Bega Valley Rally 2009

[ropie]

Bega, a place far away and my wife, Cathy, wants to know who this Renee person is, the lady voice leaving messages about Bega weekend. Ok, that was the final arrangement, I'm off to Bega for the rally, with new co driver for event, Renee Jeffery, and husband Ian as half the service crew. Nick, eldest son as the other half. Departed on 2000 km round trip with words like "you're mad, and how much will it cost" following me.

So we met Renee & Ian on Sat for doco & scrutineering & dinner & drinks, nice social stuff.

Sunday found we were car 23 now, in the N4 Evo 4, and set off on the 90 km transport to the first stage. 45 kms and a ripper, great flowing roads, all the tight bits in the roadbook. Renee managed to upset the terratrip and lost some distance numbers, so we were off the book for a while, and towards the end of stage, the heat in the Evo started to get to her a bit. But she stuck with it & the time was ok.

Found out the remote horn button was also resetting the terratrip, somehow, so she stopped blowing the horn at the speccies.

Also, as part of her duties, she found out she's the intercooler spray operator, with the instructions of " give the switch a hit when we are going up a hill".

Stage 2 & 3 were just as good as the first, great roads and with the Baker/Yeomans roadbook showing all the dicey bits, well, if there was nothing in the book, attack. Did that over a crest or two, nice fast corners. Just had to keep dodging the rocks pulled onto the road by big hp 4WDs in front of us.

At service we watched that rain storm and sure enough, it got the 45 km stage. Also, put on light pod in case of holdups, even though really lights weren't needed for us, I think we were car 20 by then. We managed to arrive at the start of stage 4 late ? not quite sure why, and the controllies said as we arrived, you've got 1 minute. No helmets on or anything! As Renee was signing the card, countdown was 3,2,1, go. Lost a few seconds there.
Into it but the damned light pod is vibrating away and distracting. Doesn't matter at night when you can't see it, but now in the daytime it's annoying.

When we got halfway and got to the slippery part, it was awful. Some corners were grippy, then the next would be black mud and no grip, and then over a crest the road would be nearly dry, but then what looked dry was slop.
Said to Renee, going to survival mode, not going for sheep stations, so made sure we stayed on the road to stage finish. Passed Carl Stewart in the 1600 as he was changing a flat with 12 or so kms to go.

My spray operator said at end that I didn't get any extra power in the mud because the car didn't need any more, can't say I noticed.

Stage 5 was totally different road, tight & rocky. Again had to dodge lots of big rocks. Also had a couple of rougher bits in stage. And as we passed triangles & crew of car 5, there was no sign of car? crashed & eaten by forest?.

Back to Bega on 50 km transport and finish. I see on the latest results posted we are now 12th in long event, and guess we won the N4 class?

Much thanks to Renee for coming along, and Ian & Nick for servicing. It's pretty easy with the Lancer, have a look underneath, fill the water & fuel.
Didn't even change the tyres and the're still good enough for the next event.

One thing with a chick nav for the first time, really reinforced my idea of the porta loo at every start control. All that water has got to get out and us guys have it easy, just splash at the nearest tree, but Renee was having to make like a mountain goat to find a nearly private spot.

And a new rally experience, in 37 years never been counted up! at a start control before. I think it was stage 3 start, and as the clock went to 10 seconds to go, old mate on the line said 1,2,3,4 etc and as time hit zero,yelled 10, go. Now that was confusing.

But excellent event, well organised by Tom Snooks & crew, great roads, nice when there is no dust.

Now, if there is no shire roads, and all the roads used are south of Bega, event based at Eden would sure cut down on transport distance, just a thought.

[gumbootracing]

INCAR FROM CAR 70

YouTube- BEGA VALLEY RALLY 09

YouTube- BEGA VALLEY RALLY 09

CHEERS TREVOR

[Bede]

Originally Posted by gumbootracing

unoficial scores
2009 Bega Valley Motors Rally
Long Course Event

O/R Crew Vehicle Points
1 Gavin Croker/Eric Croker Mitsubishi Lancer 1:30:46
2 Steve Forsberg/Craig Whybern Mitsubishi Lancer 1:31:10
3 Mark Fawcett/Carrie Morris Subaru WRX Spec C 1:31:27
4 Claude Murray/Lizzy Ferme Subaru WRX0 1:34:22
5 Ross Allan/Scott Allan Subaru Legacy 1:34:34
6 Nigel Shellshear/Paul Fletcher Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 3 1:35:21
7 Warren Lee/David Lethlean Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 2 1:35:22
8 David Nutter/Catherine Taylor Subaru WRX RA 1:36:19
9 Matthew Amos/Zoey Gillis Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8 1:36:24
10 Ian Martin/Roslyn Martin Subaru Impreza WRX STi 1:36:49
11 Peter Neal/Brian Eversham Subaru WRX 1:37:08
12 Richard Opie/Renee Jeffery Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 4 1:38:11
13 Wayne Stewart/Lucas Zinsstag Subaru WRX STi RA 1:38:24
14 Alan Wilson/Kevin Wilson Subaru WRX 1:38:47
15 Steve Kenway/Lauren Kenway Subaru Impreza WRX 1:39:14
16 Campbell Eastwood/Darren Miller Datsun Stanza 1:39:51
17 John Berne/Tony Best Subaru Impreza RS 1:42:52
18 David Stephens/Michael Gentleman Nissan Silvia 1:43:26
19 Russell Dixon/Nathhan Long Honda Civic 1:43:38
20 David West/Tod Reed Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 2 1:43:50
21 Michael Conway/Jenny Cole Ford Escort Mk 2 1:43:53
22 Brendan Brown/Sam Robison Datsun 180B SSS 1:44:36
23 Mick Gillett/Harvey Smith Hyundai Accent 1:44:52
24 John Sparkes/Andrew Sparkes Nissan Silvia 1:45:09
25 Luke Anderson/Barry Woollham Mitsubishi Galant VR4 1:46:52
26 Matthew Cullen/Ben Cullen Hyundai Excel 1:48:45
27 Leigh Manning/Nikkita Taylor Datsun 1600 1:49:14
28 Tony Moore/Nikki Moore Hyundai Excel 1:51:25
29 Tim Stuchbery/Robert Wilson Holden Commodore 1:53:09
30 Aaron Watt/Georgina Gallacher Hyundai Excel 2:00:37
31 Beau Griggs/Craig Scott Subaru Impreza WRX STi 2:01:39
32 Peter Morrison/Susan Wasson Hyundai Excel 2:02:33
33 Brett Mackieson/Julian Ong Diahatsu Charade 2:03:08
34 Fiona White/Michael Loxton Hyundai Excel 2:05:20
35 Kimberley Barson/Sandra Cuttle Hyundai Excel 2:07:47
Did Not Finish
Jesse Robison/Adam Wright Subaru Impreza WRX DNF(SS5) Off road
David Shuttle/Zoe Butler Datsun Stanza DNF(L6) Accident damage
Geoff Legg-Stoker/Robert Johnston Subaru Impreza WRX DNF(L6) Blown engine
Nigel Bland/Mickey Rourke Holden Commodore VP DNF(SS4) Off road
Hugh Taylor/Bryan Van Eck Toyota MR2 DNF(SS4) Engine failure
Terry Trewern/Andrew Ormesher Holden Commodore VB DNF(L6) Rear suspension
Richard Troup/Russell Hannah Mazda RX2 DNF(L4) Suspension
Langdon Patrick/Julie Boorman Subaru Impreza WRX STi DNF(L4) No 3rd gear
Mark Sessions/Matthew Harriot Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 3 DNF(L4) No oil
Matt Swan/Paul Franklin Subaru WRX DNF(SS3) Turbo
Nathan Reeves/Scott Spedding Subaru Impreza WRX DNF(SS3) No brakes
Ross O'Reilly/Dan Lemish Datsun 1600 DNF(L2) Accident damage
Tom Clarke/Lance Dye Datsun 1600 DNF(SS1) Off road
Craig Jarvie/Silvia Jarvie Holden Commodore VN DNF(SS1) Off road

2009 Bega Valley Motors Rally
Short Course Event

O/R Crew Vehicle Points
1 Peter Taylor/Kim Martin Toyota Corolla 1:23:47
2 Claude Murray/Lizzy Ferme Subaru WRX0 1:24:29
3 Andrew Penny/Rhys Llewellyn Subaru WRX STi 1:26:12
4 David Boyd/Sean Gibson Datsun Stanza 1:28:48
5 Carl Stewart/Anna Ritson Datsun 1600 1:29:49
6 Russel Winks/Rob Moran Holden Commodore 1:31:48
7 David Stephens/Michael Gentleman Nissan Silvia 1:32:15
8 Bede Austin/Andrew Crowley Datsun 180B 1:33:23
9 Mick Gillett/Harvey Smith Hyundai Accent 1:33:33
10 Fro Horobin/Kirrilee Gentleman Hyundai Excel X3 1:33:52
11 Meng Chung/Nick Vardos Honda Integra Type R 1:34:20
12 David Roberts/Kate Murphy Hyundai Excel 1:35:10
13 Matthew Cullen/Ben Cullen Hyundai Excel 1:37:06
14 Nick Herrald/Phil Herald Datsun 1600 1:37:12
15 Adam Phillips/Nick Bell Holden Gemini 1:37:22
16 Jen Austin/Matthew Holloway Mazda RX7 1:38:01
17 Tony Moore/Nikki Moore Hyundai Excel 1:39:38
18 Jeff Eastman/Tony Cardwell Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 3 1:40:34
19 Kornel Zbroinski/Lila Dabrowska Hyundai Excel 1:45:31
20 Aaron Watt/Georgina Gallacher Hyundai Excel 1:48:12
21 Peter Haggstrom/Rebecca Flett Hyundai Excel 1:50:02
22 Justin Sinclair/Rodney Patman Hyundai Excel 1:50:09
23 Peter Morrison/Susan Wasson Hyundai Excel 1:50:12
24 Heather Smith/Glenn Farrant Mitsubishi Sigma 1:50:28
25 Richard Gray/Stephen Hodgkin Hyundai Excel 1:51:33
26 Fiona White/Michael Loxton Hyundai Excel 1:52:46
27 Kimberley Barson/Sandra Cuttle Hyundai Excel 1:54:49
28 Tim Armstrong/Adam Nightingale Ford Escort Mk 2 1:55:22
29 Aaron Tams/Nigel Evans Toyota Corona 2:00:26
Did Not Finish
Damian Soward/Kristy Offner Datsun 1200 DNF(SS1) Radiator
Kagan Skipper/Phil Skipper Diahatsu Charade de Tomaso DNF(SS1) Blown motor

Some of those results appear to be a little out. For starters, I ran the long event not the short event, and I think* the Escort in front of me (Conway/Cole) went off on the last stage…


* I couldn’t see the car just the crew standing on the side of the road.

[GT4RALLY]

Originally Posted by hev

My understanding is that Fro was originally awarded the result, however Mick/Harv were since awarded compassionate time for stopping to help Richard & Russell as they had a fire under their car.

I hope they recieved a reasonable allowance as their quick thinking saved the RX2 from serious damage - a fire had started under the car & we were too busy trying to work out how to get it unstuck to notice. Thanks Mick/Harv, your help was greatly appreciated.

RT

[Haggers]

Originally Posted by GT4RALLY

I hope they recieved a reasonable allowance as their quick thinking saved the RX2 from serious damage - a fire had started under the car & we were too busy trying to work out how to get it unstuck to notice. Thanks Mick/Harv, your help was greatly appreciated.

RT

Richard

See - we Excel guys are not just pretty faces ! You have a pretty eventful little outing !

Cheers

Haggers

[GT4RALLY]

Originally Posted by Haggers

Richard

See - we Excel guys are not just pretty faces ! You have a pretty eventful little outing !

Cheers

Haggers

Excel-lent

It got better - after about 20minutes we hear voices from up the road & out of the bush come abot 10 locals who push the car out of the ditch & we get going again.

What are the chances of that happening?

RT

[global]

Firstly a number of thanks; to the organisers and officials, top job, Phil for loan of trailer cheers, Bean for building you beaut sump guard, Nate for navi-guessing and coming up with the choice Kiwi accent for calls, in particular the qwip at one of the cars that was off, “beached as bro’. Thanks also to Nate and Rob for servicing and scrapping kilos of mud off the car…

Preparation for the event was pretty good, just a probe playing up on the trip metre (nice new probe was safely stored in the road car in Sydney) and a bloody indicator jumped out on the road trip in from Tathra on the morning of the event.

With 44km stage to kick off with, it was the chance to go pretty quick to try and get a bit of a gap on others in the class. Was a great stage, we suffered from a pretty soft brake pedal and a distinctly flat engine, but had a ball, reasonably tidy, no issues, lovely stage. Picked up a few seconds on other P2 cars. Bad luck to Kagan sitting near the end of the stage with what turned out to be a crook engine.

Back to service, bleed of the brakes, rechecked the timing and reset, made quite a difference to have better brakes and a stronger engine. Made it easier to drive, but no real difference on stage times.

SS2 and 3 where really good stages, tried to drive quickish, kept as tidy as possible and kept it all pretty safe, end of 3 was pretty slippy, got pretty close to some camera dudes at one corner, should be a 1/2 reasonable pic if anyone has it?

SS4 was great, about 25 km it the rear kept stepping out big time on RH corners, thought we had a flat, then thought the shock have packed up its bags, took the next 5 – 7 km very tentitivly. It looks like it was just a slippery road surface as others complained of the same issues. So was just me – soft. Last 5km felt normal again. Car checked out 100% at service.

SS5 was the best for the little cars on the rally, that tighter stuff I love as my mojo jumps out the window on the really quick stuff. Had a ball.

Nate did an awesome job on the calls, great fun to have the lads (Nate and Greg) down from Qld. Even though Greg fell out of bed, fell over twice on the way to the Loo and does not recall wakeing everyone up at 3 am, he is still a reasonable bloke. He has left NSW with a very interesting “Harry Potter esq’ scratch in the centre of is forehead. We will have plenty of fun embellishing that story in the future as he has no recollection of it…..

Pretty early morning on Monday, 6am departure as the QLD had a 3pm flight to GC. Overall a great weekend, think we ended up 21st in long event.

Again thanks to all who made this event possible.

PS. To all whom bitched and moaned at the event prior to it, from seedings to shire roads. You all missed a fantastic event.

[Daveee]

This one from Peter Norton?



They probably got good shots but could turn nasty very quickly? I for one baulked a bit when I saw them there!

[The Fazz]

Navving for Hev in the Stigma!!

Hev was obviously a bit desperate for a Nav...and she really wanted to do Bega...so I jumped in for my second only Nav experience. I was a little apprehensive. The last time I had a go, I was a bit crap and it was a while ago, so I had questions like: Do I get car sick? Can I do maths on the run? What the hell goes on at controls again?!


SS1 was tricky. It was a little cut up for us down the end of the field and the grip was a little inconsistent. The car wasn't steering real well and Hev was complaining that it just wasn't right. We still did a pretty good time and was faster than quite a few cars around us. Got back to service and found that the LH ball joint was just about to part company with the lower control arm. Phew!! That was close. Matt, Harv, Wayne and a whole bunch of others jumped into changing the arm over only to find that we didn't have arm of the right length....so the original arm got some love with a welder to tack the ball joint in and away we went.

SS2 and SS3 were fun and Hev was getting used to a car that actually steers!

SS4 - On the way to SS4, we drove into the storm. There was lightning, it started hailing and it poured. I was laughing and hooting in the nav's seat...what an adventure!!!! Until, we got close to the the start control and I remembered that I was the Nav....and I had to get out of the car!!!
For the first 3/4 of the field SS4 was only wet in the last half. For us it was diabolical right from the start. Hev did a great job in keeping the speed up whilst taking no risks. Driving in the wheel tracks to find the grip and getting to the end with a completely straight car. We finished comfortably ahead of our seeding. Top job Hev!

For anyone interested, I can recommend going for a run with Hev. Good fun and safe! She'll get a lot quicker with experience too. So look out!

The Stigma is a really good rally car. It was a little disconcerting being in a car with actual torque where 3500rpm is actually OK and there's no need for attacking the rev limiter.

In the end my fears of being completely crap at navving or crook were unfounded. The roadbook was excellent and the coast roads make it a lot easier on the navs than say in Canberra. I'm not looking to jump in the navs seat again any time soon, but is was a good reminder of the challenges that the navs have to deal with. Anna and Lizzy were quite disappointed that Hev hadn't scared the cr@p out of me......maybe next time

Thanks to the service crew (Matt, Marcus, Wayne...and all the others that pitched in), officials (under very trying circumstances for many different reasons), Team Hyundai for the accommodation and Jess and Aurora for support.

[sparko]

It was a good rally, but with the shire roads it would have been a great rally.

Nevertheless, it had a very professional feel and Andrew found the roadbook to be first class. We had a good run and the Silvia performed faultlessly as usual. We were in a “team” of three, being Shellshear/Fletcher (EVO 3), Troup/Hannah (RX2) and ourselves. Why a team? Because we were all serviced by the one-man-band of Bruce Hancock who was simply awesome. Pity about Richard beaching the car, but.

We got to Bega just in time for the briefing and rang ahead to ask for late scrutineering which was cheerfully provided by Graham Parker – cheers Graham

Sunday dawns with beautiful weather. SS1 at 45km, now that’s what I call a shakedown! Good to see grey nomads Stretch and Judy Jesse at the start control - now don’t you call me an “old man” again, Stretch…. It went all too quickly but what a great stage, it had a bit of everything. We were happy with our performance but found later that David Stephens in the other Silvia took a minute off us (he’s no youngster either - what is it with GHOBs and Silvias???)

SS2 at 25km was a blast and I drove the car harder than ever before. We hit a dislodged rock with the front right not far into the stage and my heart sank expecting a puncture. But it stayed up. We got a good time, pegging back half a minute or so from David. At the end of the stage the fuel gauge was hovering on empty and I was expecting a service as indicated in the schedule from the website. OOPS, the revised schedule in the road book (which we missed) had another 14km stage before service, so our rally looked basically…. stuffed But wait, the service area was only a few k’s down the road so we made it back to service, found Bruce, stuck 15 litres in the tank, returned to SS3 start and slotted into our place in the queue PHEW! Thank goodness for generous transport times

At the service Bruce noticed a bulge on the outside of the front right (wonder how that got there???) so on with some new Kumho steer tyres and off we go.

SS4 a repeat of SS1 but with a heavy shower including hail it had all gone to slop - and so did my driving as it tends to in the wet. By the time we started it was basically dark and the driving lights didn’t show up much difference between the wet and dry patches. We were 4 minutes slower than our first pass which was a bigger margin than most crews, so it cost us a few places. But the car is better in the mud than it used to be – it’s the brain that’s the problem . I loved the final stage despite the rockiness – it was not a car breaker – just had a nice feel to it and we had a good but not spectacular run. What? Rally finished already? Looking forward to the Southern Mountains event with another 55km in the same forests.

Congratulations to David for taking out NSW 2WD – nice guy, nice vehicle . And to Nigel Shellshear/Paul Fletcher who, with a 6th outright, are finally getting the results they deserve.

Thanks to son Andrew for calling the shots and to all the officials who were thoroughly professional. And to Bruce the super service crew... See you at Myall Stages, or perhaps Camden Haven on 25 July.

[Renee]

Originally Posted by ropie

Sunday found we were car 23 now, in the N4 Evo 4, and set off on the 90 km transport to the first stage. 45 kms and a ripper, great flowing roads, all the tight bits in the roadbook. Renee managed to upset the terratrip and lost some distance numbers, so we were off the book for a while, and towards the end of stage, the heat in the Evo started to get to her a bit. But she stuck with it & the time was ok.

Found out the remote horn button was also resetting the terratrip, somehow, so she stopped blowing the horn at the speccies.

Yes it was a bit disappointing to find that the terratrip malfunction was due to the horn button at my feet (possibly from overuse ), and that I now had to control my urge to beep at every spectator group.

Also, as part of her duties, she found out she's the intercooler spray operator, with the instructions of " give the switch a hit when we are going up a hill".

I usually cope really well with everything a nav has to do in the car, but by adding the water-spray, I was occasionally drawn into the world of evo power at the press of a button (by me), which meant some calls were otherwise missed. But hey, it's the power that counts....isn't it??

Stage 2 & 3 were just as good as the first, great roads and with the Baker/Yeomans roadbook showing all the dicey bits, well, if there was nothing in the book, attack. Did that over a crest or two, nice fast corners. Just had to keep dodging the rocks pulled onto the road by big hp 4WDs in front of us.

Yes those straight crests were awesome!!!!

Said to Renee, going to survival mode, not going for sheep stations, so made sure we stayed on the road to stage finish.
My spray operator said at end that I didn't get any extra power in the mud because the car didn't need any more, can't say I noticed.

There was quite a few sideways moments in the greasy stuff in this stage, including exiting the SOS point where Michael B. and Tim B. were on SS4. Would love to see some footage if someone has some.

Much thanks to Renee for coming along, and Ian & Nick for servicing. It's pretty easy with the Lancer, have a look underneath, fill the water & fuel.
Didn't even change the tyres and the're still good enough for the next event

Thanks for the ride Richard and to Nick and Ian for servicing
Have I mentioned that I am in love with evo's

One thing with a chick nav for the first time, really reinforced my idea of the porta loo at every start control. All that water has got to get out and us guys have it easy, just splash at the nearest tree, but Renee was having to make like a mountain goat to find a nearly private spot.

Top idea re the loo at each start Richard. "Nearly" private was it.....apology's to anyone who copped a glimpse of my big white one

Thanks to all the officials and volunteers who made Bega possible in 2009.

[hev]

Originally Posted by The Fazz

Navving for Hev in the Stigma!!

Hev was obviously a bit desperate for a Nav...

And thrilled to find out that despite what must have been a most appealing and very hard to turn down opportunity for Fazz to take on the rest of the world in the Excel World Series, he was available to come and sit in my silly seat.

Originally Posted by The Fazz

Do I get car sick? Can I do maths on the run? What the hell goes on at controls again?!

1. Don't care, but if you do, you can clean it up.
2. Mostly I think the answer is yes...
3. I don't know either, so just don't tell me if something went wrong...

Fazz has done a pretty good job of describing our event... first stage was tough trying to keep the car on the road, and even tougher convincing Fazz that I really did know where the swept line was, but that the car had other ideas about being there!

Lucky for us the service times were long (50mins) so not only did I have a fab service crew to take care of the ball joint, but my security blanket (Harv) was still there too... At least this time my crew believed me that there was something wrong with the car, no "Suck it up, Princess" this time... I think the toe out on the left front was the give away... but of course, the first assumption was that I'd hit something, but Fazz vouched for me that I hadn't.

So, long service gone, car fixed, off to the next two stages... all pretty good. Not quick enough for my liking (rumour has it that Tamsey took time out of me in one of them... oh, the shame!!!), feeling like a bit of a sook some of the time, but I can tell you that one of the coolest things to hear in the car from someone that you have so much respect for is "Nice work, Hev" or "Nice line"... then, I had to stop daydreaming about that and slap myself up the head and get back to the task at hand!

Back to service... nothing major to deal with... looking forward to tackling the 45km stage again with some control. [Insert wrong answer noise here...] Couldn't be more wrong... with the weather as Fazz described, and the roads slipperier than anyone had imagined, it was time to go Nanna in the Volvo on a Sunday afternoon drive in the rain. Nothing to win and a whole lot to lose, and with one DNF under my belt this year I wasn't keen to go down that path again. Drove to finish. Time sucked. 10 mins longer than first run through with no ball joint! Bugger. I think I now have unfinished business with that stage!

Anyhow, we finished, and that's what my aim is always about. Anything above that is a bonus...

Definitely disappointing that the Shire Roads were not there, but by the sounds of things the people who ran there in 2007 should consider themselves lucky... it's possible they will be the last to ever drive those roads competitively! Definitely more an "Eden" rally than a "Bega" one with those roads, but hey... any day rallying is better than a good day of working!

Originally Posted by The Fazz

We finished comfortably ahead of our seeding. Top job Hev!

Couldn't have done it without ya, Fazz...

Originally Posted by The Fazz

For anyone interested, I can recommend going for a run with Hev. Good fun and safe! She'll get a lot quicker with experience too. So look out!

[Blush]

Originally Posted by The Fazz

Anna and Lizzy were quite disappointed that Hev hadn't scared the cr@p out of me......maybe next time

Oh cool, there'll be a next time? Woo Hoo ...

Huge thanks for the event go to:

Fazz - for being brave enough to sit next to me, and for a few tips along the way. Hope I get a chance to put them to good use soon!
Mum - for babysitting Sophie so that I could go out and fang through the forests
Simone, Matty, Marcus & Wayne - for being fantastic service crew, above and beyond the call of duty. Highly recommended, A++++++
Jess & Aurora - for helping keep Sophie entertained (and supplying all the food, since she didn't want to eat any of ours)
Byron - for short notice loan of Balaclava and gloves
Ric - for the Super truck ("Oopy ruck") and trailer, driving suit, a helping hand with paint prep (and for not buying the matte black paint) and all the other things I've probably forgotten...
Mick - all that team Hyundai lovin', and for making it so much cheaper for me to be able to front up at an event. It really does pay to have a "Works Nav" in the family! Couldn't do much of the rallying I do without HMCA support.
Harv - for being my security blanket, for all the work leading up to the event, for believing in me... and for just being so fantastic.

Thanks to Team Snooks and co for running a very smooth rally! Thanks especially to the officials who stayed out in that weather (both good and bad) to look after us and make sure we could still have our runs! Especially to Byron and Co at the end of the 45km stage, who made my day being so excited to see me, both runs through and who told me I hadn't been the slowest!

Of course, thanks to my Sponsors Hire-A-Hubby and Best Value Signs for helping to make it all possible! BVS did a fantastic sticker job on the car... anyone needs car graphics, give them a call...


Sorry, Sparko, can't resist...

Originally Posted by sparko

(he’s no youngster either - what is it with GHOBs and Silvias???)

Mid-life crisis?

PS. Here's a third vote for portaloos at stage controls. Thanks Richard!

PPS. Anyone with photos of car 74 please let me know, I need to put a press release together for my sponsors!

[DamienS]

Event Report.

Transport 70km
Competive 14kms
Hole in radiator.
Stop. (hope I haven't done any damage to the head).

Hmmm.

It was actually alot more fun than that, but I have just got back from a mini holiday in Tathra so I don't have time to elaborate.

Thanks everyone for the help in trying to find us (and our service crew) and Ian ??? for the help on the highway.

Cheers
Damien

[Stewy]

Yeehar what a blast. Would have to rate as one of the best rally weekends for so many reasons.

The lead up for this rally was unusual in the fact that there was only a few small jobs to do to the car and most of the time was spent finding something to do (not normal!). Even moments up to the start all things seemed sorted other than the line up to the only servo pump with 98oct
The day before the event Lobby our service cheif took his gal up to the headland at Tathra to check some whales and came back with a ring on a finger, top stuff and congratts guys.

First transport was long but top job on adding Loo locations in the road book as one was used on the way, there was a big from Anna.

Stage 1,
This was a real mental hurdle for me as most rally’s start with a 10-20km max stage to get started and at about this point in the stage I felt mentally drained but at the same time still on the ball. For a long stage it was a great choice of roads with great variety of surface and road types.
For a change I got through both spectator points not too bad. At the end the car all felt good and Anna was on a massive high which was very inspiring.

Stage 2,
After checking out the huge drop by the road to the bottom of the Quarry, and then checking the rear pressures (40PSI ) we were off. Not much to mention other than another fun stage with a great finish.

Stage 3,
Another fun stage but for the first time in a long time the Datto had brake problems? On a few occasions early on the pedal felt softer than normal but still good enough. The first heart shocker was after a long left hander power slide the brake pedal went to the floor but pumped up after a few pumps. This happened a few times more but I was ready for what was going to happen, so a quick pump before the corner sorted it.
Back a service problem turned out to be that a wheel I had never used before had the magwheel nuts bottomed out, resulting in the wheel floating on the nuts (about a Poofteenth worth of floatige) and causing brake knock off. After slapping on another set of used tyres problem sorted!

Stage 4,
Running the best of the shi te tyres we had it was out for the second run after the first dump of rain on stage 4. Grip looked and felt great for the first 300m but then the car was all over the place from then on. Pushing through the stage and the car seemed to be lagging and had more over steer on the left. After the TVHR hard to see my fears were confirmed that we had a flat. With 10 kms to go and the tyre coming apart we had to stop. The tyre change was carried out at Warp speed to the MAX but still lost us about 3mins until we were back up and going.
After a short distance of sorting out belts and intercoms this small red coloured image appeared in front of the car. This image became clearer and spread into a mist. This is all I could see until the end.

Stage 5,
Anna gave me the word that we were now 1 min down for 2wd and that she loved night stages. That last part of the statement was a huge motivator. The start surface was rocky and hard packed so a full power take off was the only option Whole pile of fun . First corner in and we were max power slide to the extreme in front of camera man (unknown) can't wait to see the photo!
The first part of the stage fast downhill was a blast but the second part with all the left hand dips were just fantastic and no matter how hard I pushed the car just went harder and faster through the corners. Pushing a car as hard as it can go and as fast as you can get it going with the nav having as much fun has to be ultimate in rallying fun. Pulling up at the finish control we were both on a high and wanting more, but not to be.

List of thanks,

Snooks crew for a great turn out to such a challenging rally. The roads were a great selection. Thanks all officials, you all did a great job.

Anna - for a perfect nav job, everything was calm, clear and precise. There needs to be more rally people like you that have such a passion and give 100% to the sport while doing it with positive attitude and a huge smile on your face. Top effort and thanks again.

Michelle, Wes and Adam - as always they were there to support my sport and passion and without complaint, and keep us all fed. Thank you and I love you guys so much.

Lobby n Rochelle - for a once again faultless service crew and tokin funny man. Also thanks for looking after the family and congratts on the engagement guys.

Travis and Simone - As well faultless service crew and for making the 10hr journey up to help and support us. Bummer you hit a roo on the way home and smashed up the Ex Vibert Service ute.

Bob Bridge - Service legend and rally tactician. There isn't much this guy does not know. Thanks for the use of the rattle gun, so much better than a wheel brace.

Spac - For chasing down some good steers to help us get through. This is another person that keeps giving to the sport, thanks mate.

Dan Vrubel (APEX Decals) - for the last minute make up of some stickers for the car, you are a champion and they look great.

Congratts to Gav Croker who took the older Evo to another win

See you all out there soon,
Carl

[Nighto]

Originally Posted by Stewy

Yeehar what a blast. Would have to rate as one of the best rally weekends for so many reasons.

The lead up for this rally was unusual in the fact that there was only a few small jobs to do to the car and most of the time was spent finding something to do (not normal!).
First transport was long but top job on adding Loo locations in the road book as one was used on the way, there was a big from Anna.

After checking out the huge drop by the road to the bottom of the Quarry, and then checking the rear pressures (40PSI ) we were off. Not much to mention other than another fun stage with a great finish.

After slapping on another set of used tyres problem sorted!

List of thanks,

Snooks crew for a great turn out to such a challenging rally. The roads were a great selection. Thanks all officials, you all did a great job.

Anna - for a perfect nav job, everything was calm, clear and precise. There needs to be more rally people like you that have such a passion and give 100% to the sport while doing it with positive attitude and a huge smile on your face. Top effort and thanks again.

Michelle, Wes and Adam - as always they were there to support my sport and passion and without complaint, and keep us all fed. Thank you and I love you guys so much.

Lobby n Rochelle - for a once again faultless service crew and tokin funny man. Also thanks for looking after the family and congratts on the engagement guys.

Travis and Simone - As well faultless service crew and for making the 10hr journey up to help and support us. Bummer you hit a roo on the way home and smashed up the Ex Vibert Service ute.

Bob Bridge - Service legend and rally tactician. There isn't much this guy does not know. Thanks for the use of the rattle gun, so much better than a wheel brace.

Spac - For chasing down some good steers to help us get through. This is another person that keeps giving to the sport, thanks mate.

Dan Vrubel (APEX Decals) - for the last minute make up of some stickers for the car, you are a champion and they look great.

Congratts to Gav Croker who took the older Evo to another win

See you all out there soon,
Carl

Stewy , when we changed your tyres in the NIGHTO RALLY PREP SHED on the arm breaker , YOU promissed me you would check the pressures and let them down......I told you I put 35psi in them approx..........

Nighto...........tyre fitter, meatologist ,some times......