Ulladulla Classic Forest Rally

Result: Started Car 25 and finished 22nd outright, 1st in Class N3.

Greg Lemmon (driver) & John Paul De Sousa (co-driver)

Results 22nd/75 Overall, 8th/19 P3 Class, 1st 2WD Front, 1st in Class N3 Stage Time Placing: 22nd 21st 17th 2nd last in front of Walther 8th 13th 16th 14th Overall - the big one that got away ! The car did not miss a beat - yet another consistent neat performance, no dings, and always in control. Better traction in the tight stuff with Greg now beginning to get more comfortable using left foot braking. We were heaps better on our early preparation for corners by getting gear changes earlier. Road book was OK despite other nav's complaining about its quality. On balance we were Happy with our performance. The big let down of the day was that we suffered a flat tyre half way through SS4. After a TVHR uphill the LH front tyre came off the bead. Continuing was not an option in the FrontWD - we figure that we lost about 4mins:30secs given that 2 cars passed us. As all good stories go …..if it wasn't for the flat we would have finished 12th or better….again not bad for a 48 KW, N3 non 4WD. No significant Driver or Nav errors. Again the night stages proved to be our strong point where we had our best performances. Next time we will have to start the opening 2-3 stages a lot harder. Throughout we pushed the car hard, keeping it between 5000-6000 rpm being our maximum power band. The roads were pleasantly not too dusty after a decent drop of rain earlier in the week. Stage descriptions: SS1 5.58km - fast wide hard road - we blew it by not going harder probably only 92% instead of 100% flatout. It is a little hard to get the improvement you need on a short stage 5.5kms which gets run in under 3 mins by the competitive cars. Road calls were a bit slow as well surprising me with the faster pace. SS2 5.1km - again fast wide hard road similar to SS1 so we knew what to expect - but again out time was pretty sad. This car is not suited to the high power open road stuff - we definitely do better in the tight stuff. SS3 10.29km - nothing to report really except that Geoff & Lizzy pulled 12 seconds off our time - they definitely look like having a good day with this form. SS4 11.81km - this section was our first experience of having to do a tyre change mid course. We exited a TVHR uphill hitting a little gutter in the middle of the road. As we got to the top maybe 200m's we stopped on a flatter section to do the change. Scrambling to get back in the car out of breath after retrieving the triangles further down the hill, getting strapped in and getting back on the calls all in one go is hard work. We calculated 4:30 secs lost as a result. SS5 22.03km - first of the night stages best drive of the day - we had better traction and power through corners, getting some nice drift sideways, thanks to the Left braking. Peter Kobold at the stop control agreed our stage time wasn't too shabby an effort taking it up to the more powerful and 4WD's. SS6 35.73km - we were really looking forward to the long stage but with a 00 and 0 car having problems there was a long wait in the queue. We had our closest moment of the day, between tulip 22 and 23, coming out of a gentle RGL, drifting to the RHS of the track, at high speed it got a bit messy, overcorrecting to the LHS, bottoming the LH rear bigtime bumping us back onto course. We listened carefully to our recovery thinking we might of done some damage but thankfully not. While ever the car is on the road at times like this there is always still hope and yep she came through really well (no flat tyre either !). There was triple chicane at 20k's in was nicely negotiated. At the flying finish approach our eyes were vibrating in their sockets as we flew over the corrugations….fantastic run. SS7 21.64km - average time on this one due to getting too deep into a TVHL probably cost 7-8 seconds - had to reverse out a fraction to get a line out. This error was caused by getting unsettled about 200-300metres before the call where we sump slapped a rock in the middle of the road pretty hard. From the navigators seat the long narrow single track downhill with long skinny eucalypts swaying onto the track in front of us caused a bit of nerve - good on Greg for keeping the juice on. SS8 11.36km - this stage felt like it was a bit disappointing but the time was OK - again we finished knowing that we can still get a lot better. Service Crew: Thanks to Henry and David - nothing to do on the car, checking wheel nuts, rubber condition and windows - but it is great having a fresh cuppa and knowing the guys care. Navigator - John Paul De Sousa