BCC

2002 Mt. Alexander Trial

17th August 2002

Bendigo

We woke early on Saturday morning to finish packing for the event. First problem we struck was the fact that Deb had completely lost her voice to the cold that she had been fighting off for the best part of a week.

For this event we had a new service crew. This meant meeting half the crew at the event. We loaded the trailer and headed off to Bendigo. {Click for Pix} We had a bit of a scare on the way, when up one of the long hills in the area, the tow car suddenly lost power and started to slow. A quick glance at the gauges showed everything was normal, so I started hitting switches. Switching to the second fuel tank brought the car back to life. The gauge was reading half, but it was obviously false or the pump had failed. Either way we got there in spite of it.

Patrina, our new service crew, met us at the assembly area. We set up our QuikShade and started to lay out the service gear. {Click for Pix} It was about now that I realized that I had forgotten to bring our spare wheels. Tyre wear is not really a problem on the little Charade, we can easily make a set of tyres last the distance, however if we were to get a puncture then we only had the spare in the car to cover us. If we were to get two punctures then that would be the end of us. As luck would have it someone had some spare second hand 13" tyres of the same breed we carried, so I bought them. If we were to cut a tyre all we had to do was get the new tyre fitted on the old rim at the Stuckey Tyres van on the other side of the service park.

Patrina helped Deb with the maps {Click for Pix} while I was chasing tyres and doing our Halda check. Our trip computer was still playing up after the Nissan Nightmoves, despite having supposedly been repaired, so we were still using the borrowed one - thanks Michael. Before long the entire route, including some sections of road that don't appear on the map, was plotted and even double checked with plenty of time to spare. As the sun set, and night rolled in bringing with it a chill, we went through all our pre-event checks. Lastly, before the event got underway was the drivers briefing for any last minute changes. We were running as car #26, our highest ever starting position.

Before entering the start control we were subjected to a noise level test by one of the scrutineers. He explained what he required of us, and then queried how many cylinders the engine was, as this dictates at what RPM the test is done. The look of surprise when we told him she was only a 3 cylinder was priceless. We passed the test easily.

Stage one was 24kms. The first thing we noticed was the dust. The dust was still hanging in the air from the previous car two minutes prior and it was thick. Not far into the stage was the first of the spectator points. As we rounded the left hander we were presented with a large tree, with the option to go either side. We opted for the outside, it was a little chopped up but at least we didn't hit anything.

Competitive stage two was only about 16Kms. All was well, and we had really settled into the event, despite the dust. The roads were, for the most part, fairly easy to read in the dark, and the twists and turns were presenting a very enjoyable challenge. About 6Kms in disaster struck. Sliding round a fast right hand bend, our left rear wheel struck a rock buried in the thick dust. The muffled 'pop' and sudden erratic delayed feel though the cars controls told me that we had a serious puncture. The tyre had deflated in a heartbeat. With 10Kms left to run and the road being too narrow to stop on we decided to press on. I was nursing the car along to avoid pulling the tyre off the rim. If it was to come off the inside of the rim, which could happen on any right turn, it could have very easily sliced through a brake hose. On the other hand we still had to go reasonably quickly into right handers as the flat L/H/R tyre was allowing the R/H/F wheel to lift off the road when it was loaded up. As our little Charade only runs the standard differential, this meant that we had reduced drive out of the right hand corners.

We limped to the finish of the stage, got our time and then drove out of the control point to change the wheel. We rang ahead to our service crew to get ready as we fitted our one and only spare to the car. We then set off for our scheduled service stop. {Click for Pix}

When we arrived every thing was ready for us except that Patrina and Graeme had not been able to locate the tyre man. The van was all shut up and he was no where to be found. I took off around the service park looking for him, and finally tracked him down. I quickly explained the situation as he fired up the generator and set up for the tyre. He warned us that the machine was playing up on him, but he would try his best. The old tyre, complete with a hole in the side wall big enough to put my hand through, came off the rim easily, however, the replacement tyre did not want to fit back on, as the locating claws on the tyre changer could not grip the damaged 13" rim. Watching the clock Deb decided we could not afford to loose any more time, so we left the tyre man struggling with our tyre and sprinted back to the car. As I switched the ignition on realized that in all the scampering about we had forgotten to refuel the car. In a mad dash we grabbed the jerry can (at least I remembered to bring the fuel) and splashed a load into the car.

We hurriedly motored off to the start of competitive stage three, having lost some of our late running time and dropping a couple of road positions. When we arrived at the start of comp three we found that the organizers, taking into account the dusty conditions, had extended the gap between each car from two to three minutes. This had caused a little bit of a bank up at the start control, but it gave me a little much needed time to collect myself together after our hurried exit from service.

Stages three and four were pretty tame. We didn't take any risks as we couldn't afford another puncture. We still were going fairly hard but our times were nothing to write home about.

Stage five was straight from the notes, no navigation involved. Debs calling was right on the money and we flew through the stage. We pushed hard on this one, trying to make up a little of the time we had lost with the puncture and then being too conservative on Comp 3 & 4. At one point in this stage we came over a slight rise going right when the road suddenly tightened right to avoid a large tree stump and then into a quick left, right combination around it. We slid the car into the tightening right and flicked it around for the left. As we hit the apex of the left hander the car became airborne on a tree root jutting out into the road. We landed halfway across the road, with opposite lock already dialed on to try and scramble around the immediate right. As we hit the road, the steering wheel was pulled from my hands and the car flicked right. I grabbed the wheel and piled on a load of opposite lock in the other direction and put my foot down again. It was all over in only a couple of seconds, but it definitely got the heart racing just that little bit harder. For the rest of the stage we just had the hammer down. It was such a buzz!

After the hype of competitive five it was back to service park. As it turned out, the tyre fitter had not been able to fit our new tyre to our rim from first service, so we were still without a spare. Patrina had raided her own car to see if the rim from the Corolla would fit the Daihatsu, but alas the stud spacing was marginally different. You've gotta love the initiative though!!

Once we had established that we still had no spare and there was nothing else we could do about it, we set about just doing regular service check, such as cleaning the windows and lights etc. I climbed under the car for a quick glance around and much to my surprise found that something solid had hit the underside of the car and smashed away one of the covers over the brake and fuel lines. The lines had been knocked from their clips and were all bent out of shape, but a quick inspection showed that none of them were leaking or had been crushed. I bent them back to where they should be roughly, then held them all in place with a couple of trusty cable ties before we headed off into the last two competitive stages.

Deb's medication for her cold, and possible her Quells combined, were starting to get to her and she misread a couple of calls on the transport stage on the way to comp six. It was nothing major, and it didn't cost us any time, however it did worry me a little that if she was getting calls wrong at road speed, what would she be like at competitive speed? Deb assured me that she was fine and would be concentrating 100% once we were back in the forest.

Competitive six was just straight forward navigation and we should have had a smooth run. Not all was well though, as our intercom started to drop in and out, at first just short dropouts and then eventually long periods of silence. This put an extra strain on Debs already sore throat as she had to shout directions to me over the road noise.

Stage seven was our last blast, 21kms straight from the notes, most of it retracing our steps from comp one. About half way through the stage Deb called a turn left at crossroads. We were approaching a crest at speed and I knew the left turn would be just over the top. We backed off as we reached the top of the hill but the corner came up a little quicker than I had expected. I had already started to turn, but realizing that we weren't going to make it round, I pulled the car back into a straight line and overshot the intersection. Once we had crossed the road and knocked off the excess speed I flicked the car round on the handbrake to take what was now a right hander, only to find that the intersection had completely disappeared in a huge think cloud of our own dust. It was amazing, we just couldn't see a thing!! We had to wait a couple of seconds before we could safely move again!

Later on, towards the end of the stage was a series of bends called as road goes left over race, then turn left and then it was a slight left again to follow the main road. On the second of the bends we cut the corner just a leeettle bit too fine and I gave the mirror on Deb's side of the car a big clout. She didn't event flinch. {Click for Pix}

Right at the end of the final stage we picked up another puncture on the rear. Thankfully this was only a small, slow leak, and we were able to complete the final transport stage before it went too flat.

That was our event. We got back to Rally HQ (and a hot cup of coffee) in the small hours of the morning. We had a look around at the damage some of the other competitors had sustained. For a pleasant change there was next to no damage to our machine, just the smashed mirror with not another mark down the side of the car.

We placed 19th outright and 3rd in class. One of the competitors ahead of us was not eligible for points so we picked up 5 points equivalent to 2nd. All this leaves us one point out in front in the race for Class A season honours. We were happy with the results, but will always wonder, what the outcome would have been, if we hadn't had the puncture on Comp 2........ That's motor sport!!

We camped out what was left of the night in sub zero temperatures, before waking to an ice covered landscape. {Click for Pix} We loaded all the gear up, said our good byes for now to the other hardy souls that had stayed over night and headed home.