Peter Rodgers Real Estate Bathurst Rally 2003 - Event Report

[jpdesousa]

Bathurst 2003
Greg and JP - Corolla Seca RV # 1762cc # 2wd Front # N3 Class
Short event only for ACT Series/NSW Clubman – Stages 1 – 8
Start 21st
Finish approx 19th overall we think

Greg and I managed to bring the car home again with a trouble free run.
Start Area – this was the best organised drivers briefing and staging area I have seen yet – very good PA system with plenty of volume and a spacious presentation area including an elevated drive on dais
Stage 1 – Mt Panorama - What an exciting start to the event…incorporating the Esses and Conrod Straight. This was our big opportunity to get the car to its highest speed EVER all of a massive 160 km/h !! and boy did it take a little while to get there. Then at about halfway down the straight the strangest thing happened, the car began to fill with dust as the air speed squeezed every little bit out of all the seams and joins.
Stage 2 – Hen and Chicken Lane – very fast very open and flat. Again like SS1 we lost a lot of time to the better powered cars.
Stage 3 – Mt David – this was a car wrecker Hump Hump Dip Hump Dip Dip over and over again and rocky rough surface. The drive through here felt as though we would post a good time but were disappointed to find out that we lost about 1 min plus out of 13 mins or so competitive, to the cars around our road position, meaning we were slow big time on this one.
Stage 4 – Burraga – some good tight stuff, which suits us but the second half of the stage opened up onto wider roads again letting competitors get to high speeds.
Stage 5 – Beemerang – this was a very good stage with even surfaces but our time suffered a bit due to an overshoot on a TR HTS which was very well disguised – later we found out a few other suffered the same problem.
Stage 6 – Arkstone 50kms competitive – this was great fun, plenty of calls with the longest gap being 2kms. There were heaps of steep climbs and descents and we nailed the spectator point.
Stage 7 – Vulcan – the early part of this one was slow…Hump RGR then TL, Hump, Hump, Hump, Hump Dip get going again for a little and them more… guess what ? HUMPS…this stage had no flow spending a lot of time in 1st making matters worse were the inconsistent character of some humps which did not warrant double caution status.
Stage 8 – Sunny Corner – this was run under lights and was very dusty, having a very close call at a straight on which kinked to the left more than indicated in the road book. If it was not for the dust causing us to back off a bit this would have been a certain trip into a drop off !!
Overall – Greg and I felt a bit flat after the event, knowing that our times were not competitive and the fact that the rally was not really a test of driving but more of keeping the car going after taking all of the humps and dips. There was quite a bit of attrition from the ACT contingent but I will those people tell their own stories.
Clubhouse – great setup for the BLCC having their own facility. The ACT Rally community would really benefit from something similar. Staying across the road meant that plenty of fun was had knowing that it was only a short walk/stumble home.

John Paul

[raybak]

All I have to say is bugger those humps. We nearly made it to the end, only 2km to go and I buzzed the engine on a hump and put a conrod through the block. I wasn't even going that hard, managed to roll to the FF but didn't get a time for the stage as we couldn't continue.

Didn't put a scratch on the car, I was driving real slow to finish. Maybe we should have done the short event. Still second aCT Novice is not too bad.

I think Matt will give a good report on how we went.

Ray

[grahamthompson]

I think I did this whole event in a daze. Having driven back from QLD last Sunday, then 500 km driving the taxi on Monday, plus another 300 odd km on Tuesday and Wednesday, then little problems like a hairline crack in the sump keeping me up until 2.30am Friday morning, struggles witha failing trailer wheel bearing delaying our arrival at scrutineering in Bathurst to 5 minutes before the deadline, then driving 50 km to Orange to kip at co-driver John Fraser's place, left me feeling less than fully motivated come Saturday morning. Disturbing noises from the VR4's front axle boded a driveshaft problem so I decided that prudence would be in order all day, if we survived all day. My stalwart co-driver struggled with ill-health but that never showed in his strong supportive performance. Thanks John.

Mt Panorama. Absolute first class start venue and ripper first stage. Decided like most that theevent could not be won there but lost real quick. With suspect driveshaft in mind and old rally rubber at 40 psi we were careful, lifting off at 180kph due to a new disturbing wind roar through (now identified ill fitting drivers door seal as a result of NatCap crash) well before the rh kink then getting 5th rather than 3rd for the Chase resulting in much howling of rubber and a poor line but staying on the track. A quick tyre change by Gwyn Mulholland's service crew saving my long suffering wife the responsibility of the job, saw us off with new Dunlop 35s for the first time in 2 years. 3:39 not surprsingly well behind John Stilling/David Stephens 3:30 on road Michelins and higher degree of urgency.

Hen and Chicken Lane. I'd been down this road in the past few months and had some idea of where it went but no idea of the grip offered by the new Dunlops. The slippery surface was unsettling and we may have touched 180 kph although Carlos Casmiri said he saw 200. I believe it. We screwed up badly at the finish reflecting the 6 month break when I braked at the FF yellow marker and trundled down to the red one at about 60 kph. Our lousy 3:44 shoud have been say 3:40 max probably consistent with Stilling's 3:30 again.

Mt David. Just before starting this stage I had John Fraser stand on the road to listen to the driveshafts while I drove in circles around him. This confirmed our latent problem had not gone away and our time reflected my temerity. Our 12:13 was not good, but the stage was Ok apart from some nasty humps. Mark Hughes DNF'd here with I believe a gearbox stuck in third so one Gold Cup contender was gone. Brett' Wright's new VX Commodore DNF'd with a cracked radiator.

Burraga. This was a nice stage, not hard an the car but with a tricky TR HTS which caught us out with a big lockup and time wasting spin. Absolute flat out finish unnnecessarily stressful on turbo engines. Our 15:42 was fair.

Beemarang. The best stage of the event, lots of good sweeps and swoops on smooth two wheel tracks (don't get on the grass or a big moment comes immediately thereafter). I was happy with our 10:52. Stilling retired with a likely blown piston so another, and one of the strongest Gold Cup contenders also fell aside. We successfully hotwired our terraphone which had gone AWOL for two stages.

Arkstone. The big Daddy at 50 km. Stony in places, some very badly cautioned humps and dips and some very dangerous "do not overshoots" but generally an very good test requiring absolute concentration for some 38:34 for us 35's for the top boys.

Vulcan. We knew Carlos Casmiri in the ex Ralliart VR4, and another Gold Cup aspirant, had a few seconds on us when we started this final daylight test. We drove clean and quick matching his 7:18 leaving us 13 seconds behind with only one 17.7 km stage to go. I also Knew Pete Ewing had the finger out taking 6 seconds off us both in this stage, leaving him only I think 9 seconds back. A final stage dash for Gold Cup honours.

Sunny Corner. I thought clean and smooth should keep Pete at bay and lets see how Carlos would go at night. One driving light failed on the transport and my eyes were troubled by the dust. About 1 km into the stage on downhill lh on a very loose surface I fell over the side. I am quietly pleased with myself on keeping my wits and the foot on the gas with large trees welcoming and the VR4 gamely struggled through the blackberries back onto the road without damage but some of the urgency went out of my effort. Pete Ewing pinched enough seconds to edge me and Carlos, despite driving that stage on the handbrake only, earned his Gold Cup points win.

At the following service we discovered that the bracket holding the lhf intermediate driveshaft had broken away from the engine block and risked shattering the gearbox so we chose to DNF the State round and tool quietly to the finish.

A great Gold Cup competition with the three of us finishing within 32 seconds after 137 km. Bring on Bega.

Congratulations to my boys Matt and Phil who finished second to the Winks Commodore in Clubman. A nice result all round for Roxon Rallysport.

[Rallyray]

The dirt and dust team went to Bathurst looking for a class win and a podium finish in ACT clubman. I still have have no idea where we finished because after the event I went straight back to the place I was staying. Bit crook.

Bathurst we threw everything at it. Probably the best I have drove for an entire event but a couple of problems arose.

The first few stages I threw the car at everything. I literally drove the pants of it. Couple of times we were in a bit of trouble but instant throttle got us out of it. Nearly made Spac's wish come true ( FF bending his car) but to my amazement we didn't even dent it. We even hit a tree with the rear but no dent!

On the monster stage we got a puncture and had the tyre completely destroy itself on a downhill. Very interesting. We stopped to change it. Car fell of the jack and we had to lift it to try again. Lost about 4-5 mins.

The ACT event went pretty well apart from punctures. When we continued on things went a bit pear shaped. I was feeling a bit sick and had a very bad head ache. On the 41km stae I came un done and had to stop to be sick. Got back in. Continued till the finish. My headache had basically turned into something pretty bad and made my vision very blurry. I couldn't concentrate and the more I tried to the worse I got.

After the last stage, Mark drove the transport till the finish.


One thing I noticed though and I think something needs to be done to address it...
* Marks seatbelt kept coming undone. On three occasions it was at a start point and contollie's lack of experience left us with a undone seatbelt and a ticking clock. Lizzy noticed our difficulty and changed our start time. I think that a person with experinence should be on hand to fix the situation.

Thanks heaps to all the officials to made this event happen.

[Tweety]

Having been up past midnight every night for the last 3 weeks, I was feeling pretty tired and stressed before Bathurst. Thanks to Spac for doing all the hard stuff (rewiring, most of the painting, gearbox shuffling, getting the clutch to work etc), I'm sorry for taking up all your time! Fortunately Tamsey had stepped in to nav for me at short notice after my regular nav couldn't make it.

SS1. I hate tar, and with an attitude like that, you know how fast I was! Changed to rally tyres at the service and was very glad to be getting back onto dirt .

SS2. For someone who hasn't been in a car for 6 months this is not the stage to start with. WAY too fast for my liking, and I think the times reflected that too.

SS3. This was definitely a stage more suited to my driving and I had fun, except that the engine started to get hot about halfway through the stage and wouldn't cool down even when I backed off for a bit.

SS4. Another fun stage, although I was still having temperature problems. Don't know about the time, probably quite slow again - it's hard to concentrate when you're thinking about whether or not the new engine has died already . Got to service to have Sam tell me he just put 2L of water in it! *****!! The tiny leak in the radiator doesn't appear to be where all the water is going and the engine is sounding bad already (water seals most likely ).

SS5. Doddle off from the start thinking I've killed it already, have a bit of a go (it's still cool from the transport and water added at service). Come round a left hander up hill about 6 kms in, car feels a bit funny, think I might have a flat. Get over the crest and touch the brakes as I'm about to go through the dip on the other side and BANG, it's sounds like I'm running on just rim and the tyre has completely disintegrated. Stop about 50m later, get out, say ***** a few times as I see that the whole wheel is missing and all 4 wheel studs have sheared off. Disc is now *****ed too. Today really is my day for finishing, not . Tamsey and I go looking for the wheel, after about 30 minutes Aaron finds the wheel spacer, so I go wandering off up the hill into the pine trees and find the wheel (with it's tyre still looking very new) about 80m from where it came off.

The fast sweep was a d#ckhead - he just took our time card, told us to wait for the other sweep and drove off while we tried to tell him we needed to contact our service crew.

Miss and the other start controllies turned up to keep us company (and supply lollies and a beanie ) then when the other sweep arrived the start controllies went off to find Sam and Plasto to come and rescue us. Sam and Plasto arrive about 40 minutes later and we thread through some new wheel studs, put the wheel back on, fill up the radiator and drive back to Bathurst (about 80kms). Then on the way back (still about 40kms to go)the clutch slave cylinder ****s itself and I now have to change gear without it. That's all good until we hit a 50 zone, and Plasto slows down to about 40. I can't get into 3rd and decide to stop. So Sam (the master of clutchless changes) drives the car back to Bathurst for me with surprisingly few crunches.

So to sum up: 1 *****ed engine, 1 *****ed disc, 4 sheared wheel studs, 1 totally rooted slave cylinder, 1 disappointed Tamsey and 1 VERY annoyed Tweety .

Now the most important part, the thankyous (a VERY long list):

Spac for everything
Tamsey for jumping in the silly seat at very short notice
MadDog for saying he'd nav if I couldn't find anyone else and the fire extinguisher
Sam and Plasto for servicing and getting parts at short notice
Fro for giving me his trailer ride for the 180B back to Canberra
Tom Lunney, Russell Battison and Jem (and Naomi, Fro and Karl) for pushing my useless car onto the trailer
Karl and Girlie for actually bringing it back to Canberra
JW for building me an engine in time and helping out with the dyno. Unfortunately I'll be back to see you very soon
Miss and the start controllies at SS5 for finding Sam and Plasto for me
JS and Gary's Motorsport Tyres for organising some new Dunlops for me
Lyndall and Tim for your time, all the Mazda stuff and the driving boots
Naomi for lending your little sander
Jason for lending your compressor
Barry Smith Motorsport and Gavin Mosher for the brake pads and Peltor connector
Simon Leigh for a little bit of welding help
Bede, Renee, Mum and Dad for your continuous support
The BMSC and the ACT rally community - your support has been great and is really appreciated.

Overall I thought the rally was really well run, so thanks to all the officials who put in their time, and anyone I've forgotten thankyou too (I'm still suffering from lack of sleep).

[msgofast]

NSW State/clubman Rd1

Given my only 2 cams rallies i have done not turning out so well, 2GO a DNF first stage and
last clubman 3 weeks ago breaking a drive shaft while battling for the lead with fellow team
mate Steve Burke was disappointing to say the least!

WELL this weekend was pay off for all the work i have put in on the car, after making some
changes
to help handling and power and to remove all weak points we were on track for a good result AND
a finish!

I had thought about my driving too and worked out my weak points and paid more attention to
"lifting my game"

This rally was very long 480+km including almost 200km competitive with a 50 km day stage
and a 40 km night stage.

First stage was Tar which started from the left side of Mount Panorama rear access road and up to
the top which then joined on at Skyline for the run down the track to the Dunlop bridge. I was on
rally tyres so i wasn't going to have a big go as i haven't even driven around the track in a road car
at 60kph for a few years.

Stage 2 was back to dirt on "hen and chicken lane" A very very fast run which we saw 190 kph many times,
It was a very slippery stage too and i was getting used to how much better the car is now turning in.

The rest of the rally was very rocky and fast yet there was some very tight and tricky tight stuff too.

Been seeded at car 25 we were behind some slow cars and on long stages dust would be a very
sore point as i spent most of the time in the thick of the dust.

The 50 km stage is hard on anyone and everything, we pushed as much as we could but again the dust was bad,
but it would have been bad for most as most were still running. After stage 6 we were 11th outright.
This was in a field of 70 cars made up of 20 4wd turbo's and a field of 16 in my class above
2lt rear wheel drive(P4).

The only major concern was a broken extractors that i had made,
might have been a bit tight with the wire when welding lucky for us Kevin Shaw (EVO7)Lent us his NEW
Oxy kit (Thanks Kevin). I clamped a spanner with some hose clamps to hold the two halves together till
we got to fix them at the 60min service at meal break.

Next stage was a 40 km night stage, clubman guys finished just before this stage so there was a few
gaps in the field including one car in front of us, so we made hay while the cibies shone ....well
till we got 20 or so k's in where we were blinded by dust, many times we had to stop to see the road!
We come out of that stage starting with a 4 min gap and making 3min, 2 seconds up on the car in front.
Lucky For the 200B who took out my class had a 6 min gap and made 3 mins up on us in that stage.

We ended up with 5th outright and second in our class which is a very good result for any two wheel
drive car
and one beyond what we could have hoped for.


http://www.mfoto.aust.com/mfoto2001/..._bath_dk03.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/16215427

Another link,
http://members.optushome.com.au/buncha/ms_rally/

Michael South
Owen Greenwell
http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/msgofast/
www.plugandplay.com.au
MSR Rally Team
.

[fro]

Well, that's two from two. Two starts, two finishes. But I'm somewhat less satisfied than Nat Cap...

I'm sure that Tort will give you some other highlights, but mine include...

Pre-Event

Karl and Girlie were kind enough to tow my car up to Bathurst, even after my exhaust put a ding in Karl's beaytiful trailer...

I thought I'd fixed up those things that JW had picked up at scrutineering, but didn't twig to the possbility that the fuel pump itself could be the source of the fuel leak! Luckily, the scrutineer was the local Repco man, and found another fuel pump for us to run on...

The start venue and layout was great. Public access, plenty of country town style room on the road, and a good vibe. The ramp had me worried driving over the top of it

Mt Panorama - Stage 1

When we got to the back of MacPhillamy Park (?), I thought the car felt a bit odd, but pressed on. A bit off, didn't read the road well at all...
Five and a half grand in 5th... I figure that's probably about 160km/h over that crest on Conrod. Onto the brakes into Caltex Chase, and the pedal goes a looonnng way down. It's really hard to pull up at the stop control!

Service reveals an empty front master cylinder, and the brass fitting on top of the master cylinder has snapped, leaving no front brakes. Mrs Fro, Jem and Tort all got started fixing the brake dilemna, and Dave Ferris and Luke showed up to save the day. We get going again, with the rear master cylinder swapped to the front, and the rear brakes (inc. handbrake) disconnected. Karl and Girlie were pressed into action once again, and go to find a Repco, and purchase a new master cylinder.

Hen and Chicken Lane - Stage 2

Having not driven the car on front brakes only, I was very tentative. I just wanted to get to the next service (three stages away). The sweep (and every one in sight) words us up that the stage is really slippery, and to take it easy on the last kilometre and a half.

Lots of big straights, and we find some speed, but nowhere near as much as we should. I'm scared with every crest that there si going to be a surprise. We went quite slow, but got there in the end.

As much as everyone raves about Hen and Chicken Lane, I wasn't such a fan... Give me East West any day.

Stage 3

Lots of time spent sitting at the time control, doing the pseudo-regroup as we get our two minute gaps. Marc and I think about bleeding the brakes, but decide not to worry about it.

I can't remember much about this stage. Lots of getting the rear end sucked off the road (crap tyres... I blame the manufacturer), but another slow stage trying to keep it all together. And the first few humps caught us out, even after seeing the Gavin Commodore go past the TC in a very bad way.

Stage 4

Well, we decided we were going to slow in the last stage, so we were going to step up the pace a little.

Bad move.

Less than 2k's in (?), on a RGR over crest, we understeer off. Plenty of other people had gone off there before us.. but they could stop. We didn't.

We beached ourselves on a stump, and a whole pile of little logs. And the cars jammed in second, and the stump is stuck in the way of the clutch fork, so that's buggered as well.

So lots of jacking up, and pushing off the jack, and then taking wheels off, and removing bits, and then more pushing, and then the sweep pushing, and we're on our way again. The rest of the stage back to slow and steady, having learnt our lesson.

Service

Karl and Girlie arrive with the new master cylinder, which Luke and Dave and the other guy (Matt?) proceed to fit. Jem does some of the other maintenance that we need (fuel, halfshafts, etc), while Girlie and Mrs Fro see that we eat and drink, and don't get in the way.

Stage 5

Back out on the road again, brake bias wound all the way to the front, but the rears are actually doing something now. We're going OK (still slow), until some more humps get in our way... and we stop. The battery has had enough of our adventure, and has made a violent attempt to escape, smashing the battery box into several pieces, and trying to take the battery lead with it. bolting the lead back to the terminal, and we proceed off again. Slowly.

Stage 6

It's reached that wonderful time of afternoon when the breeze drops away, and the twilight is approaching, and the dust just hangs in the air. Damn it.

We choke on piles of dust in this stage, at every turn. We push on as fast as we dare, but it's still not very fast! The tyres turn to crud about 6 k's in, and it feels like we've got two flats. The Ferodo Zero brake pads in the front reach the limit of their operating temperature about 8 k's in. We continue. Slowly.

Service

Get rid of those horrible rear tyres, and for the first time in my rally career, I get to drive on four tyres from the same manufacturer! Fuel, water, and some nose-blowing/coughing/dust-balling later, we proceed.

Stage 7

We notice that the gear box is shagged. Selecting gears is like a lotto draw, with impossible odds that you'll get the number you want, and what seems like an eternity waiting to see what number comes next. A couple of big (8500rpm) over-revs when the numbers are wrong.

Service

Battery has tried to escape again, but hasn't got as much energy this time. It only broke the strap, and spewed it's acid everywhere. Someone lends us a luggage strap, and we use lots of race tape.

Stage 8
Please, let it end...

The stage is tight, with trees close in on either side. I can not read the road for the life of me, and a few wierd and wonderful road selections have us picking reverse to get back on course.

When Marc is confident, I go hard through some straight ons... until we miss the turn hard right.

At the end of the stage, the transport out has us going bush to find the tarmac road, and the emergency service...

Finish

The ACT Rally/Motorsport Community needs a club house...

Thanks have to go to:
Karl, Girlie, Jem, Luke, Dave, Matt, Tort and Mrs Fro
Total Traction Services, Versus E-Battle Centre, Revell Steering and Suspension, Solartint, Windsor's Automotive and CarCo Exhaust and Automotive.
JW, Russell Battisson, Spac, Jen, Matty T, Guy, JS, Moonie, Kelvin.

And about two-thirds of the rest of the people I know...

Bring on Bega... I will be ready.

Originally posted by raybak
I wasn't even going that hard, managed to roll to the FF but didn't get a time for the stage as we couldn't continue...

D'oh. When you said that, I thought you said you'd rolled through the flying finish. Thank god you didn't... at least we've got some chance of seeing you at Bega!

[Spac]

What is it with places starting with "B", and me DNFing? Bega, Braidwood and now Bathurst... This is how it happened...

*SS1 - Very gently up and over the hill. Very gently through the speccy point on top of the hill. Very gently down the hill. Let 'er rip on Conrod Straight. Saw 187kph before I backed off VERY early. Very gently through the Chase. Stage time showed the level of timidness...

*SS2 - What a dangerous piece of crap road! Long lumpy straight with uncalled kinks and dips, then a corner, and repeat until you are both bored and scared... Road book made it clear that it was lousy in this stage - I thought of Smee's complaints about Ulladulla a few years back - he'd have a fit at Bathurst...

*SS3 - Starting to get the hang of the car. The long wait at the start of SS3 was boring, but it helped me work out what I'd been doing wrongly in the previous stages (everything!). Stage time was a lot better, but still WAY below potential. I think this stage was the one where the finish had bushes/shrubs on both sides of the road into the finish - made a fast bit of road feel REALLY fast... . Shame about the crappy roads until then though...

*SS4 - Another improvement, although still way below potential. I think I was 11 seconds behind Pete Ewing which is a lot closer than I've been at anytime in the last year. IIRC, this was the only stage with roads that deserve to be called "decent"...

*SS5 - About SS4 pace, I think. But the mental re-calibration is coming along nicely - things that were just not possible in the RX-5, get sneered at by the RX-7. Its a bit tricky "experimenting" at 140+kph in a competitive stage, so the learning process is a bit slow.

*SS6 - Where it all turned to poo. About 5kms into the 50km stage a loud, solid banging/thumping begins from the rear of the car. I let Daveee tell me its the exhaust, although it seems a bit too solid and too directly connected to my right foot for it be a loose exhaust. We continue on, at an only mildly diminished pace.

The dust and sunlight was very difficult and dangerous, but it would be the same for everyone. Roads are still lousy, road-book is still lousy.

About 20kms in to the stage, I notice the water temp is very high at about 104 degrees. I back off a bit in an attempt to get it to drop. I doesn't budge either way, so I get back up it for a kilometre or two.

Temp gauge rises. Damn! I back off again, and it doesn't budge. OK, so we're still going at a vaguely reasonable pace, we can finish the stage and work out what's going on.

Then steam starts coming out from under the bonnet. Damn! I back right off and ponder what to do. The temp doesn't drop at all, but the amount of steam coming out increases... We stop and get out. There are no obvious problems under the bonnet.

After about 7 minutes the temp has dropped back from 108 to ~95deg, so we get back in and try to complete the stage. It is very hard to start, which is a BAD sign. Temp sits on between 99 and 104 deg for the rest of the stage, despite us crawling along at almost walking pace...

I am very concious of the following car getting stuck in our dust, but we're kinda stuck - if we stop moving the temp skyrockets, if we push harder it skyrockets, if we shut it down it probably won't restart. The dust is solid enough that nobody would be able to just "push though" it.

Finally the end of the stage appears. I park at the top of the hill past the finish control to aid restarting the car.

The next car arrives shortly after. Its Gwyn Mulholland in Mad Mal's old 323. He is understandably annoyed ("You've just cost us a heap of time, mate"), and I know he's right. Sorry again Gwyn.

Back to the RX-7... It's hot. Very hot. The gauge was reading low because there was no water to transfer the temperature to the sender - real temperature is much higher than the 104 degrees the gauges showed us.
An hour and a half later, you can sprinkle water on the outside of the engine and it boils off like a BBQ plate... Uh oh, another DNF...
I feel especially bad for Gywn now, seeing as we've just buggered his event when ours was already over...

Waiting for Jenny to turn up, and Glenn Farrant tells us that "overheating runs in the family - she was stopped in the last stage". I say "Bugger" and another word that rhymes with "truck many times. Ah well, at least Paulie will be here soon.

Then car #68 tells us that the RX-5 was stopped about 15kms into SS6... I use that word that rhymes with "truck" several more times... At least Fro and RayBak have made it to this point.

So after an interesting flat tow back to Bathurst, we drink many beers and find new ways of analysing the stage times so that we can claim we were able to get a podium finish... (well, not quite).

So that's about it. The RX-7 is A Good Thing. There's still a lot more speed to be had without improving the car, and with my current level of driving ability. Apart from a new motor (derr....), there are a few obvious improvements to be made to the car - gearbox, diff and struts. Turns out that the banging from the rear was the rear cross member flapping around after a support tore off - the spare cross-member that came with the car has done the same thing and been re-welded, so I'll have to look long and hard to a better solution as it is obviously a weak point.

The Lemmings are Toast. If the car behaves at all well, that is...


*The Fast Sweep WAS a wanker. Many obvious comparisons with a certain Fast Sweep from early last year... He essentially made Paulie DNF when he could have continued... Daveee and I were "lucky" enough to DNF at a control that was staffed by two good blokes (and they also thought FS was a wanker, BTW).

Big thanks to Big Kev and Dale for servicing. Top work, and never fussed. And good value when Dale was telling his old man how to identify an EVO 7.

And thanks to Jen. For everything.

[Matt]

Originally posted by Spac
*The Fast Sweep WAS a wanker. Many obvious comparisons with a certain Fast Sweep from early last year...

I think that Tom Lunney would agree with you. He told me of how the FS hit him in the front left quarter at a Start Control. Apparently he was impatient to get past the line of cars so that he could hang out at the Control with his mates...

My event report will follow. Probably tomorrow.

[AdvancedProdrive]

Being as it was my first event in a year and a half my main aim was to finish.. which we did only just..

SS1 took it extremely easy while i learnt to drive fast again, lifted early down the straight only got to about 165 max as not to overcook my new engine.

SS2 Again took it easy while i learnt to drive fast on dirt again, very fast and flowing stage again i lifted not to kill my engine too much.

SS3 This is where my dramas began. About 3rd or 4th hump at decent speed and broke a seal or valve in the front navigator shock, the shock was basically useless and the sprint was now doing all the work made for a boounce ride for the rest of the rally , But after a few more humps and some heavy langings on the busted shock, the Ignitor coil bracket broke and the engine came to a halt, luckely i had some spare parts in the car and made some tomporary repairs so we could get to the next service.

SS4 Again coil still not properly atached so very down on power and cruising to the service, all in all we probably lost about 25 Minutes

SS5 After the coil was fixed we were back at full power but still with a broken strutt very long couldnt really go any faster then the person in front of us due too the excessive dust, I made a small error and didnt hear a caution road goes left hard to see over crest towards the end, luckely there was no trees straight and i just plowed the shrubbery away only damageing the sump guard (hopefully), then got bogged trying to get out cost us about 2 min in total so wasnt too bad then got stuck behind the dust of the car that overtook us for the rest of the stage.

The rest of the stages we just cruised to the finish not really pushing hard because of the broken strut but we eventually finished i think about 3rd last.

But well be back soon after i fix all the little things in the car..

Ben

[fro]

I should use this opportunity to point out that Tort did great. The errors that he made were very few, and understandable. The road book had a few issues that caused us some consternation, but everybody is human.

It was a real learning experience. I now realise how much I relied on Tort for good confident calls, to have confidence in what I was doing. And his confidence came from what I was doing, and what the road book was saying.

This was a particular example of how a good navigator could help with speed.

And in one of the stages (Stage 7?), I had quite a moment... but I'll let Tort tell that story. He can tell you how crap I was .

[paulie]

My first event, and my Nav's first event, made for an interesting learning experience.

The whole day passed in a bit of a blur but I will try and remember bits.

SS1 We didn't know what to expect, at the top of the hill it became obvious that we didn't know how to make or listen to calls. Without the red flags we would not have made it. We did though.

SS2 Still trying to call and listen, the fact that there were only 3 calls should have made it easier but we still stuffed it.

SS3 Mike suddenly decided on a calling technique that worked for him (mainly just became confident in calling), and we started to have fun, had a few brown pants moments, but a lot better. Near the end some dust appeared. I was surprised on how bad it can get, you almost need to stop its so hard to see.

SS4 Probably went a bit silly here and paid for it, there was a few humps around, and in our inexperience we didn't know how to handle them. The car got pounded a lot and so did we. Both of us need to pay more attention to caution and double cautions. At the end of it we found we had blown a front tyre. 15 minutes is not very long to service, we changed the front tyres and filled up on fuel and were still late away.

SS5 The new tyres were really old ones and I think I could tell the difference (we lost it a couple of time anyway). We also started to realise that if the road bends it is not always in the book, so we started to get more cautious. At the end we had blown another front, we changed it on the side of the road which left us all out of spares, and a silverstone on one front and a dunlop on the other.

SS6 I was exhausted by this stage, and the prospect of 50km was daunting. About 7km in we started to hit dust, and then we hit a hump, *HARD* It looked pretty small from the front and only had a single caution, but when we went over it the front went off the ground then the back hit in a way to force the front down. The car felt a bit funny after that, but we continued. The dust became so bad that we had to almost stop. Unfortunately I sometimes just drove through without thinking, making for some scary moments. Then at about 23km's in the car started chugging and died. We looked under the bonnet, saw a pool of oil and immediately assumed we had blown the engine.

There were only 2 cars before the sweep, so he was there pretty quick. When he arrived we had just started trouble shooting to see how bad it was. He arrived and we wanted to ask about what happens with the service crew, namely which direction would they get sent in from etc. But the guy just waived a time card at us, so we went "Oh, OK" and gave him ours, then he was gone.

We continued troubleshooting and pretty quickly figured out there was plenty of oil in the engine. the problem was that the jack had bent itself out of the bracket and disconnected the fuel pumps. With that back in the car started fine. *WHAT DO WE DO NOW* We decided that if we continued Dad (my service) might come in from the start and then we would miss him, so we waited for 40 minutes. It got dark and cold so we gave up and started driving, we then met some VERY helpful service guys looking for a commodore, they sold us some oil (which was only half full by then), and told us how to get out. We started driving and met Dad coming the other way.

Turns out he was left at the Service point all alone without any clue to what was happening, it was pure luck that he saw a 4wd pulling a car trailer and decided to follow him, which is when we met.

Overall we learnt heaps, in future I think I will try to err on the side of caution, I went in thinking that rallying is more about speed, but now I think it's more about not killing the car. The DNF taught ne a bit about troubleshooting, and I will Be more thorough next time. Most importantly I will organise a plan of action with the service crew BEFORE the stages.

As to the car, I have not been game to look at the damage I have done, I know the oil cooler is all bent and the hoses cracked, but the suspension is still an unknown. It also doesn't start anymore

PHEW that was almost longer that the rally

Paulie

[paulie]

He essentially made Paulie DNF when he could have continued

I don't want to put ALL the blame on Sweep, my inexperience played a part. If I had been more like Fro and not given him the card until he hit me over the head for it, it would have worked out. As it happens I just handed it over without thinking.

As for what I think? NOTE inexperienced, never-rallied before, don't know what sweep should do. I would have thought that someone might have mentioned to my Dad (my service crew)where I was and that I was alright, he was quite freaked for a while, considering it had got dark and no one had said a thing to him. I feel more bad* for that than anything else.

Paulie

*more bad is considered perfect english in some circles

[Tweety]

Geez Paulie, I feel bad too for not helping you out more. You should know that you can go up to almost any competitor and ask a whole lot of seemingly stupid questions and it's okay, we all did that when we first started. And if you get your Dad to service again (if he's not too scarred) get him talking to the other service crews too, it'll help a lot.

On a slightly better note, last night closer inspection of the RX-2 revealed that my small radiator leak is in fact an enormous one (courtesy of all those humps I'm sure ) and so was the cause of my overheating problems. The question now remains how much did I damage the engine while running it too hot?? [/kicks self for being so stupid]. And the weird sound the engine is making IS an exhaust leak, it's just further back than I was looking, duh!! So I'm going to get the radiator fixed this week and then start the car up and go for a long drive to see if it's okay... I really wish I wasn't so ignorant about cars!!

[paulie]

I think I was always going to make dumb mistakes on my first day Tweety, no matter how much advice people had given me. When I get nervous all learned information seems to leave my head

So don't worry, you guys have already been REALLY helpful (much more than I expected) I would never have made the start without all the Rally-people help I have been given.

After re-reading my post I made it look like I didn't have fun. I DID, I promise Now that I am less sore, I am looking forward to the next one (If I can get the car working).

Paulie