Rally of Melbourne 2003
Greg and John Paul Car 45 Toyota Corolla Seca RV N3 class
Absolutely beautiful countryside – great roads all within very tall timber eucalypt forest.
Greg and I have been so lucky this year to have the opportunity to do two rounds of the ARC. Certainly we have to thank our major “real money” sponsor Toyota Eastern Region to get us there. Without their support it would have been almost impossible. The added benefit the sponsorship gives is that you lift your game and adopt a professional well organised approach. At the ARC this is what it is all about.
This time around, the entry list at our level of competition was a little weak. Apart from competing against ourselves (which is pretty tough) in the N3 class, other 2wd rivals were:
N2 Honda Civic
P1 Proton
P2 Charade De Tomaso
P3 180B
P4 VC Commodore
And then of course the back marking Rex’s and Evo’s – at this level from previous experience we know we can give the less competitive 4wd turbos a run for their money and keep them honest.
Heat 1 - finished 27th out of 44 starters 32 finishers, 3rd out of 5 FWD, 5th out of 9 2WD
Heat 2 - DNF’d at the 12km mark out of 15kms on the 6th out of 10 stages (diff/gearbox)
We came away pretty satisfied with the event. This satisfaction came out of knowing we were running the N3 package as hard as we could, regardless of what others around us were doing. Competing with pacenotes certainly gives the whole package a lift – it is simply amazing just how much extra performance you can wring out of the little car.
For the past week since the event constant memories keep flooding back about different sections of the road and what it meant just being at the competition. On reflection this level of competition is where it is at – all going well there is nothing more you can do to get from A to B on that piece or road in the shortest possible time. It brings driver and co-driver team together, each doing their job to the best of their ability. Certainly from a navigator point of view the contribution is critical which I really like.
Heat 1 – we beat Car 47 EvoIV 5/8 stages, Car 44 WRX Qirx 6/8 stages, Charade 8/8, 180B 8/8 and the Honda 4/8 but got hosed by the Commodore.
Heat 2 - we beat Car 44 WRX Qirx 4/5 stages (Dennis was having car problems !! fuel and/or gearbox), Charade 3/5, 180B 3/5, the Honda 4/5 and Car 47 EvoIV 2/5. Taking account of the finishing positions of the cars around us and comparing our 5 times against theirs we could have expected to finish around the 22 or 23 mark (
http://www.rally.com.au/arc2003/rall...urne/index.cfm)
During the Heat 2 we were much more relaxed and into a rhythm. In the reruns of repeated stages we were making significant improvements much to do with the improved teamwork as much as the drying and improving road quality. Noticeably we were pushing the car harder along the 100 150 and 200 straights trying to squeeze out 10 20 more metres before braking.
Moments – no Terraphone on Stage 13 thankfully fixed at service straight afterwards. 180 spin at the Ben Cairn speccie point bit of a beep beep and a cheer and off we went again – the bummer about this was the loss of momentum up the hill so we lost a lot of time as a result. Big oversteer on a tight 3L in the slippy stuff with steep drop thankfully we were at relatively low speed. Recce in the fog made one of the sections of our notes dodgy thankfully no surprises once we came to running it competitively.
Roads – very good no complaints. Three of the six roads used were what we called “grunt uphill stages” where the Corolla was not as competitive but there was still heaps of fun to be had in there. Surprisingly there were very few big crests, the sort that we are used to in Canberra (doing pacenotes you take more notice of these).
Favourite road was Acheron – pretty close to rallying nirvana – Greg fell in love with it – downhill, flowing, consistent moist but hard surface – followed by a fantastic transport which was almost just as enjoyable as the stage !. Other beauties were Kalatha and Mt Slide.
Canberra people – again great to have the locals there – special mention to Paul Bennett and Bernie Webb.
What people do !! – Mark Thompson had a huge rollover in SS4 ala Willett in Bega significantly bending the cage on the driver side. How he managed to drive the thing out of the stage and transport to the next Start Control beats me. All that effort and he was not allowed to start (rightfully so). When we saw him he was sitting in the Stage Commander car with neck brace on, ready to go to hospital for observation. Very somber moment seeing another competitor injured.
Service – thanks heaps to Greg’s dad Henry Lemmon, and Geoff Stewart who always makes us more confident about getting to the end by doing “what he does”.
John Paul
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