Short event only for ACT Series - Stages 1 - 6
1st FWD overall
1st N3 overall
1st P3 equivalent ACT
3rd ACT overall - 11 sec's behind Nunn/Gentleman
4th P3 equivalent Overall
Greg and I were confident at the beginning of the day that we would go well, both of us on a high. Before heading out on our big adventure for the day, we did a couple of replays of the in-car Solberg / Mills footage from Perth….it's amazing how slow those guys go ..when viewing from the armchair!! what blows me away is the calm recitation by Mills, of his notes without slur, hesitation or repetition.
Today, NatCap was all about sorting out our Gold Cup finishing position. Going into the event Greg was 4th, 1pt behind Geoff S and I was 3rd, 1 pt in front of Lilleyman. Our finishing position unofficially gave us a 2002 ACT Series Gold Cup podium result both as 3rd Driver and 3rd Co-Driver….wooohooo !…not bad for 1st year. As is the way in rallying our fortune was a combination of consistency, reliability and bit of good luck. Unfortunately, within that equation or good luck came from someone elses bad luck. Our main rivals Geoff and Lizzy in the Celica retired after SS3 meaning that Greg and I could clinch 3rd's in the Gold Cup provided we finished. BTW: over SS 1-3 we posted better times than the Celica opening up a 1:04 gap. We proceeded to attack the course, but agreed not to take any silly risks ….but when you are out in the forest you push the car to its limit ….you don't just putt around conservatively to consolidate a place….this was evident by our best stage result being 12th overall on Tidbinbilla SS5.
Cheers to Henry and David, who were on cue for servicing again. It is fantastic having the support from the guys, keeping us topped up with fuel, changing wheels and wiping the windows. Fortunately also they have had a light workload given that the Corolla has been 100% mechanically reliable - some might say bulletproof. The car has held up to Greg and I trying to squeeze every second out of it.
SS1 - Our strategy, knowing it was going to be rough, was to use the older
tyres rather than christening the new ones on the sharp crusty rough stuff.
Kowen was rough as expected. Handling of the car was a bit soft and sloppy.
Tyre pressure was down to Greg letting out too much air at the start of the
stage where our gauge read 33psi. Again the ROC jump area has gotten the better
of me again where I missed the hump call before the TR at the tunnel TJ, which
caused a bit of anxiety (polite for lots of swearing) in the car at the time.
SS2 - Had a reasonable run thru except stalling the car at one on the TVHR
or TVHL's. Afterwards talking to others it seemed we were one of the few to
not do a serious "wrong road". We knew not to do the wrong road
because there was a dirty big log across the road - the top ranked drivers
who drove past this sort of major obstacle obviously were not switched onto
why it was there !?!?
Service 1 - Front tyres were absolutely rooted. Bloody good decision not to
run the new tyres. Put on the new boots and off we go.
SS3 - With the recent road grading and then add the chop caused by the 4Wd's
made the tight corners to become full of bulldust. At times we planed into
this bull dust making it really difficult for us to get grip on the exits.
SS4 - Had another good solid run
Service 2 - Overjuiced by about 5 litres - meaning that we over calculated
our competitive consumption rates.
SS5 - We had heaps of fun on this one. When we reached the Stop control we
were overjoyed at the pace we kept up. …wow!! Fast and smooth!! We had
a huge go at the Speccy point but mucked it up - the car not pulling us through
enough….bummer. Otherwise, Greg used a good combination of left foot
braking and gentle hand braking to get the rear to come around when needed.
During the stage our intermittent Terratrip problem resurfaced at 19kms cumulative.
This was followed by an intercom malfunction, which sounded like a 747 jet
landing in my ear. This forced a disconnection of the intercom. Now I was
left screaming and guessing (not a good combination inside a rally car) about
our interval distance between tulips.
SS6 - Had an absolute shocker through Sherwood. With the combination of roos
crossing the road, another stall at a tight turn, and a missed call causing
us to overshoot we lost a lot of time (40 secs) not to mention the freaky
terratrip freezing again at 19 kms cumulative (readers: any ideas about why
a terratrip would fault at a particular distance ? - let me know).
Thank you to Adrian, Fiona and all officials who helped on the day - great event.
Navigator tips:
Tip #1 consider using the Nicky Grist two watches technique - separate one
for interval timing and the other for stopwatch competitive timing
Tip #2 every second counts to the final result - 11 secs between us and the
VR4 can be made up by being telling your driver about braking timing - either
to be later or earlier depending on the day…
Tip #3 carefully check tyre condition at each service point
John Paul
2002 Sharp National Capital Rally - 16 November 2002
Result: Started Car 26 and finished 11th outright.
(68 on start list)
