An introductory trial early in the year provided the perfect opportunity for some pre-season testing, and it proved very worth while, as we uncovered a minor glitch in the in intercom system and more importantly a major gear ratio issue.

Work was soon underway in preparation for Round 1 of the Racetech Steel Victorian Rally Championship, the David Nutter Ford Used Car Rally on the 27th of March. We fitted new front suspension with help from Peter Davis, and a new gearbox was built to overcome the gear ratio issues. We were not able however, to locate the diff we wanted so for now we had to make do with a 4.6:1 which was considerably better than what the car was running. As we were loading the car onto the trailer on Friday night and about to leave for Morwell, we received a phone call from a devastated organizing committee, telling us that the DSE had pulled the pin on the event due to a couple of bushfires that had got out of control in the area.

Following the cancellation we turned our attention to our very rapidly approaching wedding. As we were putting the final touches on the wedding and honeymoon plans it was announced that the DNFUC would be run on the 24th April, the day Deb and I would be flying back from NZ. We tried to rearrange honeymoon flights to get us back 24 hour earlier, but to no avail. Our season seems over before it had even begun. We were heartbroken.

April 12, the wedding goes off without a hitch. It was a little difficult to not notice the rally theme to the day, with two very nice WRX bridal cars (thanks Jenna and Paul), rally vows, a ceremonial changing of the Navs name sticker, a rally car wedding cake...we even signed the registry on the bonnet of Buzz, our lil Charade.

Then the honeymoon.... RALLY NEW ZEALAND. Those WRC guys are bloody quick... what a blast. Some photos of both the wedding and Rally NZ will be online soon. Oh yes and we have a new treasured possession: A Never Say Dai Rally Team shirt signed by current World Rally Champion Petter Solberg.

While in NZ we received the news that the DNFUC had been cancelled, again!!..... a blow for the organizers but I would be lying to say we weren't very relieved.
So to summarize. We are now married, we have our lives back and our Rally season has been revived.

Once back in Australia it was a bit of a scramble to have everything ready in time. The car was in storage since the wedding, so we had to arrange to go and retrieve it. This presented a problem, as our Range Rover (the tow truck) was off the road after it blew a head-gasket in a big way just before the wedding. I roped my dad and his Landrover in to help us pick up the car, and then it was back to the workshop for a check over and one final quick modification to the front suspension that I didn't have time to do before the DNF.

I left work on the Wednesday evening to drive the car to official scrutiny in North Melbourne. I had only traveled a couple of Kms from the workshop when, as I turned an easy left had bend to merge with 100km/h traffic there was a loud bang, loads of clunking and no drive. I dipped the clutch in a hurry and steered the car out of the way of the traffic baring down on me and up onto the soft shoulder. First thing I thought of was gearbox or diff failure (call me a pessimist) but I was relieved on investigation to find it had 'only' blown an inner CV joint.

On the clock, I rang my dad for help (for the second time in one week) and set to work on the side of the road. I knocked the skin off a couple of knuckles, burned my arm, sheered the end off our wheel brace, but managed to bodgey it back together well enough to drive the couple of Kms back to the shop. Once safely back at the shop we loaded the car onto the trailer and headed off to scrutiny.

The next day, with a completed scrutiny slip, we set about establishing why the CV had failed and if after fitting a new one it would happen again. Our investigations brought us to a bewildering discovery... the drive shaft was about 25mm too short. The wear pattern inside the CV cup showed the yoke had been running far too high for quite some time, and the last minute modification I had made to the front suspension was just enough, that at a certain steering and suspension angle with just a little load from the engine...... BANG!! Disintegrating CV!!

After some chasing around, and with the help of the guys at AAA Driveshafts, we had the right length shaft with a couple of new CVs and we were on our way to the first contested round of the Racetech STEEL Victorian Rally Championship.

The Event itself has always been one of my favorites, despite an incident a couple of years ago when brake failure caused us to leave the road at a spectator point on a fast downhill stretch. Starting outside the Council chambers with all the cars lined up down each side of the road is a great way to set the mood. The focus soon shifts though, from the glamour of the shiny cars in Alexandra to the action in the forest.

We got off to a bit of a slow start, which could probably be put down to our lack of testing time in the new car, and a little uncertainty about the reliability of the drivetrain given the driveshaft failure we experienced just three days prior. Despite feeling good about our performance over the first stage we found ourselves some 20 seconds behind defending P1 champions Brad and Melinda Saunders.

By first service we were some 50 seconds behind the Suzuki pairing, and frustration was starting to set in. It didn't seem to matter how fast we felt, they were faster. Stage three was very slippery and by the end of it I felt I had mastered the new car, and we were sure we would be the faster crew, only to be disappointed once again when we got the times at the end of the stage.

Over the next two stages they were able to pull out another 30 seconds on us to give them an overall advantage of 1min 20sec. Then a personal triumph and the slaying of a psychological demon: we tied the last of the daylight stages to hold Brad and Melinda to 1:20 going into final service and a regroup for dinner.

Knowing that Brad wasn't sure of himself in the dark, and given our night time experience over the last few years, it was all or nothing going into the night stages, in an attempt to over haul the deficit.

Stage 6 was a reverse of the 24Km slippery stage 3, only this time it was dark. We pulled back 30 seconds to slash their lead back to 50 seconds, and then we followed up with another 36 seconds on stage seven.

Somewhere along the line, our maths got messed up and we thought we were over half a minute down going into the final stage of the event. This was a repeat of part of stage two, a short blast of only 11Kms. I missed a gear at the spectator point, buzzing the engine as we tried to pull away up hill from the very tight left hander. That cost us a couple of seconds but overall that stage felt good. We were confident that we would be the faster crew over the stage, but in the overall class standings we figured ourselves second.

It wasn't until the finishing positions started to go up on the notice board back at rally HQ and friends started congratulating us that we realized our miscalculation. As it happened, just 14 seconds separated us from the Saunders as we rolled up to the start of the final stage, and we had managed to put 2 seconds/Km over them giving us a winning margin overall of eight seconds.....

It took a while to soak in, but slowly we came to the realization that it was enough, we had done it! That moment, and that feeling of achievement made all the pain and hard work of the last twelve months worth every second.

Thank you to our service crew Mark, Mark, Jenny and Thomas even though we didn't give them anything to do. The car was 100% all day and you kept it that way for us. And thanks to our sponsors E-host, QFM and in particular Beleura Hill Motors and Tyrepower Mornington for the last minute rush after the CV incident!!