Repco Rally Aus Chatter - Page 14 - Brindabella Motor Sport Club

Ausrally · 10-09-2009, 07:18 PM

Thanks Dave, it was fun. We had good helpers and Marcus got his chance to be part of the 180+ media and see behind the scenes!

I think the rally went well and no doubt it can be better next time. I have yet to go to perfect rally after 35 years. I am not convinced they exist.

Traders in Kingscliff I found were not rally aware. Restaurants closed and clubs with no meals after 8:30: Plenty of officals and crews were not finished until later only to find no food options.

Anyway they will get it right next time I am sure.

I am really glad there were specatators out there in the thousands and it proves that if you dish up a spectacle they will come.

Cheers

Marcus · 10-09-2009, 09:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tortfeaser

You've seen him and you don't think he's the shiz? Loeb is the king. None better at driving the cars in the championship now. Colin couldn't do it. Marcus was slower. We'll see if Solberg can hold a candle to him when he runs the C4 in the last couple of rounds.

No one is disagreeing he's almost certainly the best rally driver ever.

However good he is behind the wheel, he's an unplesant c*** in person with the charm of a dead fish. Danny Sordo came off as a really damn likeable guy in comparison and I dont think much of him. Now Latvala...... now THAT's the kind of guy who needs to be world champion. Passionate, fast, not afraid to throw them off the road at huge speed plus he also has time for fans and n00b media.

And Matthew Wilson? Okay yeah if his father wasnt Malcolm Wilson he wouldnt be there BUT the guy is just havign a ball. He was takign pictures like a silly tourist. He had a camera in his car even takign happy snaps! Great attutide, great guy actually.

Yeah, not as good, but they are better ambassadors and they clearly love the sport and would be in Lightburn Zetas if that's all they could get.

welby · 10-09-2009, 11:03 PM

I'll agree with you Marcus, Loeb not real chatty but Latvala what a nice guy. Sordo also surprised me by being rather chatty and toshi was just funny

fro · 10-09-2009, 11:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dweller

Does any one know what Fro's official capacity was, from what I saw it was pretty cushy.

Drive Col Trinder around and be Koala Wranglers.

To Col's credit, between Col, Naomi and I we did around 2 kilometres of koala fencing on Friday, added to the 550 metres that Shannon, Renee, Kirrilee, Naomi and I did on Thursday night.

There was over 7 kilometres of hessian koala fencing out there. Thanks to the various dudes that put most of it up!

We also supplied various people with air horns over the weekend to scare away some species of lyrebird endemic to the area.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rallyray

Chief Koala Wrangler...

Didn't stop to get the one with the orange vest up the telegraph pole though?

That one looked big enough to look after itself. Unlike the other 4 that were "wrangled" over the weekend, along with the single

Bobuck
Bobuck

.

fro · 10-09-2009, 11:10 PM

Oh, great quote from Toshi. I'd just explained to Glenn MacNeall that I was with Col doing koala fencing, and he told Toshi that was what I had been doing.

Toshi says: "You should put fence around Glenn."

Factor · 11-09-2009, 12:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rallyray

Just cause JS has won 6 ACT titles does it mean that he was the best ACT has seen?

Yes

yes it does

Rallyray · 11-09-2009, 01:02 PM

Statisically....

kelzdayt · 11-09-2009, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marcus

No one is disagreeing he's almost certainly the best rally driver ever.

However good he is behind the wheel, he's an unplesant c*** in person with the charm of a dead fish. Danny Sordo came off as a really damn likeable guy in comparison and I dont think much of him. Now Latvala...... now THAT's the kind of guy who needs to be world champion. Passionate, fast, not afraid to throw them off the road at huge speed plus he also has time for fans and n00b media.

And Matthew Wilson? Okay yeah if his father wasnt Malcolm Wilson he wouldnt be there BUT the guy is just havign a ball. He was takign pictures like a silly tourist. He had a camera in his car even takign happy snaps! Great attutide, great guy actually.

Must agree with Marcus on this one .... I spoke to all the boys whilst they were doing recce- trying to get autographs etc. Loeb could barely raise enough interest to lift his pen, whereas Latvala, Matt Wilson and Henning where smiling and chatty. Also saw Henning and Matt Wilson whilst they were waiting on the side of the road before going to control, and they still made time for photos with me, whereas I wouldn't have even tried to go near Loeb.

Jari-Matti is definitely my favourite - his passion is great! I can't wait to see him become World Champ!

MT · 12-09-2009, 12:43 AM

AJ and I (somehow) ended up at the official after party. Mikko was in bed drunk which was a big shame, but I managed to meet Loeb, Matthew Wilson, and Armindo Araujo.

Araujo was very nice, but didnt speak much english.

Loeb signed my jacket, and let me have a photo with him, but didnt say a word to me, I just spoke to him... (could possibly have something to do with the fact that my first words were, Hi Sebastian, congratulations on your win today... hmm smart move, wish i had heard of the penalty before I said that.)

The nicest by far was Matthew Wilson. Just seemed like a nice young bloke who was generally excited to be driving a WRCar and being in Australia. I had a chat with him about what he thought of the roads, and he also signed my jacket. Cool guy.

We had a great time up there, the organisation of the spectating could have been much better but the spectacle the cars put on made up for it.

I think that Loeb and Mikko are easily a cut above the rest, so much smoother and get the line right everytime.

When we were standing there watching, one of the best drivers to watch by far was Al Quissimi. Totally committed everytime, and looked like he was easily one of the fastest. Re-watching my videos, I realise now that the reason he looked to quick compared to the rest is that he was always down a gear through the corners compared to Loeb and Mikko

Linda Walker · 12-09-2009, 12:48 AM

I was on time control for the team Echo stages.

We arrived in Kyogle on Tuesday afternoon, having driven up, sort of with Brad and Dad T.

The long and short of it is we officialed on controls from Tuesday afternoon until Sunday.

Highlights of the week for us were:

At recce, most of the drivers were relaxed and great to have a talk to, especially, even if they were pressed for time;
Jas feeding lollies to the competitors during recce, and Danni Sordo recognising him whenever he saw him, asking for the lollie container, and promply diving in (Sordo has at least 1 new fan from this) ;
Meeting a lot of really lovely local people from particularly the Kyogle area, obviously showing a lot of support for the event, and making an effort to meet us obviously rally-type people ;
Meeting a lot of other rally folk from around Australia, and around the world. In talking to a number of these people, we really are fairly like minded, though diverse community ;
Having the very tired but happy Classic Outback Trial competitors come through our stage as their last stage. Especially Anna ;
Seeing the thousands of people lining up to spectate in CTEK West on Saturday in particular . That's one of the things rallying is about ;
Jas asking to help at shakedown (knowing that we'd have to be up at 4am), and following through, and being a great help .

On to Corsa di Mille Pini now

Rallyray · 12-09-2009, 01:15 AM

First to the front of the bus gets a free Wizz Fizz!!!!!!!

Mikey won!

DAT610_WA · 12-09-2009, 03:40 AM

Unless I missed it (possible, I have been drinking and not paying 100% attention) the WRC coverage of rally Oz didn't mention anything of the anti or pro rally movement going on behind the scenes.
Looks incredibly fast and a little... boring. Lots of straight flat out, off the rev limiter, then a sharp turn and then more drag racing straight. The tight roads appear to be that typically european tarmac "stay on the line or you'll get bitten" style as well. Tests the drivers, but doesn't seem as spectacular to the spectator.
You can imagine the WRC teams pulling out the settings from previous Rally Australia's then rocking up in NSW and saying

, where's the gravel ?

Ignore me, I'm probably just jealous..... stupid frickin WA government

Darren · 12-09-2009, 10:00 AM

At last, a chance to comment on the event.

The Bad:
Spectators overtaking on totally blind corners and double lines.
Spectators doing 70kmh on the highway because mud tyres don’t handle at100kmh
Locals with nothing better to do than intentionally driving along at 50kmh just to irritate everyone (and then speeding in overtaking zones to stop cars getting past...she looked like the bitch she was).
Poor organisation for spectators
Spectators who think pushing and shoving people is appropriate crowd behavior (with their kids on their shoulders learning from them!).

The good:
WRC cars speed and precision
Reasonably good viewing from the speccy points
Wonderfully friendly welcome from most of the Locals
Generally really friendly people at speccy points
Fantastic scenery & setting
Great weather (and the locals seemed apologetic for it! lol)
The Fiat Abarth sounded unreal!
(edit: greenies with signs quietly exercising their democratic right to protest were fine by me)

Summary:
The good far outweighed the bad. It was a tremendous event and really well supported by locals and spectators. Generally a great atmosphere. With a little more consideration of spectator needs it will probably be as good as anyone could realistically expect.

Funniest moment:
Watching a bloke near Uki on the side of the road waving his arms and screaming abuse at all the cars and turning red in the face. He was almost foaming at the mouth. Then I saw he was waving a piece of cardboard that said "REDNECKS". I'm still pondering if that piece of cardboard was a sign or a label...

welby · 12-09-2009, 10:48 AM

Yes that guy was pretty funny with the redneck sign but he must have a set to stand there with the amount of cars going past him and the abuse he must have coped

MSP · 12-09-2009, 10:59 AM

This was actually gave some locals a purpose in life, and was a real outing for them.. I might put in a tender in two years to do the printing for the signs, and print with a special ink that reacts to bo! That way the sign could change from no rally to GO RALLY when they hold it above their heads.

Quote:

Spectators who think pushing and shoving people is appropriate crowd behavior (with their kids on their shoulders learning from them!).

simple solution is don't go to the speccy points, the night stage was a pretty good crowd I thought. No pushing and shoving, and generally polite spectators.