Repco Rally Aus Chatter - Page 8 - Brindabella Motor Sport Club

ropie · 07-09-2009, 06:20 PM

Back in Armidale after helping a bit, here's my views, after reading the rest of the posts here.

We were a road closure on ss6, about 7 kms in, 10 km stage, during the drive from Uki to Byrill ck rd in a convoy of 40 cars of officials, saw lots of no rally signs, heaps of which were spray painted over all the rta road signs ( stupid ) and as we drove onto tarmac bit on way to stage start, huge no rally signs were painted on the road ( some had been obliterated by the council ).

We talked to 6 police riding trail bikes at our point, saw 3 riot squad vehicles go past. After a long wait saw 3 rally cars then nothing, then more police on bikes who said idiots were rolling boulders down the hillside 1.2 kms from the stage start, not little rocks, & they were off to get them.

After another long wait same cops came back & said couldn't get them, stage would be cancelled & not run in afternoon.

Packed up & drove to stage finish where officials didn't know what was going on. Another couple of cops arrived in 4WD from the transport after stage & said the 3 cars that did the stage were stopped by a crowd of about 40 people, some of them lying on the road, as the 3 crews were trying to drive back to the service park. Cops rescued the crews & escorted them to service.

After another wait, during which finish control people couldn't get rally hq to advise re stage status, but police radio said stage canned, we split & drove to Mooball stage to spectate. On the way there rally radio confirmed ss6 & ss11 cancelled.

When we drove on the transport all had gone except for 1 lone guy wearing a no rally shirt, sitting on the bonnet of his car, on the road side. He was the one referred to earlier copping the flak from frustrated spectators.

This is all happening on the Friday, we find out later about more frustrated speccies who were arriving at Castrol East point & arriving at road block before view point & not let in because the area was full. As related by friend Darren, he said I've got tickets but can't get in & others turned away as well.

On Saturday we went to 2 official points, one on Bosch which was very good, and ctek east, which was packed. Talking to a marshall there, he was expecting 1500 speccies, but maybe there was 5000 there. The 6 portaloos soon expired from over use! We held on. The viewing was excellent, but we were going after the wrc cars, but 500 people had the same idea & all tried to go at the same time.

Took 45 mins to drive the 2 kms from car park to main road, and we went to unofficial point at Wiangaree where the rally route passed under a bridge on the main road. Got there just before the field, walked over the bridge & stood on one side. Couple of cops were with us & said information had been received that rocks were going to be thrown from the bridge onto the competeing cars below, & no speccies were going to stay on the bridge. As we were wearing our official outfits, one said to stay & be spectator control. They then walked up the stage road to take photos. We had a great view.

Sunday got up at 2.30 am to drive from Byron Bay to Castrol Edge west stage to help. Arrived at 4 am at meet point to find name wasn't on list of road closures but set up guy was really happy to see us as 5 other groups hadn't arrived. Drove in convoy through stage, & as we were near the end had a 20 km stage preview.

The few cars left in the convoy stopped at a property gate where 2 people were going to be the officials. When set up guy saw 50 people on the place he added David & myself as additional officials, to look after more gates.

We talked to the owner & he had organised a camping, food, and viewing experience for his neighbours & friends, $25 a person with the proceeds going to Westpac rescue helicopter & running raffles for same cause. He said that his road hadn't seen a grader for 7 years before the rally was planned & now the road was like a main highway!

We commentated for the crowd about the cars & the event, all of these folk wanted the event back next year, not wanting to wait for 2 years, and have stages run at their place on Sat & Sun, not just 1 day. Not one person there had any thing good to day about greenies, could expect the same treatment as other feral pests.

And here is the wildlife experience for the event. We have seen nothing except for a snake for 3 days, when during the second pass of the stage, in the middle of the field, a kookaburra flies down & lands on the fence near us, watches 3 cars go past & flies away again. Amazing, seeing as a lot of idiots out there would have expected the bird to die immediately from "stress myopothy". Utta crap.

Factor · 07-09-2009, 07:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marc

Loeb was also very surprised to learn they were competing on a stage in a National Park Reserve... "How did they (the NSW Government) get away with that?"

Because its their national park and their assessment indicated little or no impact, and it was for all of two kms.

DaveTrees · 07-09-2009, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nigel

whereas in Oz we apply it to any native bush reserve funded by the Feds

Actually that's incorrect ... "National Parks"' are very much a State thing, and receive little or no federal funding.

"National" usually means "of national significance" ... or used to anyway ! These days there is a tendency to call just about any area reserved & managed primarily for conservation purposes a "national park", which IMHO devalues the term.

I strongly suspect that the roads that traversed the National Park areas were gazetted road reserves anyway, and therefore (in a legal sense) not part of the National Park ? (same way that the Great Ocean Road, Alpine Road, Omeo Highway etc in Vic run through National Parks, but are not part of them).

Rallyray · 07-09-2009, 07:55 PM

Finally home...

Time for a snooze and then to craft up some words of improvement for the rally organisers...

It will be a long email...

marc · 07-09-2009, 09:05 PM

Aside from the talk of the protests, it seems there is a fair bit of underlying (and some a little more blatant) word regarding organisation. Those who were there in what ever official capacity, make sure you do put your thoughts in writing to the organisers of the event. Without your feedback, they will all be off on a mutual backslapping and self congratulation frenzy.

Many (most?) of us have worked on rallies before, big and small (just because it's the "WRC", it's still a rally) and those of you there will have seen mistakes made or areas for improvement... TELL THEM!

And from someone who sat back and didn't even make the short drive down to even watch, good on all of you who put so much in to this event.

Glen · 07-09-2009, 11:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Cherry

So obviously the teams weren't properly briefed as to just exactly where they were going & what to expect.

That's wrong.

There was a compulsory crew/team manager on the Monday night before recce. Gary Connelly spoke for quite some time about the nature of the forests we were using, the wild life issues, environmental issues, and the possibility of protestors.

tortfeaser · 08-09-2009, 12:16 AM

I put up a few pics at Repco Rally Australia 2009 Didn't have much chance to take photos.

My team (Echo) ran 5 stages (shakedown, Mooball, CTEK West), all started on time, including the one with the XPT running through the control. Was a very Queensland event. Bodged together doesn't even begin to describe it.

Spac · 08-09-2009, 12:38 AM

I should have done this weeks ago, but based on Loeb's comments, I went digging for the info on World Heritage listed places.

Management of Australia's world heritage listed places

Particularly:

Quote:

allowing provision for use of the property which does not have a significant impact on the World Heritage values and their integrity

I do know the manager of a non-heritage listed NSW National Park was happy for competitive stages (of a little club rally) to be run through the park, right up until they discovered that the roads would be closed to traffic.
The risk of damage to the environment was certainly not a concern.

Ric Cary · 08-09-2009, 01:20 AM

We got out to Ctek West on Saturday. not a bad speccy point but it was always going to end in tears.There was little or no control of parking going in and certainly none at all going out, one skinny farm gate for access to the parking paddock and cars allowed to park both sides of the access rd limiting it to one lane. it was an absolute debarcle until the police walked up the access rd and started sorting it out.
I wonder if that had anything to do with Messrs Papodopoulous, Fountain, Markovich,Johnson and Ms Frazer et all wanting to leave

eventually I'm lead to believe they allowed spectators to leave via the stage.

There were lots and lots of disgruntled punters at Castrol Edge east speccy point who had paid " extra " to get to the Quinn's farm speecy point by bus and waited patiently for a long time after being called down and told the bus was on its way, only to be told that the bus wasn't coming after quiet some time " not happy Jan " is an understatement the poor speccy marshalls coped it big time this wasn't helped by an empty bus passing up the stage about 5mins later

play of the day goes to the irish spectator who may or may not have had more than the legal limit parked almost on the bridge at Bosch "unofficial" speccy point standing on the roof of his battered ute was asked several times in a good humored way to move on by the Police finally jumped in his truck and started giving them a gob full as he drove off at warp speed never seen so many cop bikes launch at once full lights and sirens, laughed till we cried !!!!

The majority of officials I spoke to were very much in the dark about lots of ops arrangements and as usual just did their best with the situation.they didn't appear to be to happy about it either
I'm not sure that Kingscliffe did so well out of the event business wise, accomodation maybe, but there was certainly no rally " vibe" as seen in Hamilton or other "host" wrc towns I think that may have been different in Murwillumbah with the superspecial on every night and Kyogle was certainly busy during the day which is to be expected as it was a long slow trip back to service so most people would have stayed out there during the day then headed back for the super special at night.

The service park was also a little light on for entertainment and "the buzz" that you normally see at a wrc event.Merchandise and catering left alot to be desired there and at the speccy points.

YouTube- Rally Oz 09 unofficial speccy friday am 1

YouTube- Rallyoz unofficial speccy friday am 2

Ian G. · 08-09-2009, 11:46 AM

Similar obsevations myself Ric,overall a lot better than i thought it would be thou.
Local ABC Radio are talking about the Rally this Morning,90% + FB so far with many wanting it on a annual basis.They interviewed Tweed Mayor,Joan van Lieshout,very guarded with what she said, stated at the start she wasn't a Motor Sport Fan but felt the Rally was a sucess but future Events must have more Community consultation,gave Katie Milne a backhander saying she was very "unprofessional" in her conduct.
They also interviewed Kyogle Mayor Ross Brown, in contrast to Joan he was very enthusastic and said the Rally had been fantastic for the region.Only downside was communications,no one knew what was going on, and Traffic problems but he added it will be much better in 2 Years time as they know what to expect. He also added that its not over yet,still a lot of visitors in the region
Local Kyogle Baker was happy,takings up over 1000% each day.

Matt Dyne · 08-09-2009, 11:55 AM

Couple of thoughts from me.

This was my first ever WRC so had no idea what to expect.

I don't share Marc's view about the organisation. It's different to what we are used to in ACT/NSW for sure, but as their first go, I thought they did pretty well. There was no shortage of experienced mid level volunteers, reasonable leadership from HQ for specific issues as they arose, and most stages started and ran on time. It's hard to think that you expect more.
Vibe...was definitely absent. I'm not sure why that is. I wonder if it's partly to do with my particular attitude to rallying at the moment (disinterest waning to apathy) or whether it's related to the event. Certainly, a lot of the locals were very excited. I also wonder...for the top guys, this is their job...I know I find it hard to be excited at work...so whether that flows over into it or not. The service park just felt like a normal ARC.
Speed on Tweed. I would have liked to chat to more of these guys. They geniuinely looked like they were having a blast.
Classic Outback Trial. We ran them through our stage. They absolutely looked like they enjoyed themselves so good for them. I was surprised that more people weren't competing in it.
Kyogle Road is definitely a detractor. It's a single point of failure and a horrible experience. Marc had to drive it probably 10 times in a fully loaded VW van, so feel for him more so.
Sheer number of cars going through controls. It became almost a joke about attempting to enforce standard procedures around access to controls. Sunday was the worst (understandably) when we had probably a dozen Riot Police Nissan Patrols go through amongst a fleet of others. It was necessary I suppose, but when you hear of accidents with police and volunteers, that's an issue. I thought the police were well behaved (others probably dont' share that view) and helpful, but going against the course direction is a recipe for disaster.
Ammonia gas is nasty stuff.
Sweep 1 - I had a massive issue with this guy and anybody who knows me know I don't complain. I've been volunteering for rallies for nearly 20 years, and I've NEVER met more arrogant and rude people than them. Two old miserable guys who claimed to have experience, but spent each of their 4 times in my control, arguing, swearing at my officials, and then showering us with rocks as they departed. The issue centred around a procedure in our stage teams manual that said sweep couldn't start until the last car had passed the midpoint SOS. Who wants to be the last car on the road and have a wanker up your clacker as you try and finish the stage. But evidently, we were the only control in the rally that ever attempted to enforce it. We even got confirmation from base that we should follow the procedure as outlined in the manual. They sat and swore and abused my volunteer officials like you would not imagine. In the end, I showed them the page of the manual and they said the manual wasn't right...and then confirmed they'd written the manual (making them dumber than dumb). Unbelieveable. I didn't do an incident report as I understand the driver is the brother of the Clerk of Course so it would never go anywhere, but it really left a sour taste in my mouth...even to this day. Volunteers don't need to be abused for following a procedure that is in the manual and confirmed with base as the correct procedure. I'll step down now...no wait, apparently he also overtook a competing vehicle in a subsequent stage...waste of space...they are clearly not the right people for the job. Stepping down now.

Annatastic · 08-09-2009, 01:12 PM

It was SO great to see some familiar faces on the Saturday

Lovely to come into control and get a hug from Linda, see Marc and Matt and I think Sosi was on the stop control.

Those WRC stages we did on the Saturday were FAST!