MiniDulla 2009 : How it all panned out

[AV1611]

C'mon guys - who has some news?

I'm back here in Jerrabomberra, couldn't make it down there. What happened? Who won? And more importantly - who won the first "Battle of the Kents"?

Hope everyone at least had a good time.

[Linda Walker]

I don't know much, but it sounds like Trist blew a gearbox today

[AV1611]

Bummer. Welcome to AWDs with lots of gearbox churning power and torque...

[CMD]

One of the Croker boys won - no suprise there
Claude 2nd
Stewy 3rd (I think)

Tristan had gearbox problems but may be very lucky to get away without major damage

Andy Crane - DNF
Stifler - DNF
Hev - DNF

[Mark]

Just a quick spoiler:

-Tristan beat TKM by 9 seconds on the first stage then did something that dumped all the oil and he limped back into service with a dead dogbox. TKM meanwhile had a steady rally.
-Andrew B and Kirrilee did a headgasket after the first three stages and pulled out then.
-Other than the A-B timing you wouldn't have know that it run under a different service provider. Timing worked okay from the looks of it and the bargain basement clocks looked funny.
-Matty J and Russ DNS'd by having an alternator that failed followed by a puncture of the radiator in trying to solve the problem.
-I think Claude was trailing Gavin Croker in the rally then Gavin had a gearbox issue and possibly replaced the gearbox in service but dropped down the field but presumaby kept pumping out the times.
-Claude and Amy was cracking along but with an intermittent Terratrip and intercooler spray as well as an engine and turbo that got very hot I don't think they could put their feet on the floor. I think Claude reckoned he had done a turbo as a result but I suspect he is 2nd or 1st.
-Scrutineering was excellent. And the spirit of the event and the easy going attitude was obvious. No one seemed to be taking anything really seriously.
-Good to see a service park freakin' filled up despite the size of the camping ground.
-Bede and Joh Austin and Matt Harriott and I were the 3rd and 4th Reserves and we got to enter at the half way mark which was all good as a warm up for RoC and it was Bede's first event in 18 months -with a stocker engine as well.
-Spac's RX-7 driven by Carl Stewart and Anna was going well but had some heating/cooling problems. Ray Day has a cracking good photo of the car at the spectator point.
-TS did a wheel bearing on the Stanza (I think) at some point but still finished.
-A little bit wet underfoot when we turned up this morning and foggy between Braidwood and the coast so it wasn't a stinking hot day.
-Roads were pretty good. Just one stage was a little bit sandy, as warned.
-Some nice new cars out there like Matt Amos's Evo 7? with DVD player on board apparently. There was also a very schmick Evo 7 or 8 driven by C.Drake complete with a cameraman recording at service etc. Pretty schmick operation. The car had the biggest damn rally brakes I have seen this side of a WRCar.

Yeah, good work SKDAC, Dave R, Lizzy, Pete et al....

Mark

[Factor]

OH MY GOD - the mini-dulla ran and the world didn't stop. How can that be.

[Ric Cary]

Originally Posted by Factor

OH MY GOD - the mini-dulla ran and the world didn't stop. How can that be.

Told you I'd take the sky hooks to stop the sky from falling they worked a treat

Top marks to the organisers, good events are about the people who put them on not about the insurance providers and their( ridiculous) stipulations fortunately we now have an organisation that clearly understands this.

[Marcus]

Originally Posted by Factor

OH MY GOD - the mini-dulla ran and the world didn't stop. How can that be.

If this is how AASA rallies are going to run in general.... F*** CAMS. There's going to be a lot of competitors asking why all events cant be this simple and good to compete at.

What a damn fun event. Emphasis on fun, no one seemed to care about speed, they only cared about big skids in the forest. A few things that could have run a bit better (as I understand, there was a lack of officials and there was a timing problem) but all in all, a very well run, relaxed, just plain fun event. And GG, was the service park filled with cars or what! My guess apart from the rally cars themselves, about another 70-100 support cars + families. There must have been over 200 people camping out.

The A-B timing also allowed for the field to shuffle around if you were catching people - very welcome! And no late / early penalites. You just lined up, got your time out, and went. Basically meant NO reason to try to do transports at race pace.

And lack of stress? Yes. Really, it was just wonderful how chilled out everyone was.

Roads were bloody quick. When some guy is saying he chickened out at 200.... and pretty much most others backed off too, GG Western Distributor is a bloody fast bit of dirt. I'm a n00b on it - first time at Batemans / Ulladulla! I'll be back allright. Sandy and slippery too. Very little crash carnage, in fact I plain don't remember seeing any bent panels.

My new car is a lot quicker than I am. OOOOOOH boy, I got me a lot of learning to do. But hell am I happy with it! STI's rock something fierce and what a sound!!! Loved hearing this thing go.

And and before I go collapse, one thing that was fantastic was the variety of cars. From newish AWD to old Lancers, to some pretty well modified cars that CAMS wouldnt allow normally (Too Group G) and some interesting cars you normally dont see. THAT'S what rallying is about, run what you want. Nice work SKDAC and co, great event.

[legend]

Originally Posted by Marcus

If this is how AASA rallies are going to run in general.... F*** CAMS. There's going to be a lot of competitors asking why all events cant be this simple and good to compete at.

What a damn fun event. Emphasis on fun, no one seemed to care about speed, they only cared about big skids in the forest. A few things that could have run a bit better (as I understand, there was a lack of officials and there was a timing problem) but all in all, a very well run, relaxed, just plain fun event. And GG, was the service park filled with cars or what! My guess apart from the rally cars themselves, about another 70-100 support cars + families. There must have been over 200 people camping out.

The A-B timing also allowed for the field to shuffle around if you were catching people - very welcome! And no late / early penalites. You just lined up, got your time out, and went. Basically meant NO reason to try to do transports at race pace.

And lack of stress? Yes. Really, it was just wonderful how chilled out everyone was.

Roads were bloody quick. When some guy is saying he chickened out at 200.... and pretty much most others backed off too, GG Western Distributor is a bloody fast bit of dirt. I'm a n00b on it - first time at Batemans / Ulladulla! I'll be back allright. Sandy and slippery too. Very little crash carnage, in fact I plain don't remember seeing any bent panels.

My new car is a lot quicker than I am. OOOOOOH boy, I got me a lot of learning to do. But hell am I happy with it! STI's rock something fierce and what a sound!!! Loved hearing this thing go.

And and before I go collapse, one thing that was fantastic was the variety of cars. From newish AWD to old Lancers, to some pretty well modified cars that CAMS wouldnt allow normally (Too Group G) and some interesting cars you normally dont see. THAT'S what rallying is about, run what you want. Nice work SKDAC and co, great event.

By your standards this is a very ill-thought out post mark. Fail

as factor said the world hasn't stopped becasue a mianstream event ran under AASA, but what sort of hysterical rubbish is it to say "F*** CAMS" etc

I've done the minidulla before, when it was a CAMS event. I enjoyed all the things about this event that you did. lovely atmosphere, no BS, good scrutineering, Run what you brung. all of it except A-B timing. They even had good fast roads, and you still couldn't drive. (Joke, Mark)

Answer me this, Marcus: If the minidulla is a CAMS event next year, where will you be?

The plain truth is that this is a great event. its a showpiece of how rallies should be run. But please stop giving the credit for that to the insurance provider. The credit for the event lies squarely where it always did - with Lizzie and Pete et al.

so can we please accept that it is the efforts and attitudes of the organisers that make the event, and stop trying to turn every bloody thread into another argument about the AASA. becasue its ruining this forum.

[david]

Minidulla report from a dirty datsun

Great event and organisation , fantastic and definitely be back next year.

Well done to Lizzie and the SKDAC massive team, loads of fun no BS rally...

I think Croker with Dale Moscatt everywhere man navving (fresh from Norway WRC last week) first and third , Claude and Amy 2nd

TS and Dave Stephens hopefully in the first few 2wd after learning new car and 2wd datsun for first time in 21 years no results when we left around sunset

Spacs car was driven well but had a radiator issue and i think lost some time there...dont think they finished but unsure

Lots of new Evos debuting from course cars to competitors and the AMOS Evo9 looked the goods....

Stanza had a wheel bearing issue and few other minor issues that can be overcome for ROC. Sort out spring rates and brake pads and maybe 15 inch rims

Thanks to Dave and Di Stephens for hospitality and Dave for doing a fabulous job and reminding me that ROC was two weeks away..........and JW and Mike Taylor and ty of course for preparing the car and servicing

Our group of three cars including two novive drivers and their dads navving (Peter Taylor and son Michael in the FWD corolla and Adrian Coppin and dad Phil in RWD ex Benke corolla) all came home unscathed !!! overall afantastic effort and thats two more hooked rally drivers of the future

Trevor Stilling
from South Coast Cheers

[Jme]

Originally Posted by legend

but what sort of hysterical rubbish is it to say "F*** CAMS" etc

... there seems to be a lot of hysterical competitors around.

Maybe they aren't using those exact words, but now they are starting to vote with their feet. They have always questioned what CAMS is about and reflected on what CAMS has done/is doing to the sport, it's just that now more and more people are willing to 'entertain' non-CAMS rallying.

Non-CAMS rallying is able to 'cut-out' CAMS. That is it's appeal. Pretty much everything else stays the same.

There is no doubt that the AASA event this weekend was a milestone for our sport. I'm certain that friendships have been lost and battle lines drawn over what just occured, and it's probably only going to escalate as the AASA movement becomes stronger and AMSAG continues to grow.

The next logical step is to look at how our car clubs are structured.

[Kaptainballistik]

Peter.. Looks down at speedo, Turns to Andrew and says do you want to know how fast we are going..

Andrew...NO

Peter...180.



And we even got chased by a Dingo (And because we broke concentration we lost it at the next corner) It was probably the Crokers guard dog anyhow.

Only criticisim was the time card in the road book was a pain, Otherwise, It was fun! And I need to get some grunt below 4000rpm.

Thanks to Kelly for "Minding" my mirror too....long story.

Oh, And if anyone finds a "Dogleg" for the rear arch of a VR4 in grey...Ill pay beer.

[Adrian Coppin]

Anyone have any results past top 3 or pics?

[Kaptainballistik]

Originally Posted by Jme

I'm certain that friendships have been lost and battle lines drawn over what just occured,

Jamie.... I understand your views, But Rallying is about brotherhood, Fraternity,Freedom and all that stuff.

And not giving two hoots.

Honestly, Who frakkin cares. And if someone got their nose out of joint , Tell them to grow the heck up.

[Rus]

Halda check went pretty well....

THE END