Not a BMSC event, but a BMSC entrant - KCF Rd 1

[Matt Dyne]

As posted to the BSCC forum:

This was my first event in Brisbane, so my only real goal was to finish the event, and get a feel for what the local competition was like. Mark Neary was silly enough to volunteer to co-drive, or should that be I was silly enough…seriously, it was a great help to have somebody who was familiar with the events helping out.

We’d taken the car up to Pat Kennedy’s two weeks before and had a few practice runs at pace notes. I did 2 stages of a rallysprint last year and that had been my only experience, so I was keen to have another crack at them. It turns out Mark and I had different views on systems etc, so it was good to iron those out before an actual event where time is of the essence.

Matt Van Tuinen offered us some of his Pirelli tyres from last years Impreza RS Challenge. These tyres were virtually new, and even after the rally, two of them could go another event…so Matt, thanks and I’ll be back for more!! Sorry about the old team orders…

Scrutineering was completely painless, and was a good opportunity to put some faces to names. All the people I met/was introduce to were very nice to me…but they all had the same recurring comments…”did I bring a bucket for Mark?” Big thanks to the scrutineers here…tough job, and inevitable unpopular, but I found everybody professional and polite…just what nervous drivers need. Despite passing, I had some problems which kept me up most of Friday trying to fix a recalictrent Terratrip and no high beam headlights…to no avail.

Recce was good fun…my first glimpse of the roads revealed very similar roads to some of the forests around Bungendore and Braidwood in South East NSW which I was reasonably familiar with…a good mix of fast, technical and rough roads…a credit to Simon and his team for the selection.

To the event proper…strapped in on the start line of Stage 1, it’s fair to say I had a bit of the red mist come down as our run was anything but tidy. My intercom plug was disconnected about 50m in, meaning Mark had to shout the notes which in a 4WD turbo car, with antilag, is a pretty noisy environment. We were pleased to see the first 4 cars had taken a relaxed start and we’d equaled the fastest time set by Ian Menzies in the Falcon.

Stage 2, and now with a functioning intercom, we proceeded to be even messier with Mark politely commenting to “watch my lines”, we finished respectably. We noticed a fresh mark on the bark of a tree on a very tight right hander…at the time, we weren’t sure if that had been a recce incident or whether one of the first 4 cars had some troubles.

Back at service we notice Matt VT’s car had some hastily placed plastic taped to the RL door…closely matching the mark on the tree…bad luck there.

After topping up with some borrowed oil (thanks Paul Burgman), we made it into the regroup and waited around. It wasn’t until we were on our way to the next stage that we realized we hadn’t put any fuel in…we were in the lead at that point, and realized that if we ran out of fuel, we’d throw the whole event away. So a “softly softly” approach ensued with the next 2 stages being short shifted, and generally attempting to not floor it. We dropped 10 seconds to our first run through Peach Trees…(3:51 to 4:01) which included a 5th gear lose coming through a grassy right hander. Dissapointly though, Ian and the others had shaved 10 seconds off (3:42) so we were nearly 20 seconds down at that point. In Moonscape 2, we dropped another 30 seconds after spearing off the road on the same corner as MVT…luckily we missed the tree but landed against a pile of logs well off the road…4WD saved our butts there as we casually selected 1st gear and powered back onto the road. It was a shame to pass Ian and Bob who’d blown a diff but it gave us some confidence that we might be back in the hunt.

Surprisingly, we put some fuel into the car at the next service!!!

The last 2 stages were reasonably uneventful…we took some time off our first runs through, which was rewarding, and successfully finished the rally.

Huge round of thanks to the organizers, volunteers, competitors etc for making it a very relaxed, fun event. If this is how all QLD events run, then you can guarantee me a position at the next KCF.

If anybody got any photos of us moving…particularly towards the middle of Moonscape (where the harvesting had happened) because we bunged it on for the road blocks there (who had cameras)…I’d love to see them.

Thanks
Matt

[Matt]

You didn't mention it Dyne-o, but I am led to believe that you won the event! Congrats dude!

[Matt Dyne]

We did win thanks Matty. By a massive 1 second!!!

I'm pretty happy with how it worked out.

Next event will be ROC.

[Mike Morris]

Originally Posted by Matt Dyne

We did win thanks Matty. By a massive 1 second!!!

I'm pretty happy with how it worked out.

Next event will be ROC.

Well done Matt,

2 Rallies = 2 Celica wins!

Who said they were crap??...........

What sort of event was it..........? A Rallysprint? With 6 stages??

[Factor]

Originally Posted by Mike Morris

Well done Matt,

2 Rallies = 2 Celica wins!

Who said they were crap??...........

What sort of event was it..........? A Rallysprint? With 6 stages??

Mike - Its a short course rally. 2 stages run three times, as in stage 1 and 2 - back to service 3 and 4 (which are the same stages) back to service and 5 6 etc etc. Its a one day event - turn up at about 830, (two hours or so from Brisvegas) recce in the morning and comp[ete in the afternoon. There are 3 rounds to the series.

I think Matt will settle in to the QRC stuff pretty well. I wouldnt be suprised to see more than one win this year.

[Matt Dyne]

Mike,

Yeah what Andrew said.

Although, I think for the last few years that it's been run, it was referred to as a Rallysprint series, but this year as a Short Course Rally...not sure why the change??? Perhaps there's been some permit issues?

As to Celica's being crap...bollocks to them. They may not be as easy to drive as Subaru's or Mitsubishi's, but they are a damn site more fun. Although as Smee points out, they aren't as cheap as I'd hoped...but you get what you pay for I hope.

M

[AussieNav]

I competed in Qld for a few seasons Matt (including a couple of short course rallies) and had a ball as well.

Nice relaxed atmosphere with limited stress-head officials helps to make for good fun events.

Congrats on the win, keep it up but watch out for that Neary character.

[Matt Dyne]

Cheers Dale...have you just been testing...or China?

Was speaking to somebody on the weekend who mentioned it.

M

[mattlee75]

Congrats on the win Matt - and there's nothing wrong with winning by one second
Good to see the old girl going strong... even if it did give you a hard time to begin with.

Now... did somebody say Triangles?!

Cheers, Matt

[AussieNav]

Mattlee you had to bring up the One Second thing didn't you! (Bega, still hurts)

To respond to Matt Dyne now (this is getting confusing) yes I have just returned home from China or Shanghai actually and am happy to report that everything went really well in the car and out.

First time in the car together for Cody and I and we won the rally as well, BONUS!

[mattlee75]

Sorry mate, but i'm sure you'll get sweet revenge a few times over this year!! Good luck Dale.