Event Report from John Paul De Sousa (Co-Driver)
2004 Premier State Rally - 27-29 August
Toyota Corolla Seca RV

Recce Thursday
Recce is always the most stressful part of an ARC event - we like to take our time and get it right. This year was a lot easier than the mud bath disaster of 2003. Pacenotes from 2003 for the common stages were polished up with a few more hugs/clips and 30's to replace "thens" which were too short and "into" which were too long.
Major interest point was the call for the "Triangle". The Triangle is a major spectator point on SS Middle Ridge which contains serious holes inconveniently postioned on the driving line, as you take an off-camber TJ Right turn lined with 3m high rock walls. After a bit of disagreement on the best call for the Triangle, we did a walk through step by step analysis and came up with "speccy point 4R/C à KL clip arrow Wide Entry Immediate T3R à B4L"

Overall Results
1st in N3 Class for both Heats.
Heat 1 Saturday 31st/34 Finishers 31st/48 Starters - very satisfying result
Heat 2 Sunday 35th (last)/35 Finishers 35th/43 Starters - disappointed due to flat tyre and a severe derived time penalty applied to us.
Based on last year, where we could do a direct comparison of times on similar roads, we have picked up a 2.5 - 4.0 second per kilometre improvement. No mean feat!
We put this down to more experience, better pacenote system and the Limited Slip Diff. While the conditions were damper last year, the roads were just as fast.
This result was particularly satisfying when we consider the results against comparative cars such as the F16 Honda, Charade de Tomaso, Proton, the other Corolla Seca and a couple of the RS Imprezas.
Sunday Heat 2 issues
There is a story to be told about our last place on Sunday.
1st Problem: Time on SS12 Murray Walkers included stopping twice to change a flat tyre. First stop was in a bad position, moved on to a better spot with a clearing and then catching a slower car who had flatted as well but opted to drive on. For the last 5 kms we ate their dust.
2nd Problem: SS13 was cancelled due to major Ordynski Mitsubishi accident requiring a helicopter extraction to hospital for observation. CAMS ARC rule for this situation is to derive a time for the cancelled stage based on the previous stage times on that day (refer 11.10.iv). Hence with a lousy time for SS12 we get an appalling derived time, putting us out of contention for the rest of the Heat.

Eastern Creek Sportivo SS1/4 (2.73kms)
Running in reverse order in the correct direction for about 50% of an Eastern Creek lap certainly made the event spectator friendly for us. We had plenty of time to spectate the top runners on the wet skid pan while we were in regroup. Great to see the top guys doing what we had just done earlier in the evening.
Nearby the start line were the "drift racers" doing their tyre burning on a short circuit on the inside of the main track - this certainly added to the atmosphere of the occasion. We had the best seat in the house for Kevin Gavin in his big Commodore laying heaps of rubber and turning on the donuts through the skid pan. At 1 minute intervals he was just exiting the wet area as we were starting it, indicative of how long he prolonged his enjoyment out there.
Set reasonable times against our opposition - happy with the performance.

Eastern Creek Chicane SS2 (1.56kms)
We did not bother with the optional tyre change . Dinky little stage - nothing special all 1:16.7 of it!

Burnt Bridge SS5/8 (22.85kms)
Shares a piece of Watagan Rd. Favourite piece of road for the event - improved 19 sec on the 2nd run !

Beavans SS6/9 (18.61kms)
Last year we had difficulty with the pacenotes for the last bit of this road and this year was the same. Fast and open for the first 2/3rds and then tight and narrow.

Middle Ridge SS7/10 (11.69kms)
Lots of commitment required on fast 90º turns, with big embedded rocks to avoid. You get used to it after a while. The very tricky Triangle spectator point in downhill mode was good given our attention to the call to get the best car position around the potholes and off-camber lean.

Red Hill SS11/14 (12.44kms)
Uses part of Middle Ridge in reverse. Very nice piece of road. We came away with big smiles after nailing the Triangle spectator point in uphill mode.

Murray Walkers SS12/15 (16.74 kms)
Worst stage of the event for us. Shares a piece of Beavans in reverse. Extremely rough for the first 5kms. Flatted the rear left about 6.5 kms in. Lost heaps of time in firstly stopping in poor spot, then moved on to a better spot and then executed a slow wheel change. The bad luck was then compounded by getting the dust of another competitor who we caught, who we knew had flatted because of the burning rubber smell we were getting in the cabin. They chose to drive through the last 5kms with us in his rear view mirror. Not a happy John!! but then again they could afford it as factory entered competitor. Our stage time was 18:20 compared to 12:37 on our subsequent run through. The 12:37 could have been better had we not pansied around for the first third of this stage looking for rocks which had by now been swept away and playing with windscreen demister controls.

Watagan SS13/16 (24.85kms)
1st run cancelled due to accident. 2nd run probably our best stage performance of the event. Again we seem to leave the best till last. About half an hour prior to our start the rain had really set in, not heavy but enough to really slippy up the clay surface. As we had not prepared our notes for a wet surface we agreed the best strategy would be to run the stage at 9/10ths given our tyres were starting to go off. Anyway, we cracked the 15min mark with a 14.54 to our surprise. The Honda took 15:02 and though that was special - they were narcced when they found out we took 8 sec off them.
Derived time fiasco due to SS13 cancellation
To really rub salt into the wound of flatting on SS12 was the flow on effect for the derived time calculation for SS13. We received a 16:28 instead of a time in the region of 14:30's.

Highlights and Comments
· Very happy with Saturday result - disappointed with Sunday
· Heaps better performance than what we achieved at Rally of Canberra due to more braking confidence, achieved by running no boost.
· Great competition between us and the more fancied, more powerful F16 Honda and the Charade de Tomaso. Added into the mix were three back runners in the RS Impreza Challenge field.
· Opting to carry two spare wheels in case of a double flat over the three stage sequence between services on Sunday cost a little bit of time but was good insurance.
· Used intermediate refuels to our advantage to attempt to minimise car weight.
· Improvement of raw speed compared to last year.
· Made better times on all reruns of stages bar one (and that was only 1.3 secs slower the second time through - carrying the extra weight of an extra spare wheel on an uphill stage!)
· Good on Doug Wright and Mark Berndt for persistence in keeping in the event. Having electrical/mechanical issues all weekend and then to "stick it off" mid way through Sunday. Great to here that the service crew got the Service Crew Award for the event ($500 consolation).

Thanks
Toyota Eastern Region for sponsoring us again this year.
Geoff Stewart and Henry Lemmon for being ready when we need you to service.
Well done Adrian as Clerk of Course and a big thank you to the officials and controllies.

John Paul

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