Oberon Nissan Datsun Drivers Club Rally - Brindabella Motor Sport Club

msgofast · 25-05-2003, 08:09 PM

Rd 3 NSW clubman series,

Oberon, 24/5/03.

35 cars started the rally Oberon on a very cold morning, we were seeded at car 5 and drew 4th on the road in a ballot of the top 5. Stage 1 was still a bit wet from some over night rain so it was tip toe and test the grip.

Stage 2 was 25 odd k's long and we got into a flow still on the safe side under brakes and the grip here was very good.
Stage 3 we upped the pace and took some seconds back as we were 1 second behind 3rd, grip here was very good and the time showed as we took 9 seconds off the next 2WD and only missed fastest by 3 sec which was taken by Carlos in his VR4 turbo 4WD, this placed us 3rd outright. I think it was stage 3 we hit a huge rock on the crest of a jump that i missed, it smashed the sump guard and the sump, but we were still able to continue.

Stage 4 was another long stage of some 26km, we were well in the groove now and set about climbing up the leader board, we tried to have another big go and we had a clutch problem and was slipping in 4th and 5th gears after 10 or so k's, felt like it got hot and lost clamping pressure, so i had to use less throttle and short shift as i thought this was the end, some how it stop slipping and we continued. We still ended up in 3rd fastest on the stage. It was now was a matter of holding position and making it to the end as we were only just half way. I didn't dump the clutch off the line now and just took off slow for the rest of the night. , This time Brett in his 180B was fastest.

Stage 5 we kept it clean and tidy with one over shoot ( i swore Owen said 200mtrs , but it was 100 Doh) but we still got 2nd fastest time again.

Stages 6 and 7 were just good clean runs, Oh and i always held it on that bit more at the speci points, anything for good pics

Last stage was a repeat of one of the long ones and with a thin line to stay on and grass on the sides covered in dew for the first 3-4 km i kept it very clean and tidy which was enough to get another 2nd fastest stage time. The roads were great some jumps but not that many for that area, there were some very fast roads that were open and allowed us to throw the car in at speed, Later Owen told me he had a few moments that made him nervous, but from this side of the car it was a very well in controlled drive and had the car been able i could have gone at that pace for another day no problems.

We ended the day and night in 2nd outright and first in out class (P4) which was the same position we got out of the clubman round of the Bathurst state rally 2 weeks ago, good points now and we are looking forward to Bega on the June long weekend.

Thanks to all the officials and crew that made the rally Nissan Datsun Drivers Club a good day.

Michael
http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/msgofast/
MSR rally team

PS I hung around for the provisional results but then everyone went home and there was no "announced winner" . I didn't go back at 0830hr sunday if that was when it was done?
.

Rallydat · 25-05-2003, 09:36 PM

To Micheal and all other competitors, you were lucky that the rally was on Saturday not Sunday as I was out with Brad today doing a clean up inspection in my Datto 1600 and the roads were like greased glass on the red clay sections in SS 1 & 2, as it has rained all day.
everyone from NDCC I'm sure thank you all for coming.

Richard

Jme · 26-05-2003, 07:35 PM

Great Rally - the roads were well selected and fun.

A real drivers rally, where challenging the roads led to quick stage times, but defensive driving saw your times drop considerably.

Basically the rally settled down to a 3 way battle between Carlos Casmiri navied by myself, Brett Wright and Michael South.

Carlos led into the night after narrowly winning 3 of the first 4 stages. Brett Wright grew wings and blasted past, setting some brilliant stage times. Michael South drove around some problems to keep within a handful of seconds off second...... most other contenders had problems ........ daylight to 4th.

In the last stage there was a tricky off-camber right hand bend not called specifically in the book ( general caution slippery 1k) which caught Carlos out slightly (South was pressing for the position), and we ran into the water drain and pulled out a large rock, puncturing both left hand tyres- strut - rims - control arm.
Brett Wright ran off on the same corner .... as did 4 other guys as we were fixing the VR4 to get it out of the stage..... so we ended
up standing on the corner cautioning the rest of the field.

Well ran event in my opinion...... it deserved more than 36 entries.

From a Rallyequip point of view ..... Mel Mazzei and Graham Ellul(Car 28 ) finished 4th in only their third rally, and Darren Gee and Matt Sosi (Car 31) were 11th in Darren's first rally ..... only 2min 20 from 3rd O/R. Very proud of the drives both guys put in.... considering Darren drove the whole rally forgetting to turn his driving lights on ......... don't laugh........ Craig and I did that in our first rally as well.

1st Brett Wright - 180B
2nd Michael South - Silvia
3rd Sid Sparks - Datsun 1600

Kenchington- driveshaft - ss1
Casmiri - 2 flats- ss8
Edwards - Turbo - ss1
Inall - had a few mechanical probs but finished well inside top ten

beanpole · 27-05-2003, 10:22 AM

Well what do you know! The gearbox lasted!

Kev

Matt Sosi · 27-05-2003, 11:10 AM

Well the Gearbox lasted and came away with 12th Outright in his first event and 2nd P6.

Oberon was Darren Gee's first full rally in the Mazda Familia GTX.

As Darren did not know what to expect, our aim was to take the first couple of stages at snails pace and then gradually build up the tempo. The main goal was to finish!!

As the rally went on, he started to get more confident in the car. He started to read the road and treelines with extreme confidence.

There was a few minor moments including where we nose dived the car after a jump and he thought we had done a front driveshaft. It turned out that it was just the wheel scrapping the guard.

Other times where I thought geez he is leaving his braking a tab late. With his skill we were able to get around them without no problems. Also, what jme mentioned in his report, Darren accidently forgot to turn the spotties on the last stage (27km), but still managed the 6th fastest time.

Came 12th O/R and 2nd P6 is a pleasing result especially at this level of event. He is now going to conentrate his efforts on the NSW Novice Championship and the next round in Coffs Harbour should be something to look forward to. I will be with him for this event as well.

Matt

Haggers · 27-05-2003, 02:47 PM

Sosi

"Other times where I thought geez he is leaving his braking a tab late. "

I thought I have trained you up on ate braking!!! You obviously need some remedial experience !!

Haggers

Matt Sosi · 27-05-2003, 03:05 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Haggers
Sosi

"Other times where I thought geez he is leaving his braking a tab late. "

I thought I have trained you up on ate braking!!! You obviously need some remedial experience !!

Haggers

You did Haggers, but you have competed in events before.

Keep in mind, that it was Darren's first full rally and the way he was driving on the weekend, I felt that he had done this sort of thing before. He definately has a bit of talent and the way he controlled the car in some of the twisty parts as well as attacking the infamous humps in some of the stages was just magic. Give him a long stage or two in an event, and he will be right up there suprising a few quick drivers along the way.

Looking forward to Coffs immensly on the 21st June.

Matt

smee · 27-05-2003, 05:03 PM

Did he do soft launches.

ie not 6000 rpm and drop the clutch..

In other words how did he drive around his gearbox trouble.
Did he heed the advice starting and rough surface tactics...

pm if you like....

Haggers · 27-05-2003, 10:27 PM

re below:

Matt - he clearly has that elusive quality called natural ability=talent !! Can you buy it?

Haggers

"You did Haggers, but you have competed in events before.

Keep in mind, that it was Darren's first full rally and the way he was driving on the weekend, I felt that he had done this sort of thing before. He definately has a bit of talent and the way he controlled the car in some of the twisty parts as well as attacking the infamous humps in some of the stages was just magic. Give him a long stage or two in an event, and he will be right up there suprising a few quick drivers along the way. "

marco · 30-05-2003, 09:26 PM

We were seeded 14 behind 4 gerbils, the four fastest gerbils though and the dust didn't look like being a problem, so it was smiles all round especially as Lucia and I were still on a high from our 8th OR at Bathurst.
Stage 1 - Take it easy in the slippery bits but push on where we can. Things start to get busy towards the end as my door latch breaks and the door swings open, finish the stage doing WRC impression. Must not have fazed us to much as we got the 5th fastest time, 3rd 2wd.
Stage 2 - While Lucia does her navigator thing at the control I dive into the boot for some gaffer tape, wind down the windows and tape up the B pillar, jump in the passengers side before Lucia gets back and settle down for the start. A real contrast to stage 1, plenty of grip and some nice high speed sections. 5th fastest again.
Service- Fuel, fit the driving lights and fix the door latch only
Stage 3 - Vulcan, during my short rallying career this is the little bit of forest I have driven on most. Just after the second specy point I miss read the road and we are lucky to make the road goes left, so much for prior knowledge. 5th fastest again, a pattern forming here.
Stage 4 - Very varied and a lot of fun. Lights are looking decidedly dim. Twice set up for turns that were clearings. Glad to see the finish 5th fastest. On the way back to town and service, the on coming rally traffic keep flashing us to tell us the obvious that we have no lights, the voltage has dropped to a level were electronics are resetting and are trying to restart again. We make service pull the battery out and fit it to the Patrol and set the hand throttle to 2500rpm. Bob and Leonie Moore lend us an alternator so we swap it for ours. Time is running out and we can't get it to charge. We fit the battery back in but decide to withdraw rather than get stranded in the forest. Apart from the dissapointment of withdrawing while in such a strong position we thought it was a great event thanks to all the officals.
Marco & Lucia Werner

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