2002 Sharp National Capital Rally

[Ian Bigg]

Fro,

As the starter involved I would just like to say thank you ... a bit of light entertainment to round out the afternoon is always welcome ...

Ian

[grahamthompson]

I really had not planned to do the Nat Cap. I was feeling a little despondent after hurting the faithful VR4 in the Caltex StarMart event a few weeks ago and was lax in undertaking rrepairs. Rob Nunn then revitalised my interest and together with Chris Cremin straightened out the critical bits, leaving me no real excuse not to run. Renee Burgess kindly responded to my forum request for a co-driver in the absence of my regulars and it was then up to me to get the car together.
The belated discovery of a kinked brake pipe requiring expert attention meant that Friday was the earliest scrutineering possibility, and as one drama led to another, it was 8pm before I turned the key on the car for the first time in 4 weeks. It fired up once only, as the battery promptly died, partly because dopey left the boot lid ajar the night before. A jump start from the Jackaroo got it running again, but the engine died when I turned the lights on. First thoughts were that the alternator had failed as a result of the recent thump on that side and as replacement was a pest of a job I abandoned scrutineering plans and went and had a couple of wines instead. At 10pm I returned to the garage with a clearer head and a little structured checking revealed the main lead from the alternator had broken (not for the first, or last time)
Unless the battery is more than 50 % charged the VR4 will not start. It wets its plugs and after removing and drying them 6 times I gave up, put the battery on the charger, and did other essential things, like welding the camber washers in place. Then the sun came up but the car was ready. In consideration of my neighbours I refrained from turning the key until 7.30 am but with a full charge it burst immediately into life.
On the way to scrutineering things were not all good. When the foot went down the car went right, on back off, it went left. Thoughts were a possible damaged front LSD as result of LH driveshaft having been driven in when I pranged it, or a slightly bent LH rear trailing arm from the same incident. Too late to do anything about it so we would have to cope.
Stage 1 - Cope! The car had a mind of its own. Everytime the boost arrived it went off the road. It was predictable to a large extent but I had absolutely no confidence at speed. Rob Nunn took 37 seconds off us and after a long night I knew it would also be a long day. And the wire to the starter solenoid fell off as it would on every stage that followed. And I burnt myself every time I had to put it back by feel. (Major rewiring is planned for the Xmas break)
Stage 2- Cars 8, 9 and 10 (us) among others screw up a RGL and we blast off up the wrong road. Renee recovered quickly and turned me round but at a cost of some 40 seconds. Unsettled I fouled up the speccie point by trying to get two gears at once and was further surprised to have Rob Nunn (9) arrive in control on my tail, a 3 minute + victim of the unbunted RGL.
Stage 3 was not much fun - 17.02 last year, 18.56 this year. New tyres would have helped. Alternator cable has broken again and the Autronic starts reducing the rev limit due to the diminishing voltage. We lose some late time in service repairing it.
I don't like Sinclair Circuit (ss4); rough and skatey. I swear I will not attempt the Nat Cap without new tyres in future.
Stage 5 -Tidbinbilla- Ahh, this is more like it. I feel I am coming to grips with the car's bad manners when we run into dust, heavier and heavier until Dean Penhorwood pulls over with some problem a couple of km from the end. Alternator cable breaks off again, as does the starter solenoid wire.
Stage 6 - No rhythm. A predicable car is essential to drive Sherwood quickly and that we did not have. And the tyres were crap. We did not lose more than a few seconds when we came across Penhorwood and Walters running down the road towards us to warn of their sad looking WRX sitting in the middle of the road, but we lost some 20 seconds when I went VHL rather than HL at Blue Range Road and backed into a ditch recovering. That error allowed the Barretts to pip us by 4 seconds at the end of the Clubman event. Great!
Stage 7 - The alternator wire had fatigued through again so I hotwired the lot in disgust. My confidence that our problems were behind us was shattered swiftly when I drifted wide on the exit of (I think) 12.81 RGL tapping the bank to discover a massive drain hole on my line. My attempt to vault it failed and the front right control arm collapsed with a mighty bang as the wheel went in. It was the biggest hit I have experienced in 35 years of rallying and I am still nursing sore ribs. We drove the car back to service with a 6 inch shorter wheel base on the right, but as the tyre was stripped to the steel we elected to retire. The strength of the VR4 continues to amaze me as the destroyed arm and a slightly bent steering rod appears to be the only damage.

A disappointing end to a frustrating event. I am sorry the process of getting the trailer from Queanbeyan and carting my toy home meant I missed the finish celebrations, but I think Renee made it to represent the team. A big thank you to Renee for doing a professional job in the left seat in what is arguably the toughest event on the calendar on co-drivers, and to my wife Kay for servicing and waiting patiently in the VR4 for 2 hours while I collected the trailer.

Congratulations are in order first to No 1 son Matt for persevering to win the Novice title, from a determined Phil Skipper. Also to Brad and Vicki on a brilliant year - is this the first time the winner of the Clubman Championship has also won the State title? Hats off also to Rob Nunn and Mick Gentleman for a well paced and professional win in the Gold Cup, kept honest by Peter Skinner the whole way.

Bring on 2003 - I think the ACT Gold Cup will continue to grow in stature as a trophy worthy of competing for. Thanks to Adrian and his stalwart crew for yet another professionally run event.

[jpdesousa]

Nat Cap 2002
Greg and JP - Corolla Seca RV # 1762cc # 2wd Front # N3 Class
Short event only for ACT Series – Stages 1 – 6
Start 26th
Finish 11th overall
1st FWD overall
1st N3 overall
1st P3 equivalent ACT
3rd ACT overall – 11 sec’s behind Nunn/Gentleman
4th P3 equivalent Overall

Greg and I were confident at the beginning of the day that we would go well, both of us on a high. Before heading out on our big adventure for the day, we did a couple of replays of the in car Solberg / Mills footage from Perth….it’s amazing how slow those guys go ..when viewing from the armchair!! what blows me away is the calm recitation by Mills, of his notes without slur, hesitation or repetition.

Today, NatCap was all about sorting out our Gold Cup finishing position. Going into the event Greg was 4th, 1pt behind Geoff S and I was 3rd, 1 pt in front of Lilleyman. Our finishing position unofficially gave us a 2002 ACT Series Gold Cup podium result both as 3rd Driver and 3rd Co-Driver….wooohooo !…not bad for 1st year. As is the way in rallying our fortune was a combination of consistency, reliability and bit of good luck. Unfortunately, within that equation or good luck came from someone elses bad luck. Our main rivals Geoff and Lizzy in the Celica retired after SS3 meaning that Greg and I could clinch 3rd's in the Gold Cup provided we finished. BTW: over SS 1-3 we posted better times than the Celica opening up a 1:04 gap. We proceeded to attack the course, but agreed not to take any silly risks ….but when you are out in the forest you push the car to its limit ….you don’t just putt around conservatively to consolidate a place….this was evident by our best stage result being 12th overall on Tidbinbilla SS5.

Cheers to Henry and David, who were on cue for servicing again. It is fantastic having the support from the guys, keeping us topped up with fuel, changing wheels and wiping the windows. Fortunately also they have had a light workload given that the Corolla has been 100% mechanically reliable – some might say bulletproof. The car has held up to Greg and I trying to squeeze every second out of it.

SS1 - Our strategy, knowing it was going to be rough, was to use the older tyres rather than christening the new ones on the sharp crusty rough stuff. Kowen was rough as expected. Handling of the car was a bit soft and sloppy. Tyre pressure was down to Greg letting out too much air at the start of the stage. Again the ROC jump area has gotten the better of me again where I missed the hump call before the TR at the tunnel TJ, which caused a bit of anxiety (polite for lots of swearing) in the car at the time.
SS2 - Had a reasonable run thru except stalling the car at one on the TVHR or TVHL’s. Afterwards talking to others it seemed we were one of the few to not do a serious “wrong road”. We knew not to do the wrong road because there was a dirty big log across the road – the top ranked drivers who drove past this sort of major obstacle obviously were not switched onto why it was there !?!?
Service 1 - Front tyres were absolutely rooted. Bloody good decision not to run the new tyres. Put on the new boots and off we go.
SS3 - With the recent road grading and then add the chop caused by the 4Wd’s made the tight corners to become full of bulldust. At times we planed into this bulldust making it really difficult for us to get grip on the exits.
SS4 - Had another good solid run
Service 2 - Overjuiced by about 5 litres – meaning that we overcalculated our competitive consumption rates.
SS5 - We had heaps of fun on this one. When we reached the Stop control we were overjoyed at the pace we kept up. …wow!! Fast and smooth!! We had a huge go at the Speccy point but mucked it up – the car not pulling us through enough….bummer. Otherwise, Greg used a good combination of left foot braking and gentle handbraking to get the rear to come around when needed. During the stage our intermittent Terratrip problem resurfaced at 19kms cumulative. This was followed by an intercom malfunction, which sounded like a 747 jet landing in my ear. This forced a disconnection of the intercom. Now I was left screaming and guessing (not a good combination inside a rally car) about our interval distance between tulips.
SS6 - Had an absolute shocker through Sherwood. With the combination of roos crossing the road, another stall at a tight turn, and a missed call causing us to overshoot we lost a lot of time (40 secs) not to mention the freaky terratrip freezing again at 19 kms cumulative (readers: any ideas about why a terratrip would fault at a particular distance ? – let me know).

Thank you to Adrian, Fiona and all officials who helped on the day – great event.

Navigator tips:
Tip #1 consider using the Nicky Grist two watches technique – separate one for interval timing and the other for stopwatch competitive timing
Tip #2 every second counts to the final result – 11 secs between us and the VR4 can be made up by being telling your driver about braking timing – either to be later or earlier depending on the day…
Tip #3 carefully check tyre condition at each service point


John Paul