Bega 2004

[Matt Dyne]

Early results (from an SMS from Lyndall Drake) suggest:

1st - Justin Dowel (good pedigree !!)
2nd - Kelvin Croker
3rd - Jon Mitchell
4th - Karl Willett (who's ya daddy!)
5th - Mitch Heffernan
6th - Dave King (go the 200B)
7th - Kari Dirickx (sorry about the spelling)
8th - John Stilling
9th - Beau Griggs (1st rally??)
10th - Garry Yeomans

As to the ACT results...not sure...obviously Karl takes Goldcup points.

Novice was set to be wrapped up by Rob Sharpe until he dropped a lash pad on number 4 cylinder.

Russel Winks broke some rear suspension parts and tried to rejoin, but made the fatal mistake of ASKING to rejoin rather than just doing it.

Spac couldn't hold his water again.

Fro and Tort finished the long event despite some electrical and exhaust issues. Fro was heard to remark that Snake Track on low beam was not fun.

I think Karl was leading the event by 2 seconds after the shire stages (although I think the Griggs fellow may have taken him).

Let the event reports, including the now obligatory stage-by-stage detail begin.

Matt

[BEN]

well this is a week ill try to forget real fast,
After my commodore being written off earlier in the week,
and then the rally car not starting in the cold sunday morning,
i thought what else could go wrong ??

SS1 we made it 200 m down the road and the coil s#@t it self

Rally over.

Week repressed in memory.

Ben.

[The Fazz]

Bad luck Ben. At least we made it to the end of the first stage.

We took the first stage pretty easy, but saw 170-180km/h a couple of times and nailed the speccy point (with all the crew in attandance).

SS2 was a bit tougher and I was having trouble finding a rhythm. 2 km from the end we spun the centre out of the friction plate and that was that. No Clutch - No go.

We got to do a bit of spectating. Gwynn and Andrew were fast in the other P1s. The guy in the XR6 looked pretty good too.

Well that's our season shot now. We'll just have to regroup and have another go.

Cheers

Glenn

[Phil & Sophia]

I am impressed and quite proud of Sophia and Mel in getting the Datto running again.
To be honest when I heard and saw that they had a problem in the stage I didn't expect them to finish.
I was a bit suprised that the stop control was gone from the stop point before sweep went through. Dont quite understand that one
Anyway congratulations girls, well done
Phil

[msgofast]

Wasn't my best weekend either..... eletrics that plagued my mid bathurst rally come back on SS3, after throwing every part we had at it, it wasn't to be, no rev no go.....good work from kingy seen the NSW take it to the P4 Vic cars

Last stage at bathurst it was perfect, did a rally sprint with a new TPS and thought that was the problem as it was all good, all good till SS3 bega....May have traced it down to a coolant temp sensor, altronics shuts the rpm down if cold....

Karl's car is looking very nice, very well presented Karl!!!

Oh...and on SS1 down the long fast hill over bridge i run into Brett M's oil smoke like flog that cost me top speed, i knew i could go down that hill flat but not been able to see the bridge had to get out of it and cruise the last km in blinding smoke!!!

[MattHarriott]

From the diary of a Bega virgin.


Lead up: Having never competed at this event my expectations where made up of comments I have heard from others. Let me just say that my expectations were not burnt in flames.

SS1: An amazing stage, I couldn't believe the way Russ was holding onto the slides for so long after one corner only to set the car up perfectly for the next. Saw 200km/h (not Redbull speed, this is for real) over some of the stages.

The spectators got a little fright when Russ and I arrived as the car was pointing directly at them for a few seconds before it scando around to follow the course. On the next transport I feel into follow the leader mode and we miss the TL to creek. Realise when the next car ROCKY CREEK was actually a bridge. Opps

SS2: The famous Upper Cobargo. It always helps to have the car in first as the flag drops, Russ forgot. Few seconds of trying to crunch into 1st after spinning up the synchros and we were off. Brilliant first half of stage then Russ lost his mojo and couldn't find the flowing rhythm towards the end. I was surprised to see so many farmers and locals just sitting on there fences watching. Almost makes it look like a WRC event in Europe somewhere. End of stage, saw the moose head but didn't register what the sign was for, realise later that was Peters Camera Corner.

SS3: Great stage only one moment where the car didn't squat down into the corner and the big V8 went understeering to the edge of the road.

SS4: Can't remember anything exciting about SS4. But it was still a great stage. The first 4 stages really were suited to the grunt of the Commodore.

Service 1: 10min services make it fun to try and fix anything major, lucky we didn't have to! Just top up fuel and fluids and went to regroup.

SS5: The stage that bit us. Only 800m into the stage a tapping sound could be heard from the rear. Russ and I believe it is the exhaust so keep pushing on thinking at the worst it will fall off. About a kilometre later a bang was heard followed be the sound of the uni joint hitting the under body of the car. We had snapped both the upper control arm mounts clean off the diff. Russ used a old belt strap that was in the boot to tie the left side back together and I look around for another strap. Remembered that the umbrella Russ carries in the car is held in with a tie down strap and so I get it and pass it under the car to Russ. As we nurse the car out of the stage I keep an eye out the back window to warn Russ of competitors catching us. I could almost see the smile on Tanseys face as he shot past in the spacspeed RX7.

Service 2: Having contacted the crew and warned them about the need for a welder we arrived and set about repairing the mounts. This is where we really could have used a 60min dinner break instead of the 10min service time. Thanks to everyone who helped out, Doc, Simon, Jon Mitchell's team for the use of the welder, the John from Kumho for the better powered generator and anyone else who aided in the repair of the car.

Unfortunately it took a long time to repair and so Russ and I missed stage 6. What we wanted to do was now just slot into the field and do stage 7 and 8 for testing/miles in car. I decided that I would have to speak to the CRO regarding the fact that we missed the stage and was then told that we couldn't rejoin and complete the rest of the event. This therefore ended our day.

It was a pitty because Russ was really happy with the car setup and the times we had set in the first 4 stages. Our times were up mingling with the likes of JS, Nunn, JW and Letis.

Although I can't complain this is my first DNF in about 7 events and at least we got to complete the first 4 stages which were absolutely amazing.

[grahamthompson]

The VR4 received a new motor, clutch and gearbox plus second hand Michelins for Bega. The car fired up on Thursday night for the first time (instantly to both my surprise and quiet satisfaction) and apart from $30 worth of Formula R on the garage floor due to a forgotten oil gallery plug things looked good on the three trips to Bungendore to start running it in. Even the gearbox which I assembled from the remains of two broken ones felt perfect. To get extra miles on the motor (now with higher compression forged pistons) I drove to Bega with my long suffering spouse hauling the car trailer in convoy. It was only late on Saturday that I opened the throttle fully and an ECU problem emerged. A bad electrical connection to the ECU in the back of the fuse box was located and repaired and I was confident the problem was fixed but as we found out on Sunday morning my optimism was misplaced. As soon as the boost reached 15 psi the rev limiter cut in and you were forced to upshift. So for the first four stages we could only use just only about half throttle to keep the engine smooth, hardly conducive to good times. Nonetheless we did Greendale in 4:48, a 4 second improvement over 2003, we were slower on Upper Cobargo due to a chopped up surface and stupidly backing off at the yellow timing marker and then trundling past the red one (Tony Porter admitted he did it too so maybe it is a symptom of age). I finally broke 8 minutes on Buckajo with a 7:49 which gave great satisfaction and was a tad slower than I have previously been on Coopers Gully. I did clout the same bank I did in 2001 in the wet halfway through the stage ( downhill RH soft surface) jamming some stones between the bead and the rim but fortunately without puncturing. Tony unfortunately whacked a tree on this stage and retired. My improved times can largely be creditted to the Michelins being kept to 200 kps hot ( thanks Rob Nunn for reminding me).
We screwed the boost controller back to about 16psi at service and that tended to alleviate the rev limiter problem but it meant we upshifted quickly and never got over 6000 rpm, which was probably a good thing with a new engine. We were trying to match Jon Waterhouse's times in his new RX7 but as the event went on he started going quicker and eroding our early advantage. At the end of the ACT event I thought we had him pipped but later results show he beat us by a lousy 9 seconds. Then to rub it in Richard Leitis blindsided me and took 10 seconds off us on the final stage (SS8) to creep ahead by 3 seconds!! This Gold Cup stuff if tough. Thanks guys for the competition.
The three forest stages on either side of Imlay Road to finish the short event were superb but we went on to do the extra two stages. I though Snake Track was crap. It was rough, bony and very dusty and JW took some 40 seconds off us. As the satrt of the final stage Wayne Elvin was working on his Commodore in control trying to find some gears, ultimately jamming it in third and proposing to do the stage in one gear. He asked me how hard I was going and I replied as quick as I could and he decided to start in front of us. I did not object having some sympathy for a fellow competitor trying to finish the event and I thought he migfht not throw as much dust if he only had third. He said he would pull over if he saw our lights. The dust was horrendous. We caught him fairly quickly but could not get closer than about 200 metres and it was only at the end of Myrrial River Rd where the road turned back on itself he noticed us and pulled over at the junction of Nullica Rd 21 km in!!. By now Mike Boaden's Escort from 4 minutes behind was in occasional sight so we blasted down Nullica Rd to at least finish feeling good. Three drunks were standing on the road about 1 km from the FF without their pants but there was nothing noteworthy to report. JW took 4 minutes off us on the stage so that gives some idea of Elvin's dust penalty. A bit of a shame as that probably cost us a top 20 outright position.

All in all a terrific rally, great roads and excellent competition. To run an event without anything going wrong with the car was a real pleasure.

Thanks to Phil Skipper for an A1 codriving performance, to my wife for turning up at every service point, Graham Roser and his team and all officials. Can't wait until 2005.

[Eco-velocity therapy]

Got some good pics, inc. Car 100 going off

I hope the farmer does not get upset about the fence

More pics and links to come

[Eco-velocity therapy]

Photo gallery ready - access via ...
this link

I was on the FF of SS2. Only 1 car out of the top 30 or so got it right. Every one else waaay wide. Check out the series of pics for car 9 to see how it is done. Well done Zen.

Enjoy

[Jme]

Had a ride with Karl, and we put ourselves into the event early on and stayed in the picture until late in the event where it got away from us a bit.

71.. Beau Griggs- I didn't see him coming.....

I'm sure Karl will have a bit more to say.... I'll leave all that for him. Sitting in the silly seat was comfortable, no real moments at all. It seemed quite often we were running a different line to the cars in front, but it anything I'd say Karl's lines were probably faster- definately neater.

Talking to Peter Roberts today... obviously he was disappointed- said he lost concentration and made an error. The car is mechanically sound... if it had landed back on it's wheels it would have been easily driveable.

The "B" was on fire.... Kingy was stoked with his result and managed to sort out the Victorian boys, who I think finished 2nd and 3rd 2wd. Actually... he's looking for video footage from Bega to show a potential sponsor- so if anyone can help him out let us know.

Got me buggered how the ACT didn't win the State of Origin.... maybe I "misread" the rules. I'm sure tort will be onto that. I thought with Karl, JS and Rob all finishing..... as opposed to 3 NSW DNF's..... Roberts, Middleton and Sandy/and or Briscoe (which ever) we would be looking good with the way the points worked. Anyway......

[MadDog]

Event Report
Bega 2004
Mazda RX2

The “Frog” was ready and rearing to go for Bega, with the “Ubmy” box and light flywheel, I knew we were going to have fun.
We decided to drive down (never again) as the drone of the rotor sends u mad. I now know why Rotar Drivers are different; we’re all bass tone deaf.

Sunday, big feed of bacon & Egg rolls, new plugs and things were looking rosy.

Start,
Liaison to SS1. Pretty nervous, first real “rally” for me in the little beast.
Dave misses the first call after the roundabout, the same place as I did the previous year.
Stu zooms past laughing.

SS1:
This is it first stage, Stu will go hard, I’ve gotta get home with this thing…
5…. 1;
Go!
1st gear 8k
2nd gear 8k
3rd gear, 6k

“Oh yeah baby”! Had a blast, the car was just so much fun, lots of power! 3rd gear drift turn 3rd out, on the throttle. (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it)

End Stage, didn’t go over 130kph, had a hoot.

SS2:
Dave gets in the car, (d) “did u reset the terratrip ?”
(t) “no, Why ?”
(d) “nuthin”


GO!

Barp barp, Barp, getting into a bit of a rhythm, lifting on crests, feeling the car out, don’t remember much-

SS3:
Barp Barp PLURP, FFFTTT, BANG BANG BAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRP

Ah Crap!

Just had to keeps the revs up, and the car responded well, drove ok I thought, keeping it clean.

SS4:
Last stage for the first half, Stu has 2 stages on me!!!!!WTF.
Oh well, I’ll have to drive a little bit harder.

Dave tells me Terratrip is F#$*!d..


Service,

Don’t worry about power at low revs, try to get terratrip working! Basically we just couldn’t see the problem, Soldier on!

SS5:
Oh noice, some forest, the things rotas are made for.
Had a ball in this stage, tyres gripping, keeping the revs up, Start was a problem , barp, fart coung baaarp.

SS6:
TerraTrip fixed, just having fun now, concentrating on the corners, getting dark, lots of dust, need more lights!!

SS7:
Dusty, fun stage, until the speccy point, came in gently caring some 2nd gear slide, this dickheads is jumping around on the corner waving his arms around, I slowed thinking there was a potential problem, when it was just someone being seriously stupid!
(happened to be the little dikhead from my service crew)

SS8:
Ok! Last stage,

Bring it home Timmey,

Head off with a really bad start, all ive got to do it to the end, pass Sossi, and car 84, they are having problems. Finally a great dust gap.

Waoh!! Home without a scratch!


Thanks to all those who helped me get the car prepared and thanks to BGR/slime and Em for servicing. Thanks to Dave for doing a great job of navving – even though you think Emma drives better. Finally thanks to SpacSpeed Reliability Rallying for Rota support and help putting all the bits back together especially as the bits came from the Umby mobile.
Thanks Umby for being Umby!

[Bogan]

I'll try to make this as painless as possible, if you don't want to read a long boring event report then skip to the next post...

Before the event was lots of car preparation and lots of spending. I got the opportunity to drive the RoC course during recce so a lot of the stuff which needed doing after Oberon (we took our points at Ulladulla) was completed before RoC. Changes included:

• Fitting a 110A alternator to attempt to rectify the charging issues we had in the night stages at Oberon,
• Shortening of the steering arms to give quicker steering,
• Fabricating and fitting of a new lower control arm, as one was bent and kept chewing through ball joints,
• New seats were fitted and mountings fabricated/modified,
• The fuel overflow pipe was replaced as I busted the old one during RoC recce.
• The LHF guard was secured better at the bottom to overcome the interference with the nav's door.

While none of them were performance changes they all had their effect on the car and made it a better rally car. The seats, control arm and steering arms got a shakedown on the RoC stages and I noticed the difference in comfort and driveability.

Throw in CAMS licence renewals, registration and the purchase of a new trailer and you start to see the cash we were throwing at this event and the stress it was causing on the home front.

The list of things to do was long, and after conducting a better bolt check than any event since BitB, checking all fluids in the rally car and tow vehicle and packing everything we were off.

The drive down was good and the trailer towed fine. We stopped in Bega on the way through to the accommodation and completed safety and Halda checks. Put the car back on the trailer and headed to our digs. Nice BBQ, then drivers briefing and a pretty early night. Cabins are great, it's just like being on school camp all over again. Someone in the next room giggles and then everyone does and then someone says something and then repeat.

Event day and I had a change of mind about tyre choice given that we had four shire stages to do before service. The old shagged Falkens would not cut it so we put on some second hand Dunlop 84s which I thought would have the goods to get us through until service. Also a factor was the first service was only 10 minutes, and if we had time to only change 2 tyres then the Dunlops would be more capable of doing one forest stage and being changed at next service. The main concern however was fuel. a 30 litre tank would possibly be cutting it fine to do the stages and the associated transports and get back to service. I don't have a clue as to the consumption of the car, which is something we will try to rectify at the bay.

A quick top up of fuel at the staging area, a last minute window clean and several trips to the toilet and finally we were off. The same transport as last year and we got onto the shire roads in transport. I think Anna was a little excited, they're so wide .

I did the usual hellos at the start, saying hi to Ben (in front) and Peter (behind). Ben told me that he found some electrical gremlins last night and if he's pulled over then we might come up on him quickly.

So we get up to the line and we're off. It's here we pause to remember fallen comrades, Ben's electrical gremlin appeared to bite him pretty hard on the ar$e, not many corners in and he's by the side of the road. I've been there dude, at the Bay last year, and it suxs. Hope to see you back very soon, and giving it plenty of stick. I don't think I've ever been this relaxed in stage, I let out plenty of woohoos and yeehahs and it was all going beautifully. I managed to point out to Anna where Mark Hughes' car was last year, poor Don K's Datto was in exactly the same spot and in similar condition to Mark's car. These early stages are fun. We don't set the world on fire and I don't pick 5th, but we were going pretty darn fast in 4th and that felt just fine. We coast on the next transport conserving fuel and arrive at SS2, where I let a little air out of the fronts to try to get some more purchase on the surface to steer.

SS2 was still wide and still fun. Very soft on the inside of the corners in places, but we weren't losing traction unless the car was going quickly from side to side. We made a note for next year to possibly stiffen up the rear shocks for the early stages next year if we can get them adjusted easily at service. Springs are a factor as well, but not as easily adjusted. We got into a couple of big tank slappers late in the stage, the tight twisty stuff was fun when I hit it with speed still carried from the open straights. Saw Raymond Day waving like a nutter near the end, did you see me wave fatty? Almost cleaned up Dougal's stop control table after missing the FF board and being confronted with a car parked across the stage with a stop board resting against it .

SS3 and 4 weren't as notable or memorable, except for more speed, and I finally pulled 5th near the start of SS4. I don't know how fast we were going but I've not pulled 5th before in stage. We must have been motoring . The Lancer is a little narrow and high for me to be confident in maintaining high speeds downhill but I was building on the late braking lesson I learned at Oberon and we were making time that way.

Service 1 and we manage to change all four tyres and add the lights and fill up with fuel. After all the panic it took less than 20 litres to fill, I should have been going harder. I remember being told we got beat by Jamar on SS1, but that's OK, surely everyone knows by now that fun is our highest priority, and we were winning a one horse race in that department.

We book into regroup on time and spend 90 minutes with more loo stops and eating and chatting and looking at all the cars leaving to head to the forest.

To be continued...

[Spac]

Was good. I'm a little bit disappointed at being so far off Pete's pace, seeing as Pete was well off his usual competitivness against people like Richard and even Dave King*. And I know that I can go faster, but it's not anywhere as obvious how as it has been. Whatever - like I said at the end of SS8 "If Smee has beaten us there, he deserved it and I don't care!"**.

I have only driven Bega once before, in 2002. We had a s12t event then, with dodgy brakes, crap tyres, and finally a blown motor, so I wasn't filled with confidence for this year.

SS1. Learnt to worship the God of the Swept Line. Knowing the correct way to worship was not so easy... I didn't know whether to let it all hang out (like I wanted to) or keep it straight on the swept line, particularly when the slightest deviation from the swept line meant things got ugly.
Couldn't find third gear leaving the speccie point, which was frustrating.
We had a small moment at Darren Keeler's photo corenr from last year, but otherwise got through OK, and at a reasonable pace.

SS2. Spun on the very first corner... Got a good cheer from the locals spectating at least... The stage was very slippery, we pretty well trundled through.
Did "throw" the car into some of the tar corners which felt good.

Leaving SS2, we turned right, instead of left onto the Snowy Mtn Hwy, and went about 8kms before working it out... Cost us two minutes of late time, so 20 seconds of penalty time!

SS3, I can't remember, except that it was a lot gripper than the previous stages.

SS4, ditto.

At the service, we worked out we were 13 seconds behind Smee (plus our 20 second penalty), and pretty well level pegging with Fro, RedBull, Matty, and a few others.


SS5 was what I was looking forward to - real forest stages. I kinda remembered it from naving with Jenny last year, which was suprising.
We did OK, felt a lot more at home. Took about 10 seconds back off Smee.

SS6. More of the same. Definitely finding a groove that was seriously lacking at Ulladulla. Another ten seconds from Smee, so the penalty was eliminated - we now had two stages tro claw back the 13 seconds he went faster than us on the shire roads.

SS7. Good stuff. I actually felt like I was driving properly. I know there was still time to be saved, but this was a LOT more like it. I commented to Tamsey that it was my best blind stage I'd driven in a long time, certainly since he'd been in the car. Dunno if we went quicker than Smee and Fiona, but didn't really care - if he'd wound the pace up enough to beat me, I wasn't quite ready to chase him.

SS8. Well, let me put it this way, at the end of the stage, Tamsey said to me "THAT was your best driving since I've been in the car", and I said to him "If Smee's beaten us, he deserves it".
When the results were posted, and I found I was 25 seconds behind Pete on a ~13 minute stage, I was a bit disappointed, but WTF - we did our best and nothing went wrong - you can't ask for much more than that.
(End of ACT series event).

SS9. Snake Track. Car was getting hot in SS8, so we pretty well dawdled through. It is also not a good stage for the RX-7 - too big, too fast, too powerful. Well, that's what I was saying until I saw JW's times!

SS10. We booking in late, like almost everyone did - and that was after a super-short service...
More dawdling through the stage, but not so much as SS9. I kinda realised that we'd acheived our goal (ACT Clubman) and wasn't prepared to push it too hard in the stages that "didn't count"...

Got to the finish, and had a bit of a scare that Sharpy may have beaten us for ACT Clubman, before discovering he had DNF'd.

Big thanks to:
Simon, Mark, Gemma, Paulie, and particularly to Jenny.
Also thanks to Dyno, Renee, and everyone else who helped out at the service parks.
And to John Wills and Rod Kilby for their help before the event! Rod particularly did a ton of running around for me, and then charged me an embarrassingly small amount of money. Much appreciated!

*Not that Pete's ever beaten King on raw speed, but at least he's usually in the same kinda ball-park.
**Smee is the 'bench-mark' in this case, as he was the main threat for ACT CM after RedBull broke his gearbox before the first service.

SpyBoy - we weren't at all happy going past you - we thought we'd caught the car in front, not you guys! Figured that if you've dropped that many places, you were in trouble which wasn't just of the flat tyre kind.
If Tamsey was smiling, it was because the dust was about to disappear.

[smee]

All started well. Trip down in the brown van with fixed brakes was very good and reassuring. A trailer with brakes that worked was also a good thing. New rear springs, new clutch and dust seals were fitted. Underbody and sill protection was repaired, and all was good.

We unloaded car and did the scrutineering thing, where we were questioned about rear wheel bearing play. Nothing there says the scrutineer and we were good. Did the odo check (to put it on a major highway on blind corners is a bit of a worry) and then on the trailer and onto the digs.

The start arrived, and we set everything up for the first service. Did a pressure check of the new tyres to find one of them was flat. Got it filled, organised some new Dunlops as well so we could take them home and then headed off to stage 1.

SS1. We lost a piece of the window trim on the way there. The car behind ran over it so we need to find a new one. On the start and go. Turn into corner one and there is no turn in. It is a slippery as all hell. Either that, or the tyres are too worn and not gripping. We had done all of Ulladulla on them. Back off a bit and try to find a rhythm. Pass the upside down car, really slow down for the cautions and find 5th gear down the long straight. Really think a tight and twisty stage would do better for SS1 so you could get your eye in. Not really enjoyable.

SS2. We went off on corner 2 in this event last time we did it, so were not going to do it again. Started, and again it was slippery. The tyres were not good, and we had 2 + stages to do. Pressures were correct, and any lower and the rims would have seen all the action. Followed the line and cut a few corners over the berms sending us onto 2 wheels. Excellent feeling and a pity the markers were set so far out. The grading made some good looking corners very torn up and slippery. Still went on and felt ok.

SS3. A reasonably fast down hill stage. Found the rev limiter a lot. Will have to change this before the next event. Pace notes or local knowledge would help a lot, and in some places it felt and looked a lot like poo farm road. Only smoother. Cut across the quarry area and then went into the corner where Darren was. Tyres are getting worse, but stay on line and they do ok.

SS4. Start reminds me of Braidwood in the first year. A long straight with a kink followed by what looks like a tight right hander. Get into the tight twisty down hill and are slowed by dust just hanging and the 1600 facing us on the outside of the corner. Try and get up some good speed yet near the end just run out of tyres and grip. On the last few corners I was trying to do the spider dance whilst buckled into the seat. We pass over the finish in what felt like 90 degrees to the road. Onto service and new tyres.

Arrive at service and bad news. The tyre that was flat had a slice in the firewall and would not retain air. Being 70 series Pirelli’s and only having 4 was not good for us. A 10 minute service would not enable us to get new ones fitted, along with the trucks now out at service 2. We refuel, check ride heights and park in the regroup.

SS5. We have tyres with no grip, running as lower pressure as we dare, and I do not feel so good. We head into stage. I like the tight twisty stuff and some of the high speed areas, but no grip and the tyres lock up and offer no confidence. The tail is out all over the place and under heavy braking we are experiencing a big vibration. Not happy at all with the stage and feel a big problem is at hand. Vibration gets worse just out of the finish and we slow on the transport.

Arrive at service and are greeted by new tyres on the rims. Yee ha. Check front and rear brakes, refuel and check all fluids and accessible nuts and bolts and head off.

SS6. Miss the turn off into stage by a few hundred metres due to new boots putting the terratrip out by a wee bit, and roll up to the line. Issues arise from the controlie giving us and a few of the preceeding competitors only 2 minutes in control. Fiona advises her that it should be 3, and the controllie said another competitor said it should only be 2. Hopefully it was all sorted out. This stage looks a little damp. We have a warning about some bike riders/adventure competitors in the stage and keep a look out. The tyres feel and grip excellently. We come across a car in stage, with a tractor in front of it. The navigator is running back down the hill to it and there are no triangle or OK signs displayed. Thanks for the warning guys. Not my best stage, and I was just not with it. I felt down on power.

Return to service and check pressures and all else. Fit lights and have a bite to eat. Trundle off through 40kph zone to next stage.

SS7. I thought I would try and give it a big push in this stage as I was feeling a bit better. Started off ok and thought I was driving well, powering through corners and driving the line well. The brakes started to go off about halfway through the stage, and I was having to brake a lot earlier than I would normally to get around the corners. Coming into the stop point and I did not think I would pull up in time. Spac had taken a bit of time off us in this stage. Fiona commented that my driving was not good at all. I did not tell her we had no brakes…..

SS8. We crossed the road and I just sat there. Fiona booked in and we arrived at the start. What was with the dyed hair and girlies doing the start count down. I bogged it down off the start and trundled up the hill. I drove a little more sedately in this stage, trying to conserve the brakes and not to overdrive. Came in a little too hard at the spectator point and had to engage 1st to get away. No big bangs and I shifted into 2nd. We got the sun in our eyes a few times and the sky and the stage turned all orange from the dust around us for a few k. The driving lights were not helping, and I was on and off them numerous times. Walls of dust greeted us on occasions in some hollows and straights out of dusty corners. Again we came across a car on the side of the road. This time the car (Commodore) was around a blind left-hander with no triangles, and the navigator was on the right side of the road with the OK sign waving us to slow down. We slowed and moved to the left of the road only to come across the back of the car. Swerved out to the right and felt like chucking rocks at them. This was the second Victorian to have done the same thing. The brakes were bad by 2 thirds distance and I did not push. I tried where I could see, but again had to brake early. Not much fun. We returned to service, refuelled and transported back.

At the finish we had posted 41st after SS4, but did not know where we ended up. I think we finished 2nd ACT clubman.
Thanks to Dave and my brother in-law Drew for servicing and organising tyres and food. I’m glad we had a reasonably uneventful weekend. Thanks to Richard for lending us his tool box after Miles blew a motor in testing. Thanks to Dunlop for the 85 tyres at a good price. I am looking for some help with tyres, so any more help would be greatly appreciated. The car is well presented and always clean.
Thankyou to all those who complemented me on a well presented car, and thanks also to the volunteers. Lyndall actually did a time control after not competing and Richard did a road closure. Excellent work guys. Thanks also to TTS (Michael and Thomas) for the help with the work done on the car prior to the event and the trailer to get us there.
It’s now time for a bigger strip down, new pads and possibly new rear brakes. See you all in Batemans Bay.

[fro]

Short report:

Drove crap. Terraphone suffered from interference above 4000rpm all day, Terratrip was dodgy, drove like some more crap.

Put on wrong rims at first regroup, they fouled on the calipers, had to take them off on the way out of regroup.

Drove some more crap. Service 3 and the exhaust has broken at the weld at the flange at the rear crossmember. Wire it up.

SS7 the entire exhaust falls off. Left with just extractors. Drive over top of own exhaust. SS8, have left rear tire deflate at end of stage. Drive like crap some more.

On the way out of the second regroup, the high beam/dip switch decides to quit working. Drive Snake Track (very crappily) on low beam.

Marc jerry rigs the driving lights to be on for the last stage. Drive crap through there to the end, and get to the finish with ears bleeding.

I couldn't hear them, but thanks to Dyno, Purdo, Mrs Fro and Marco. And thanks to the associated Canberra peoples for assorted assistance throughout the event, from tyre donations to tyre grooving, to listening to me whinge about how crap I drove.

Fix car, return at the Dell with Mrs Fro, and see if we don't kill each other whilst getting around.