The final round of the AMSAG series for 2003 began at the railway crossing end of Hen and Chicken Lane 8) on a cold wet morning on Saturday 27th September. Despite a smaller field (39 cars ) than previous years, everyone was excited at the prospect of 205 competitive km over the 2 day event.
Notable entries were Car 1 - Brad Goldsborough/Vicki Courtenay in the red Datsun 1600, Car 2 - David King/Jamie Neale in the yellow 200B, and Car 3 – Grant McAlpine/Tiffany Shopland in the white/red 180B.
John Murray/Jeff Stevens in the V8 Commodore are always crowd pleasers, as are Tony and Scott Jordon in the Triumph Stag, Zyg Ryter in the orange RX7 and John and Steven Paine in the blue LA Lancer 2 door.
Absent were John Hills in the BDA Escort, Pat Cole in the Mercedes and the red 1600 of Rod Jones/Les Lawry.
After a few months away Peter Vlandis (Car 18) was there, also driving a red 1600 after many different Lancers in the past. The “240Y” beast of Jamie Waterhouse was there, this time driven by wife Rae with Jamie calling the corners.
The blue Sigma of Drew McPhee/Andrew Crowley (Car 22) made a return after missing the Cowra Rally due to mechanical dramas on the drive from Sydney to the event.
It was a change to run Hen And Chicken Lane uphill at the start after running the other direction with Scott in the Lancer at the State Round in May. However, the 2.6 ate up the hill with ease and we gave the few spectators who braved the sleet a bit of a laugh on some of the corners.
Halfway through the stage we came upon Car 19, the white/blue LB Lancer of Alex Mueller/David Robinson which had rolled heavily in 4th or 5th gear. The OK sign was out and we got a wave from them as we went past, but the car did not look well at all. I got a horrible feeling in my guts like when we saw the 2 WRX’s at Bega. When all is said and done, it was a thrill to run one of the “classic” rally stages, and despite the speed it definitely feels safer in a bigger car (no offence Scott).
During the transport to Yetholme the clouds started looking more ominous, and true to form for “Sunny” Corner, it snowed as we were lining up for stage 2. I made the mistake of leaving my window down while answering the call of nature, and got back to the car to find the seat and roadbook covered with snow. Drew drove well in the snow, with the biggest drama of the stage being when one of the fire extinguishers (plastic mounting bracket) came loose and went under the brake pedal. With a flick pass to the navigator we continued on and presented at the finish control with me nursing the extinguisher in one hand and the road book in the other, much to the merriment of officials.
I adjusted the timing at service and this gave us a bit more top end for the third stage. Lunch was roast beef rolls with gravy at the Sunny Corner Hall, with various home-made cakes and tea/coffee for dessert. Good rally food for a very cold day. Meadow Flat School had a stall selling Christmas/Birthday/Greeting cards made by the children - hard to resist.
Stage 4 (Back Creek Road - 41km) started well, and for the first 20km the Sigma was unstoppable. After this however, our rally started to go downhill. We ran over a large rock that dented the sump guard and bent the cross member. Shortly after that the accelerator cable broke and we stalled on a narrow sweeping corner with a drop on the outisde. I ran up the road with the triangles and OK sign and noticed in passing that we no longer had a back windscreen. Funny that, I thought the car was getting a bit dusty inside!
While Drew was installing the spare cable we got passed by 6 or 7 cars which meant we were well out of the running. When we got going again we laughed to find another back windscreen on the side of the road, an exhaust and someone’s undertray (those Triple Caution Humps demand respect!!!). We found Car 3 on its side further along in the stage but Grant and Tiffany were not injured and gave the OK to proceed. We caught the last car that passed us by the finish control, which felt nice, but Drew was a bit worried with the health of the brakes.
At the next service we got many laughs from other service crews about our new “air conditioning” but on a serious note a bleed nipple had parted company with one of the Wilwoods on the back end. We found a bolt with the same thread to block the hole and used the other nipples to bleed them as best we could, but the pedal was still dodgy, a sign of worse things to come.
Stage 5 felt pretty good, but in stage 6 the brakes let go completely (master cylinder) and we did the rest of the stage on the hydraulic handbrake (separate system with extra calipers luckily). Had some spins and a couple of “SO at TJ” moments, as well as close calls with kangaroos as we were last car on the road by a fair margin. There is nothing more frustrating than being the passenger in a car with heaps of grunt but no brakes. I thought we were going to hit stumps/trees in the long grass/shrubs a few times, and was very happy to see the timing marker. With a bent left stub axle from one of our offs and a cool breeze from the missing back window we limped back to Bathurst on the handbrake and borrowed a car trailer off one of the other crews.
Dinner at the Bathurst Goldfields was great, and very entertaining over a few beers listening to what the Neale brothers used to get up to a few years ago, as well as stories from other competitors and the dramas they had during the day. Provisional results had King/Neale 1st, Goldsborough/Courtenay 2nd, Inwood/Yeo 3rd and Peter Vlandis 4th outright. Peter Butler driving Raymond Day’s old car (orange LB Lancer) was 22nd, and despite losing 15 minutes and the bad brakes Drew and I were 25th. It would have been nice to run on Sunday but we didn’t have another master cylinder in our spare parts, and the stub axle had the left tyre rubbing on the spring platform pretty badly.
Drew went home with the car on Saturday night, while the service crew and I did road closures for stage 8 on Sunday. It was great to see the opposition in action – that yellow 200B rocks!!!!!!
John Paine’s local knowledge was evident in the way he took our corner in the blue lancer, but then again I am horribly biased towards 2 door Lancers
Dad and I came home before the presentation lunch so hopefully Jme can fill us in on the final results, but even doing 118 of the 205 km competitive I still had a great weekend. In true AMSAG fashion the rally had a bit of everything, from long straights in 5th gear and big sweepers in 3rd,4th and 5th, to twisty goat tracks in 2nd gear on the handbrake. Smooth, rough, rocky, sandy, muddy, snow, rain, sleet and sunshine - variable conditions that made it a challenge for driver and navigator alike. Some of the ruts and humps were diabolical, but there was plenty of warning in the road book, and it was only our intermittent brakes that made us hit the odd one accidentally. The rough stuff was not a great portion of the total kilometres, and added to the challenge of getting the car to the finish.
We’ve got a lot of work to do to the car now, but with a works drive in my Lancer for Drew to get his OLT’s and a bit of luck, we will hopefully be at NatCap in November. My apologies to Daniel, but the Sigma is too unwell to make it to the S&SS at this stage. Also, my sister is flying in from London on the 18th, a bit unpopular to be rallying that weekend.
Never fear, we’ll be back.
Bathurst RSL Club Rally 27/28 Sept - Ray's old Lancer still going strong!
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