Lithgow

[Mike Cherry]

Just been advised that the afforemantioned "serious incident" thread has been removed.
Must be very sensitive subject.
Does this mean they have been charged with something?

[Crazy Dave]

Firstly I would like to thank rallyschool.com.au for jumping in and supporting the excel series and always taking an active interest in helping and supporting all levels of rallying in Australia. A great company to recommend everyone you know to go and have a go at rally with and then hopefully get them hooked back into our sport.

The event

After 6 months break it was good to get back in the car although it didn't seem that way for awhile as I struggled to get a rhythm going. I figure Mat must have been running a bit tentative like me as we were swapping times and having a close battle except for when I got a flat and lost about 7 minutes and Mat hosed me here last year.

The roads were looking pretty rough and mean when we pacenoted but they were better with speed and then managed to improve after every pass. I think the 4wds where cleaning them up for us. The last couple of runs in the night were mostly brilliant.

Rally of Lithgow was a weel organised event and it is incredible how well they put it togther, especially the marketing and promotion. Top effort to Ric and the team and something that I would love to learn from myself.

Screwed up the spectator point on stage 4 so promised to make amends the next time promising not to turn in to early. Was beggining to get some mojo back and pushing harder so on 2nd run decided to attack the corner and kept pushing over the crest telling myself don't back of yet, not yet, not yet, oh dam too late..... throw it in, clip the outside bank, bounce up in the air, fighting to straighten car to avoid roll but it seemed impossible to avoid, of in the scrub now, and nearly roll again, and then somehow got it back to the road, still don't know how but would love to know if anyone at the spectator point witnessed it to try and tell me how we avoided rolling so I can remember for next time.

Had a great time and started to get used to pace notes a bit more towards the end. The 2nd hand motor that had been sitting on my garage floor for at least 3 years, and who nows where and how long before that, survived, which was a bonus. Kate was awesome at calling the shots and getting me back up to speed.

Only managed to finally catch Kornel and Lila on the last stage to grab the excel win which was a suprise as we didn't think we had gotten back that close.

[Shabby]

Not a great rally for us. First event with Tommi in the Navs seat, did our notes on Friday and this was my first crack at using the 1-10 system after previously using 1-6. We were pretty happy with the notes and looked forward to the rally proper.

Started off fairly cautiously struggling to get my head around 1-10 and the time showed it. Second stage ****house driving but getting there. Third stage a couple of hundred metres in and after a heavy landing aver a hump busted driveshaft and the rally was over.

Got a lift back to service with BW (thanks mate) and grabbed the trailer and went and retrieved the car.

Big thanks to fast eddie at Penrith City Exhausts for fitting a new exhaust in the week leading up to the event, great job and highly recommended for a top quality job at a great price and unlike the previous exhaust not a mark on it.

Thanks to Shane, Steve and Paul for servicing, sorry we didn't have a better run. Thanks to Mick from Rallyschool for his help and support for the rally.

I need to have a think over the next couple of days, but I think the time has come to get into something newer so there might be 2 VR4's for sale reasonably cheap in the next few days that can be supplied in various ways to suit your budget.

Lastly thanks to Rick and the entire crew and all of the officials for putting on the Rally Of Lithgow, It is proffesionly run and a pleasure to compete in and I hope to be there again next year.

[Adriana]

Just a quick post to let everyone know that the live results were wrong - Adam Casmiri's & Arron Topliff's time for stage 4 was showing 40 minutes instead of 4 minutes but they have now been fixed - we have been getting a lot of calls trying to find out what happened to Adam on stage 4 - but it was just a typing error.

Congrats to Adam and Arron on a great drive - 8th outright is a fantastic result for a little 1.6 2WD car in a state round - but I always said that Adam could get into any car and drive it to the limit....obviously I did not get that gene!!!!

Arron did a fantastic job in my seat - but I will be back for the next event - so to all the people that asked on the weekend - NO I HAVE NOT RETIRED!!!!

See you all at the next event

A

[Rus]

Originally Posted by Mike Cherry

Just been advised that the afforemantioned "serious incident" thread has been removed.
Must be very sensitive subject.
Does this mean they have been charged with something?

You beat me to it Mike!

Disappearing threads

It'll come out in the wash eventually. Although, it sounds as though it's something best left with the parties involved...

Hmmm, anywho while I'm here, may as well throw out an event report of my own. First time in the silly seat with Butch (Dennis Stanford), and 2nd time on notes for both of us, we decided it was a good idea to run with an amended version of the safety notes. Whoever wrote them I owe a kudos to, because they were very well written, only needed a few tweaks to suit or liking and were an absolute pleasure to deliver (I luuurve pacenotes).

Recce'd on Friday and found the roads to be in pretty good shape on the whole, (even those that had the 60-car AMSAG field over 3 them times only a week prior), and we both figured that 'at-speed' most would be even better then they appeared @ recce speeds, and luckily, we were right.

Enjoyed the event from start to finish, with the exception of the shortened stage; which neither driver nor nav enjoyed when Matty J and I punted the Escort through it the week before.
Butch and I both found it hard to get into the "groove" on both passes, so I give it a 2 out of 10. Everything else rates at least 8, with some parts of the roads earning 11s for the massive grin I had on my face as we attacked them rather sideways!
Otherwise, I can only complain about the occasional patch of dust on stages 3-8, especially in the fast section of Ridge Road, which I was told by another competitor, has probably been hanging in suspended animation there since Lithgow last year.
I think the entire field were happy that we ran out to 3mins for the last few stages, and for us at least, it really seemed to help!

Trouble free day for the Stanza, and the only moment we had was on stage 7 when in the thick of the worst dust we encountered all event we 'lost' a turn 5R uphill, only to see a torchlight directing us 60m in front of us into the corner (or so we thought!). Turns out it was a road closure who thought he was helping, but soon realised as we pulled up 10feet from his car in front of the magic safety bunting tape, that it was not! No harm done to car, person or bunting, we did a 3-point shuffle, cursed and carried on.

After a mysterious "bang" on a narrow TR on stage 11, we managed to bend a rim pretty badly, but it held air (not sure how) and we only spotted it when we loaded the Stanza on the trailer back @ our motel.

Originally Posted by afifield

The reshuffle at Stage 9 start had Butch a bit concerned, and they arranged for us to slot in ahead of them going into Gum Valley (thanks to you guys as well).

We were a little concerned when we found Andrew behind us in the RX2 at the control for SS9 (I think) so we let him go in front of us for the last 2 stages, just in case he was on a flier and drove over the top of us mid-stage!! Looking at the stage times though, there was little cause for concern. Better to be safe than sorry though, and I'm sure he would've hosed us if he hadn't had mechanical woes.

Butch did a bang up job all day, and gives a great impression of somebody who knows what he's doing in stage, which resulted in is coming home 17th O/R, and 2nd P3. As much if not more than Butch and I both expected with our first outing together.

First Lithgow rally for me, and I too, found the event to be laid back and extremely well organised, so a huge thanks goes out to Ric and the team, all those poor sods who braved the cold to official and of course everyone who put a number on their car! Definitely looking forward to Shannon's Safari in a few weeks time (take note Tamsey; I'm actually looking forward to a Canberra rally!)

One last thing. Lithgow saw the Stanza rack up it's 50th event, which I'm sure baffles some people (as it does me), because it always looks fresh as a daisy. So happy 50th flogging little car! You've served the big fella pretty well!

See you all in Canberra!

Oh, and if anyone has any pics (or previews even) of car 31, I'd really appreciate it you could forward me a something on rusty_aka_indeep@hotmail.com

[Fletch]

Dave,
On stage 8 spectator point when you went off, I think that was the biggest near miss that ive ever seen. You were off the road bouncing over rocks and gutters for about 6-8 seconds and you managed to hold on. Good save I say! You were the latest to brake on that crest then anyone else in the event, which im sure you already know. Good slide to try and hold on to it all. Although if I were you, id go and buy a lotto ticket, cause the gutter just after the corner is about 3 feet deep in one point and i think you must've skipped over it. You're very lucky that you weren't sitting in the cold with me by the end.
Good job mate!

Fantastic speccy point though. ***tloads of action. There was only about 6 or so cars that got it right. John Mitchell, Jamie Neale, Adam Casmiri, and The Cullens are the only ones that I can remember but there were a few others.

And that mirage at the back of the field sounded AWESOME!!!

[old man]

Hey Rus,

Great result for an "old motor car"! A little more effort going into the tight lefthander in Gum Valley (SS6 speccie point alongside the main road) would have been better the first time around though!!

Bye the way, did anyone see ALL the kangaroos hoping across the road (just on dusk) as you came to the crest then right and into the long downhill before the left hander (speccie point) - there must have been a hundred of them hoping across the road. Can't remember who it was but someone running with lights off just missed two of them!

Bad luck Giddo, next time maybe? Congrats to Jamie for getting the VR4 home in 5th. And that Porsche, WOW! Looks great, sounds & goes superb.

[Ric Cary]

So Lithgow has been run and won,I would like to thank all the officials who came out and helped as always it can't be done without you,I need to make special mention of Phil Morley who apart from everything else provides you with the fastest results in the world or any other big place ,Rob Edwards ( the voice of God ), Brett Wright who spends hours and hours setting up the course then more hours pulling it all down and packing it up and Rob Inall who provides the voice of reason and does a great job of herding cats whilst applying gentle pressure for an endless supply of pink drink and cookies.
huge thanks also to our Sponsors CarnetAuctions,Rallyschool.com.au who supplied manned and fueled our course cars, Mitsubishi Motors Australia who provided all the setup vehicles as well as our 2 FIV challengers which are manned by Motorsport Safety and Rescue,Prime TV for the coverage they give the event each year,Lithgow Council for their support and assistance and NSW Tourism who bought everybody a stylish new wardrobe.
and lastly a huge thank you to Sue South ,Bek Flett and our CRO/data entry clerk Cath Donohue who put in above and beyond the call of duty.
Congratulations to all the winners and finishers commiserations to those who didn't make it and apologies for the lateness of the final presentation unfortunately we had some more pressing matters that needed attending to first.

[Ric Cary]

These are the Provisional results, final results will be posted when they become available

[afifield]

Originally Posted by Rus

We were a little concerned when we found Andrew behind us in the RX2 at the control for SS9 (I think) so we let him go in front of us for the last 2 stages, just in case he was on a flier and drove over the top of us mid-stage!! Looking at the stage times though, there was little cause for concern. Better to be safe than sorry though, and I'm sure he would've hosed us if he hadn't had mechanical woes.

At the time I couldn't figure why you guys were worried about us in Gum Valley. We only got you by about 20 seconds in Summit, so we weren't likely to run you over. Having all gears available may have been a different story in Ridge Rd though, but still not that likely to catch you.

I had to laugh when Jo told me you guys thought you made the right decision when you saw us take off in Gum Valley.

Agree that 3 minute dust gaps were the way to go. Ridge Rd 2 was a bit ordinary at 2 minutes, but the rest weren't too bad. Maybe it was just Russ having a bigger go through there.

[Corty]

Only managed to finally catch Kornel and Lila on the last stage to grab the excel win which was a suprise as we didn't think we had gotten back that close.

Did we miss something, i know the cullen exploded a gearbox and i mean exploded. But that was gum valley 2 and after the excel/clubman event was done and dusted.

[Ric Cary]

Originally Posted by Corty

Did we miss something, i know the cullen exploded a gearbox and i mean exploded. But that was gum valley 2 and after the excel/clubman event was done and dusted.

yep you missed something, distances were all the same

[Corty]

I SEE said the blind man...

I should look at the 2nd page

[Renee]

Report from LHS of Car 12

Lithgow, for us, meant more bum-in-seat time, fine-tuning new brakes, and another rally on pacenotes (oh how we love pacenotes )

The first long straight and tight corner there were NO BRAKES!! This made it very hard to commit to much as sometimes they were OK and other times nothing, due to knock-off. But we soldiered on, still having a blast.

We were very glad to hear that we were going to be pushed out to 3 minutes apart. At one stage during the 1st Ridge Rd, we not only had dust issues but the windscreen was fogging up at the bottom, which is the bit I look through, so I barely saw a thing.

I still feel a bit strange standing at controls and seemingly talking to myself, but having a conversation with Ian 200 metres away on our bluetooth intercom. It worked really well, except on the Summit stage (first run) I bumped it as I put my harness on and we had no connection to each other, so I spent that stage screaming the calls, which apparently got softer as the stage went on. I (well my voice anyway) was actually glad it was shortened.

Apart from the brakes we didn't have any major issues. Services involved brake bleeding, fuel, water (car and us) and window cleaning. I was grateful for the hold-ups at the beginning of some stages so I could do a wee, since 10 minute services didn't allow me time.

We have lots of thankyou's to the following people
Fro: bestest service biatch ever
Ric and Cath: For looking after our girls so we could get started on Recce after the Media Day
Rallykidz: Adam and Janelle as usual kept the kids entertained while WE had some fun.
Gary Dunlop: Who helped us out on a number of occasions over the weekend plus whose Dunlop tyres are the AWESOME!!!
Russel Dixon and Buerkner: Who appeared out of nowhere at several services just to help out (gotta love the rally lurve )
Ant Caldwell (Jeff Eastman's nav): For helping locate my pacenotes in the dark (I left them on the roof of the car in control and realised they were missing once I was strapped in ready to start a stage )
All the people seeded around us: You guys make the whole day even more fun!!!
Volunteers and officials: I was told by one young female controllie, "You guys are all sooooo nice, much better than the track guys!!!" Without you guys we have no fun at all and we appreciate it
Phil Morley: For showing my children how to fold a t-shirt in 2 easy steps.
Last but not least: Ric and the boys and girls for running a well promoted, low BS event, in the most scenic area ever. It took all my might NOT to look at the view whilst at the very top of Hassan's Wall.

AAA+++ Will compete again!!!

P.S. Any photos of us???? Please email them to discovery @ aapt . net . au (in the usual format)

[MattHarriott]

So the ACT pointscore has been updated to reflect those who competed. Those who officialled, you have 14 days to get your forms in. (I will update the official points when back from Tassie)

As for the pointscore, it seems some crews took full advantage of the lack of ACT entrants and were able to score much higher points then they would normally recieve. Take Rick Gray for example. At AIS Clubman points were 8, at RoL Rick was able to secure 17. A big boost to his season as he current leads the Clubman Drivers. Congrats to Team Boorman, max points again in the Novice Series. This round also saw the new ruling on Co-driving points put to use, Kate Murphy was able to score points to enable her to stay near the top of the codrivers Gold Cup chase.

Take a look, ensure they are correct, and as normal, let me know if I have made a mistake.