NCCA

2002 Nissan Nightmoves Trial

22 July 2002

Heathcote

Nissan Nightmoves (Nightmares) has never been kind to us. Last year we ended the event, by trying to knock down an Ironbark tree with our little Charade. This years event was to be our thirteenth rally, and If I wasn't superstitious before, I am now.

The first hint that things weren't going to go to plan was on the Halda Check, when the trip computer had an internal haemorrhage. I flicked the switch to turn on the Trip and all I got was a screen full of gibberish. I tried the reset button with no luck. I raced back to the sports ground and delved into the tools only to find we didn't have a screwdriver small enough to break into the unit. I borrowed a screwdriver and found that the back-up battery had leaked inside damaging the circuit board. BUGGER!!
On the suggestion that someone might have a spare unit that we could just plug into place, I covered the entire ground checking each car in turn and asking those that were running a Rally Mate if they had an extra one to lend. I even found a crew with the exact same problem, with the exact same unit as us. I was getting desperate as I got down to the last couple of crews before I found one with a spare which they happily handed it over. Thank you Michael, you have no idea how relieved we were.

We headed off into the event, not having had the time to calibrate the trip after a hurried installation. We missed a 'bear right' towards the end of the stage, and before we knew what was what we had repeated a large chunk of the stage. Deb was kicking herself for not picking up on our mistake before too much time was lost, but she soon settled down after hearing that a lot of other crews had made the same blunder.
On stage two we also deviated slightly from the route, but soon realized we had made a mistake. Only problem was that we got so turned around that when we got back to the correct road we weren't sure which way we were running, and Deb was getting flustered, so we had to pause at the intersection waiting for the next car to pass so we knew which way to turn. I couldn't imagine anything worse than going back up the stage and coming head to head with another competitor in the pitch black.

Despite our detours, by the end of competitive three we were up to second in the class, with two competitors in the class already out before first service.

First service was fairly relaxed, but while Deb was away trying to work out where we stood so far, I misread the distance to next service and we put too much fuel in for the next three stages. Not the end of the world, but it would slow us down a bit and the extra fuel sloshing around can sometimes cause the car to unbalance half way round the corner as it surges in the tank.

Comp four was short and sweet, a little dust being the only problem on the stage. Comp five was also a short dash, just over eleven Kms fully route charted.

Stage six was the one that concerned me. The first five Kms or so was simply a repeat of stage four, however it was only about four Kms into this stage last season that I lost control, slamming into a tree. This year we had no such problem. If fact, quite the opposite. I was concentrating so hard that we posted fastest time in class A. It wasn't all plain sailing though. With a couple of Kms to go the steering started to feel 'delayed'. At first I thought we had a slow puncture on the front, but then I started to hear a knocking from the R/H/F making me think that we had perhaps broken another strut.

We made it out the stage without anything coming adrift, and then, thankfully, it was straight to service. The problem turned out to be a camber pin. It had stretched and come loose allowing a frightening amount of unchecked movement through the steering knuckle.

On Stage seven we took a wrong turn, distracted by a yellow ford Escort with a big tree as a bonnet emblem (know that feeling too well!), and had to go back, losing about thirty seconds.
Stage eight was nothing special, and by now we were in sight of a comfortable second place in class, but as they say in motor sport, it's not over until you pass that last control !!!
We started to get a bit of an exhaust noise in stage nine, and about six Kms into the final stage it suddenly got a lot worse, finally snapping the engine pipe. We stopped to wire and patch it up before carrying on about another five Kms when it broke again. This time the rear section of the exhaust hit the road trying to pole-vault the car while half way around a bend. We wired it back up and limped to the end of the stage. We light footed it past the houses on the final liaison and then hit a wall of the thickest fog I had ever driven in.
Somehow we managed to feel our way back to rally HQ, dropping only one place to third in class. This and the fact that Marton/Lee snapped a drive shaft on comp 1 meant that we held our one point advantage in the class A championship chase.

Sadly, for political reasons, this may be the last Nissan Nightmoves run in these forests, and while they are definitely car breakers and at times spirit crushing, if they were to go, they would be sorely missed.