport!!!


Yep, he got me!!!! Think I getting the hang of this now?????????????????????

SS4 – I spun twice, might have had something to do with my tyres but then again it was probably just me…

Really getting the hang of this now. WOOOHOOO




SS5 – I love this stage, but with 14km’s to go, I broke the exhaust clean at the bottom of the extractors… very loud!!! Girlie did a great job. I heard every call despite the noise in the cabin from the exhaust. The only time girlie even sounded like something was wrong was when the car was on two wheels doing it’s best to roll! Congratulations to Rallyray who drove damn well on this stage.

Yep, the love is definitely back. To quote fro “bring it on. Cowboy!” had a phat time in here, we were going great. Unfortunately, the little datto was not feeling the same love!! Lotsa noise, and I mean lotsa noise. I thought the vibrations in the seat from the dif were interesting, but I gotta tell you, that is nothing compared to a busted exhaust. A 1600 at full throttle with no exhaust……………WOOHOO.

Told Bede how far we had to go cause didn’t know if he was gonna stop or not, but seems not! Right up the car and didn’t it let us know. I was screaming at Bede (the calls outta the book!) think he tried to say something once but gave up cause he figured I couldn’t hear him. I had to assume he could hear me, cause he didn’t say otherwise (not that I woulda heard ). Thought we went through the specie point pretty well. Felt good in the car, and the fans woulda loved the noise.

Loved that stage…………..WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO

On transport we screamed at each other to decide the plan of attack for the service…………

In service we managed to gain the use of a welder (thanks Simon) and got someone to weld it up (thanks Phil – on his birthday and all). But after using up 25 minutes of our late time the car wouldn’t start… so we run out of late time trying to get the car to go… “Not happy Jan!!!”

Got several people to check my times (just in case I cant add) and yep, definitely OLT. Bloody crappy bloody sport………..cranky girlie.

I would like to thank girlie for sitting in the silly seat and not telling everyone exactly how badly I drive. I would also like to thank Dad and Joh for servicing, Simon, Phil & Cathy, Daniel for not being too pissed off when I was in his service area, and everyone else that helped and offered encouragement. A big thanks to the organisers and all the officials that made the event possible.

I would like to thank…………

Bede for letting me tell him where to go.
John for putting up with me (and Bede) and not complaining and being very helpful, supportive, and constructive
Joh for filling my drink bottle (constantly) and feeding me sports drinks.
Jamjar for food
Phil for “can you weld our exhaust please”, “oh, don’t worry, is all good, Simon has time” (Simon) “I cant right now, can you get Phil” (meanwhile Phil has left service area) “Phil, can you please come back to service and fix our exhaust” (Phil) “yep, no worries”
Cath (see above)
Simon (see above)
All the officials etc………..great job as always.
And finally

Karl………..thanks for letting me go have fun in the dirt even tho you cant

[fro]

Originally posted by Spac
Look, when you're running last on the road by 35 minu