Caltex Airport Starmart Rally - 14 September 2002
Start 17th Finish 9th outright # 1st FWD # 4th P3 # 1st N3…great result …..
Of the 7 stages we finished ….. 7th, 20th, 13th, 13th, 14th, 12th, 7th
Starting as Car 17, Greg and I were comfortable about being able to finish higher
than our start position.
Starmart marks the first anniversary of Greg and I running together. Last year we started as Car 42 finishing 22nd. To be inside the top 10 this year confirmed our own personal improvement, teamwork and confidence with the car.
This event again confirmed our lack of power is our downfall to being able to achieve better results. We approached the event with the objective of keeping it tight and hopefully error free in the navigation side of things and to avoid, where possible, obvious puncture possibilities.
Top speed along South Forest Way descent to the flying finish was 150kph. Hate to think what the 4WD turbos were pulling along here (probably 170 180 190 and getting to that speed very quickly).
Highlights were….
SS1 - this stage was skaty in the early parts and then really rough. We set
a great time. The responsibility of doing a good "speccy point" at
450m probably set us up for the good run by getting our pace up as quickly as
possible. We had a close moment at a TR @ XR (about 16 kms in) coming into it
quite wide at low speed. The L rear took a bit of a knock here with a loud CLUNK.
Greg and I were cursing the possibility of another tyre popping off the bead
but luckily it was not. The tunnel corporate box arena was a blur being very
bumpy. Best move of the stage was a very fast TR around the telegraph post after
the crest RGL….wow !
SS2 - boring …7 calls …we knew that stages like this do not help our
placings. Fast and uphill but does not suit the car. Top speed along here was
about 120kph at 4500rpm in 4th. Our time reflected the lack of pace. Our average
speed was 97kph which is pretty underdone compared to Matt and Nick doing nearly
104kph
SS3 - had a good run through here keeping the revs up all the way. We nearly
scraped a cutting on the LHS bumper sticking about 6 inches from it for about
20m. Again the "speccy point" was well executed. Some parts were very
slippery due to the soft grassy surface and difficult to judge due to the shade.
Shame about the last 6k's of this stage which would have suited us.
Service 2 - noticed some rocks jammed between the tyre and the compomotive rim.
We concluded this was from the XR bump during SS1. Bloody lucky that we didn't
puncture from these during SS2/3.
SS4 - carnage everywhere we turned. Shame for those guys. We had the car at
top pace for the whole 41.4 k's, top speed of 150km's. Having a rave to Geoff
and Lizzy at the stop point about how good it was and then Car 18 180B SSS pulls
up about 30 secs behind us. If we thought we had done a good time these guys
had a blinder. Off we went with our tails between our legs having only savored
30secs of euphoria. The difference between them and us was 1min 10 sec which
meant that they carried about 4kph on average more than us through the stage.
Skinner This stage was highly cautioned. We observed the cautions but a lot
of them were not necessary in our minds costing us quite a bit of time through
the loss of flow and momentum. Our average was 88kph compared to 96kph by the
top runners.
SS5 - rerun of SS2. Slower by 2 secs - extra weight of heavier fuel load (due
to miscalculation and crappy fuel guage) and extra weight of the night lights
….makes all the difference.
SS6 - rerun of SS3. Two noteworthy points: Huge huge huge speccy point. Nearly
drifted over the edge after exiting the apex of the RGL. Greg planted it to
get out of the drift…resulting in a big over oversteer which itself was
difficult to get out of, but recovered without any scrapes. Did anyone get footage
!!! Overshot a TL after crest on the grassy stuff losing about 10 secs. This
point was marked as a RGL but really it was a TL.
SS7 - spent most of the time in 2nd gear, heaps of dust and just avoided a big
grey roo. Dust was due to us taking 1.5 mins off of the car in front of us.
Great drive.
Many thanks to David for Service help.
Navigator Lessons learned:
Tip #1 always check the road book for crests with close turns in the instructions
Tip #2 carefully check tyre condition at each service point
Tip #3 use your fuel consumption averages for competitive and transport sections
to calculate the needed fuel load (4 secs would have improved our placing from
9th to 8th)
John Paul
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