Thanks Brendon
Myall was a bit of a struggle for us…that’s for sure. And seriously, without the help and encouragement from Matty James, Bek, “Gadget” the mystery man and your good self, I would have pulled the pin at the first service.
Finishing the event in 4th outright was a direct result of all your efforts. Thank you all…..
Myall Stages from car 12…
After 2 DNF’s from 2 starts in this new car, I was really hoping things would go ok for us up at Myall… I had a box of matches and some marshmallows in the toolbox tho…Just in case it didn’t
The car had a “holiday” at MSR Engineering in the week before the event. Michael gave the car a complete new engine tune and also fine tuned the suspension, and the results are absolutely amazing…It is like a completely different car to drive….and now goes like a scalded cat too.
Lizzy and I had only ever used notes once before at Lithgow 2007, so recce on Saturday had us learning how to write them all over again. We tried to keep it simple…. Cause as all navigators know, most of us drivers can only concentrate on one small thing at a time, so detailed notes would have been a waste on me anyway
Winning the drag race up the highway with a certain evo 6 on the way back from the turbo check on Saturday night had me feeling pretty confident the car was going really well, so we stickered it up, put some fuel in it…and we were all good to go for Sunday…
Or so we thought….
About 5k’s into SS1, we could smell coolant, and noticed the temp gauge had shot up. Hmmm, not good. We cruised through to the end of the stage trying to short shift and just keep the momentum up, hoping the temp might come back down….but it didn’t. Just for some added excitement, something had also come loose in the front end, with the car wandering all over the place. We pop the bonnet at the end of the stage to find all the coolant had been pumped out through the overflow bottle…and notice the front cross member was loose too…Bugger…
We borrow some water and then limp through SS2 with the car boiling for the last 15k’s of the stage. We stop again and fill up the radiator, and by now, the engine is starting to get a bit “rattly”…. We limp back to service with the intention of withdrawing from the event.
But lucky for us, our service crew had other ideas, and they start hooking into it…
A blown head gasket is the diagnosis….and after a few bottles of Chemi weld, we basically spend the rest of the day going flat out until the car boils, and then take it easy to the end of each stage…fill it up with water …and the do it all over again…
With all the dramas going on, we hadn’t bothered looking at any stage times until during the final service. I was absolutely amazed to see us sitting up in 4th outright, with only two more stages to go.
As is always the case when you’re trying to nurse a broken car home, all the “new” rattles and grinding noises start getting louder and louder….But we soldier on, having a bit of a go on the final 8k stage, jagging another 3rd outright stage time on the way….
Congratulations to Nathan, Southy and Bryan for the podium finishes…You guys are really in a league of your own…..
Well done to Ari Inall on the 2wd win and for finishing another event…It was also good to see Brad Fitz back out there again too, stirring up the big boys in his evo 6 ….
Big thanks to:
:All the organizers, officials and volunteers.
:Lizzy Ferme for calling the notes.
:Matty James, Bren and Bek Flett, Gadget and Matty Hope for servicing.
:Michael and Sue from MSR Engineering for all their help with the Subaru.
:Garry Harrison from Gary’s Motorsport Tyres for swapping some rubber around.
:Team D&CW for keeping me awake on the drive home.
:And lastly to Ari Inall for doing our share of the washing up back at the house
See you all at the Bay !
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that's for amateurs... we cracked the 50L mark by the third service 
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