RdF Results 2003.

[Jimbo]

Ok, which one of the Fiesty Females took out RdF for 2003?? Who tried jumping fences, who improved the most, who was last on the road, after ballot, common, fill those that couldn't make in in!!

[beanpole]

That Lizzy is a Legend.

The results show how difficult forward minute can be on short stages such as hyles.

Looked like there were lots of smiles all round.



Kev

[jem]

Hooray for Liz!!!!

Congrats to the NSSCC too. They fielded the bare minimum for the club challenge and still took it out.

[jem]

Oh... I have 700MB worth of video as well. Two lots of 20s videos for most cars. I think the only ones that misse dout were the gavins (only one for you guys) and sophia/Phil.

If you want a copy, email me and I'll send one out.

jem@spyder.net.au

[Damo]

I've also got photo's of everyone that came past on East-West (stages 1 & 4).

I'll try to upload them tomorrow, pm me if you'd like one earlier.

[Eco-velocity therapy]

Lots of pics in my members gallery

Had new camera = over 100 pics. Just a sample in the gallery

Email me at peternorton@ozemail.com.au and I will try to send you the hi res version (some over 2mb) and/or other pics of you in action

Problem is... so many pics, large files, and my connection speed is tooooo slooow. So we may have to work something out.

Cheers
Peter

(ps. how do you insert a sample pic into a post like this?)

[Damo]

Ahh, thats how its done....hope this works

[Phil & Sophia]

Excellent.
Straight through scrutineering no problems,

Stage one start, Excellent!
Marty- "uh, sorry to tell you this guys, but youve got a very low rear tyre"
Phil - "you're joking"
Marty - "no I'm not joking"
Phil - "####################################"

5,4,3,2,1,go!
out of control and change a bloody tyre.
Car falls of stupid jack
Phil-"##################"
Car falls of stupid jack again
Phil- "##############################"
Get going again
Phil- "GO GO GO GO GO!!"

5 kays in
Phil - "Whats wrong with the car"
Sophia- "Feels like another flat"
Phil - "##################################"

7 kays in tulip 22
BANG!
Car stops after leaving entire bellhousing and pressure plate on the ground behind
Sophia - "Well there goes another rally"
Phil - "Un#######believeable, What is with the first 5 -10 kilometres in ACT rallies with this car!"

Start tiptoeing through the tulips laughing hysteically in the pretty flower studded paddock of Eastwest.

Sorry Marty, and to anyone else who witnessed me loosing my block, Twice. I wasn't aiming my dissapointment at you specifically, more at the car.

[jamar]

Oh geez ... my own event report .. this is pretty spesh !

Firstly ... a huge thank you to our service crew .. us ... I think we did an amazing job ... seriously though .. to those around us, although not 'official service crew' thank you for your help as well ... we appreciated it !

Secondly ... my first 'real' drive in the car, apart from around the block was driving the car out to Uriarra on Saturday morning ...

SS1 ... didn't like it .... well ... didn't like the bits with the drops ... that was the bit where I went slow slow slow (like small burrowing creature slow !!!)... was asking Jason why there wasn't a gear lower than 1st for this part .. otherwise all good... grinning by the end .....

SS2 - HYLES - Oh my ... !!!!!! Short but sweeeeeeet. Loved this .. still so thrilled little more can be said ...

SS3 - as fun as SS2 ... just longer ... and a few drops .. but great ... first time round went soooo much quicker than the second .. oh and a speccy point ... hheh :-P that was cool !

SS4, 5 and 6 as above, although I enjoyed them a lot more them second time round ... not because of knowing the road, more so of knowing the car .. (although the ZZZZ .... ZZZZ from the car on hyles second time through the puddles ... oh gee !!!!! (was that air ? or wheel spin ?) .. similar sound as was made when the left rear tyre decided to land on front drivers side bonnet ... a little 'hot flush' moment)

Lastly, but certainly not least .. to my wonderful husband for getting the car ready for me .. putting up with numerous 'I'm gonna be slower than a small burrowing creature' and 'If I feel like a picnic in the middle of the stage I'm stopping for one ! comments prior to getting going .. oh .. as well as my 'I'm not doing this .. I'm just not doing this ... temper'. You are so very very patient !

To everyone who organised the event .. and gave me inspiration ... thank you ! ... but let me just iterate .. from my point of view .. once a year is certainly enough..

And to Phil & Sophia ... thanks for your encouragement, even after your 'misfortune' great to see you both still grinning from ear to ear at the end of the day with everyone else ! & of course .. as always .. thanks for your help.

Anna .. you did great ! ( good to see you didn't let Boges tell ya how to drive (you finished !!!))

[Matt Dyne]

From the desk of the Clerk of Course:

I heard somewhere that if you've got a headache the day after a big event, it was a good event...I've got one two days after...still. That must mean it was a cracker !!

And it was !

I had a ball organising this event. I can't thank enough people properly on this forum but each of you know who you are and what you did. The short, short list is ...Marc, Jenny, John M, Fiona, Marty, Adrian, John L, Matt S, Pat M, Greg L, Russel W, Rob M...thanks, without you all it wouldn't have happened !

I have to say the lead-up to the event was mixed. A lot of work had gone into the preparation and with the weather being ever-present, I was a bit nervous.

But it was all for nothing...the early photos I have seen suggest that there was even dust everywhere...which is good.

22 cars started which is close to the number of competitors that the event used to attract in the late 70's and early 80's which was really good to see. 19 cars finished which was also relieving as there were no major incidents.

I hope all the competitors had fun and that they'll be back next year because I can only surmise that the event will go from strength to strength. I particularly hope that the experience of some of the first-timers will be enough to attract even more newcomers next year...I know Mrs Dyne will be out next year (assuming I can fix the car between now and then!!).

I think this will be the last you'll see from the Matt and Marc team for a little while. We each have our own personal priorities that need attending to, which doesn't leave any time for organising any events. I hope we've shown the club at large that it is possible to pull these events out of the bag with relatively little experience and that it encourages more newcomers to have a go. I also hope we've shown some of the institution that some things can be done with relative ease...pacenoting and tarmac stages come to mind. Of course we will always be available for consultation.

Regards,
Matt

[fro]

Thanks to Matt, Marc and everyone that helped make this event happen.

The chances of my wife getting on here to thank everyone is pretty slim, but I certainly appreciate being able to get her in the car and sample the thrills of rallying.

I know that she enjoyed it very much, and is planning her assault for next year. I've just got to fix the car now... all the stuff that I did to it throughout the year. What she did on Saturday doesn't really count.

[Matt Dyne]

Oh and Damo...what were you doing there to get that photo of Lizzy ???????

[Spac]

What a top event! And I thought the Alpine 'vide' was going to take ages to beat.

I was on the Speccie point, along Bullocks Paddock. My observations:

1. Jen. The look on her face was equal parts grim determination and big silly grin. Its funny seeing your own car in action...

2. Lizzy. I think I've used the word 'insane' enough times. She and Jen were a clear cut about all of the others - even Kelly. Kelly did everything right - clean, tidy, correct braking point, good line and everything, it was just thay Jen and Lizzy were a cut above.

3. Marla. Approaching the speccie point, Marla slowed for the left-hander bit, then realised she's slowed a bit too much, and STOOD on the accel pedal - I swear I could hear the pedal smack the floor from outside the car! A 'small burrowing creature' with a very, very heavy right foot, ay Marla?

4. Cheryl and Sue, and Anna and Tony. Hard to tell what was happening, because all I could see was big silly grins!

5. The 180B SSS the second time through. Lyle got a bit too sideways on the exit. We could see the car travelling too sideways, too fast, but then she disappeared behind her own dust. Everyone was silent for a long second, waiting for the probable bank thumping and possible roll. Even the cows were holding their breaths. But then the dust cleared and the old Datto was already on its way, foot to the floor.
I would have cheered if I thought the crew had a chance of hearing me.

6. Namomi. Pretty quick, smooth and no pointless sideways action. Nice. I made a crack about how Fro must have been in her ear, and she'd ignored him and done the opposite to whatever he recommended. I later found out that she'd slapped the other side rear quarter to the one he's hit a couple of times, so I guess I was right?

7. Em, the second time through - I dunno if she was in second or third gear, but it didn't matter much, because her road speed suggested she should have been looking for fifth gear.... But a 12A at 15,000rpm does sound sweet!

8. Rebecca in Kari's 1600. Damn that car goes hard, particularly seeing as she was totally unafraid of the Go Pedal. Impressive. The Lead Foot Award would be hard to split between her, Marla and Lizzy Lunatic.

9. Really cool to watch how much people had improved the second time though. I reckon everyone saved heaps of time compared to their first run.

10. Jane Hippensteel's approach the second time! The cars were appearing over the not quite straight crest at a good rate of knots - but the bluddy Gemi looked the best! I dunno what had happened on the far side of the crest, but with good road speed and being a bit sideways, she made Neal's approach look ordinary.

11. Commiserations to the DNFers. Esp Sophia and Phil.

[Tweety]

Now for a really long report about 3 and a half stages .

Firstly, thanks to Matt and Marc for putting on another great event, and thanks to all the officials for coming out and giving your time so the ladies could have a fun day out . Congrats to Lizzy and everyone else who finished. Sophia, I feel your pain, my DNF was stupid, but yours was absurd .

To set the tone for my day I'll quote Mark Sessions from Wednesday (?) last week: "You know you're compromising your reliability by running the RX-7 instead of the RX-2. Are you sure that's what you want to do? This is your best chance to win an event..." Fortunately for me, Mark, being the generous guy that he is, came around on Friday night to do a bolt check with Spac. Mark did underneath and Spac did the engine bay (that's the story I heard anyway and I'll believe it since an extra oil filler cap was found in the engine bay during scrutineering ).

Ray Baker kindly agreed to nav for me and since it was his first time in a rally car for about 9 months I think we were equally nervous. Starting car 1 sucks. Everyone was telling me that I should win, which immediately took all the fun out of it (and as some may remember my rant from a few months ago I'm not interested in competing against anyone, I just want to go out there and drive). Other bad points about starting first were that nobody had swept the road for me so it was a bit slippery, and it was quite distracting when the only two distinguishable lines taken by other cars were from Russel Winks and Neal Bates, both of whom apparently were driving VERY differently to me. Then of course there's Fro little pet hate, that when you start up the order there aren't any triangles to tell you where the dodgy corners are until you put yours there. Anywho, enough whinging, on with my day.

First stage was East West and I spent a fair bit of time just getting used to the car. It gripped really well, surprisingly well for something with twice as much rwhp as I am used to. Ray was also getting used to naving again, so I drove fairly conservatively and was disappointed to be just on the wrong side of a minute when we reached the finish control.

Stage 2. Things seem to be going really well until about half way through Hyles when the gearstick was suddenly 5cm further away from me than previously. Uh oh, what's happening here? Is the gearshift about to come out, the gearbox about to fall off completely? I backed off a bit and kept driving. Then the dash started falling apart and Mark's words came back to haunt me. Many words starting with an 'f' were said many times, in association with the words 'Mazda' and 'Spac'. We got to the end of the stage okay, really puzzled about what was happening with the gearshift since it was outside my experience, but I was still enjoying the rally otherwise. The -7 is a seriously good fun car to drive.

Into service and Plasto pulled out the gearshift and couldn't find anything wrong, while I race-taped the dash back in. Conclusion: gearbox probably wasn't going to fall out, but we didn't think the problem had been fixed.

Stage 3. Down Bullock Paddock straight. It was really nice to drive a stable car down this road for a change . I felt really conservative, like I was doing about 140-150km/h (didn't want to turn Spac's car into a little steel ball), but later Ray said I was doing 170. Definitely didn't feel like it. Then about halfway through the stage after I grabbed 1st at a tight corner the gearshift started moving around again . It was really distracting and I slowed down because the car had started to vibrate heaps more and I thought I really had broken something this time. Lost all my rhythm anyway and would have really gotten the ****s if the car hadn't been so nice to drive . Grip combined with predictability really is what's required in a rally car.

Into the long service this time and Plasto had more time to find out what the problem was with the gearshift while I found a screw (thanks Phil) to put the headlight back in where it's supposed to be (probably the source of the extra vibration). Plasto finally decided the problem was with a little cross-threaded bolt that holds the actual gearstick onto the part that comes out of the remote shifter on the gearbox. And the solution was: sorry, nothing I can do, you really need to drill a hole right through both parts so you can bolt it properly. Great, no drill and not enough time left in service anyway. D'oh!

Stage 4. Repeat of East West. Since I'd seen the course already and was still feeling fairly grumpy about the whole gearshift thing, I decided to have a bit more of a go. The car was great, it really stuck to the road and without fail did what I expected/hoped it would do, even when I thought I'd come in way too hot and was going to end up in a bank or over the edge . I managed to get the water temp up to 98 degrees, thanks to spending a lot of time at 7k revs in 2nd. I also really began to notice the huge gap between 2nd and 3rd in this stage - Spac you HAVE to get a CR box! Then about halfway (?) through this stage (in the nice flowing twisty bit just after the brain) I had a little half spin. Fine, no damage done, should've wasted about 10 seconds. Here comes the stupid part . Grabbed reverse, couldn't see anything because of my own dust, then bang, I hit the bank with the rear of the car. It felt like a small jolt. Now for the part I still have trouble believing. I managed to completely block the exhaust with dirt (it cleared after I revved it for about 10 seconds), but when I went to drive off I realised I'd managed to pull the exhaust off it's mounts and it was dragging along the ground. At this point I wished I had chosen to drive the RX-2 because there's no frigging way that could've happened with a real bumper (ie NOT a stupid weak useless piece of plastic that just flexed instead of doing its job). Feeling really grumpy I just kept driving, dragging most of the exhaust along the ground and wondering what damage I was doing (I slowed down a bit, but not a whole lot because I still had the ****s). Then I noticed that the car seemed to be having trouble making boost under load and it didn't want to go up hills. Uh oh... Managed to get over the SO over crest that is followed by the TR uphill where Karl was doing a round closure. Got on the brakes early for Karl's corner and gave it a rev with the clutch in, let it out, and... nothing. No boost, no drive, crawl past Karl. See blue smoke start to come from under the bonnet. D'oh! I think I've killed the turbo, car won't drive. Stop, get out. Ray eventually manages to pull out the impossibly tight pin that held the triangles in their place. Check under the car and the exhaust is now 1 inch thick (from 3) about a foot before the muffler, which is now bashed and bent and probably broken. Fuel tank has many large dents in it due to me driving 8kms or so with the exhaust flapping around. I decided to give up before doing more damage (eg definitely kill turbo rather than just suspect that I have) that I will later have to pay to get fixed. D'oh! Had a crap end to a day (and a car) that had so much potential. My fault mostly, but still a f***ing stupid way to DNF.

I'm still grumpy about it (what a surprise since my nickname is Grumbles), but I've learnt a few things which will be really useful when it comes to fixing Spac's car and building my own, so thanks again to Matt and Marc for such a great learning opportunity. Other thanks go to Spac, for letting me drive your car, Mark for doing the bolt check Friday night, Ray for naving, Plasto for being ever reliable, Mum and Dad for the support, Paulie for helping get the car prepared before NatCap, Lizzy for rubbing it in that you were beating me (I really appreciated that ), and all the other drivers for getting out there and having a go, I hope you enjoyed the day more than I did.

[Damo]

Karl, I'm having a bit of a shocker.....how do I add my photo's to the existing RDF folder? (or should I create a new one?)

Ta
Damo