Greg and JP - Corolla Seca RV # 1762cc # 2wd Front # N3 Class
Short event only for ACT Series/NSW Clubman – Stages 1 – 8
Start 21st
Finish 18th overall.
Greg and I managed to bring the car home again with a trouble free run.
Start Area – this was the best organised drivers briefing and staging
area I have seen yet – very good PA system with plenty of volume and
a spacious presentation area including an elevated drive on dais
Stage 1 – Mt Panorama - What an exciting start to the event…incorporating
the Esses and Conrod Straight. This was our big opportunity to get the car
to its highest speed EVER all of a massive 160 km/h !! and boy did it take
a little while to get there. Then at about halfway down the straight the strangest
thing happened, the car began to fill with dust as the air speed squeezed
every little bit out of all the seams and joins.
Stage 2 – Hen and Chicken Lane – very fast very open and flat. Again
like SS1 we lost a lot of time to the better powered cars.
Stage 3 – Mt David – this was a car wrecker Hump Hump Dip Hump Dip
Dip over and over again and rocky rough surface. The drive through here felt
as though we would post a good time but were disappointed to find out that
we lost about 1 min plus out of 13 mins or so competitive, to the cars around
our road position, meaning we were slow big time on this one.
Stage 4 – Burraga – some good tight stuff, which suits us but the
second half of the stage opened up onto wider roads again letting competitors
get to high speeds.
Stage 5 – Beemerang – this was a very good stage with even surfaces
but our time suffered a bit due to an overshoot on a TR HTS which was very
well disguised – later we found out a few other suffered the same problem.
Stage 6 – Arkstone 50kms competitive – this was great fun, plenty
of calls with the longest gap being 2kms. There were heaps of steep climbs
and descents and we nailed the spectator point.
Stage 7 – Vulcan – the early part of this one was slow…Hump
RGR then TL, Hump, Hump, Hump, Hump Dip get going again for a little and them
more… guess what ? HUMPS…this stage had no flow spending a lot of
time in 1st making matters worse were the inconsistent character of some humps
which did not warrant double caution status.
Stage 8 – Sunny Corner – this was run under lights and was very
dusty, having a very close call at a straight on which kinked to the left
more than indicated in the road book. If it was not for the dust causing us
to back off a bit this would have been a certain trip into a drop off !!
Overall – Greg and I felt a bit flat after the event, knowing that our
times were not competitive and the fact that the rally was not really a test
of driving but more of keeping the car going after taking all of the humps
and dips. There was quite a bit of attrition from the ACT contingent but I
will let those people tell their own stories.
Clubhouse – great setup for the BLCC having their own facility. The ACT
Rally community would really benefit from something similar. Staying across
the road meant that plenty of fun was had knowing that it was only a short
walk/stumble home.
John Paul
