Ballarat Light Car Club
2001 Daryl S Tunbridge Memorial Trial
RCRS Rnd 1
5th May 2001
Ballarat/Scarsdale area
With our regular service crew (Deb's parents) unavailable for this rally, the job fell to my Parents. They were a bit apprehensive at first, but once I had briefed them as to what was required, they got right into the spirit. My ever thoughtful mum made sure we had all the eats and drinks we needed, while my dad made some phone calls and secured us a trailer.
This was a new experience. Usually, we would drive to an event..... and then drive home, assuming we didn't have a major incident or mechanical failure (which we haven't yet... touch wood!). We stay the night somewhere close to the event, as driving home, even if it is only an hour or two, is asking for trouble for the simple reason that after an event you are so tired. This time with the trailer, we didn't have you worry too much about the state of the car at the finish, so we could push that little bit harder in the stages. Also we got home the same night with the service crew driving, as Deb and I slept peacefully in the back.
We arrived at book in on time this time. My dad and I unloaded the car, while Deb went off to sort out the paper work. Once she returned with the route book we set about working the stages on the map. From the map we then transferred the landmarks, cautions, intersections, possible navigational traps and distances onto a separate piece of paper, as clearly written route notes. This was one of the strategies we had come up with after our DNF at the previous event. We figured if the notes were clearer to Deb, then less strain on her eyes would help with the motion sickness.
The first transport stage was fairly long but without incident. We arrived at the start control of first competitive stage in plenty of time, to fine tune seating positions and make sure that we were prepared for the start of the rally proper.
Once again we approached the first stage of this event with the "build up to the limit and then take half a step back" policy that has seen us not yet seriously bend the car. As we do more events we become more comfortable with the car and our system of communication in the car, and we can find that optimum level quicker. The car was feeling good and our arrangement of driving from the notes seemed to be working. As we reached each instruction Deb would cross it out and call the next one. Due to the fact that the notes were taken second hand from the map, they weren't 100% accurate but we managed to link them all together. Suddenly, however, we found ourselves arriving back at the start of the stage. Somewhere we had gone wrong........ Very wrong.
At the time all we could do was turn around and start the stage again. We drove slowly, making double sure we had each instruction covered so we wouldn't make the same mistake again, although at the time we had no idea where we had gone so wrong. About five Kilometres back into the stage we had to slow as we came across another crew walking back up the road towards us. We stopped to check they were OK as the were obviously pretty shaken up. They told us that they were uninjured but their car was blocking the road, having tripped in a ditch and rolled on a fast downhill stretch a couple of hundred metres on. They did briefly ask us how we got behind them as they were the last car on the road, but then waved us on. We squeezed cautiously past their stricken Datsun and finished the stage without any further incident.
We didn't work out what had happened in Comp 1, until the event had finished a couple of hours later. We sat down with the map, and from the extra distance we had travelled, worked out where we had taken the wrong turn. Thinking back I remember doubting my reaction to one of Deb's calls but I had thought nothing more of it at the time. As it turns out I had taken a right turn when Deb had called left.
If you take a look at the section of the map shown here, you will see the pink route we were supposed to follow from "A" to "Z", and the red path that we did trace. From starting point (A) we were on track for the first half of the stage, however as we reached point "E" we went right, retracing the first three Kms of the stage before arriving back at point "A" and the bewildered start officials. Luckily being so far down the starting order meant that by the time we started going backwards up a section of the stage, the last car had already passed that point, other wise we might have met another competitive car head on! As it was, my 'little' driver error, cost us around twenty minutes.
First service stop was between Competitive one and two. By the time we arrived, our service crew was getting a little worried. We were well past our estimated arrival time, and as one of the last cars on the road, all the other service crews were moving off to Service 2. The car was running fine so we just took advantage of the 10 minute break. Deb took a short walk for fresh air while I just relaxed.
We motored calmly through Comp 2, as our first stage error was still fresh in our minds. We negotiated some fairly rough sections and the underside of the car took a pounding. Second service was only a minute or two from the end of competitive stage 2. Our crew had only just arrived as we pulled up. We set up a light to have a good look at the potential damage under the car but thankfully it was minimal.
By this time Deb had been hit with another bout of car sickness. She decorated the forest with a little technicolour yawn during the break, and finding that she felt a little better for it, we decided to continue on. This time we planned to push a little harder.
Competitive 3 was short and enjoyable. We clipped a rock on the inside of a turn about half way in, but it didn't affect the handling too much. Late in the stage we fell off our notes a little, and gave a couple of road closure officials a bit of a fright as we turned towards them instead of away. At the end of the stage Deb was still feeling reasonable healthy.
The notes for the forth and final competitive stage were straight from the events route book, so we didn't have to worry about inaccuracies in our note taking. We flew through the stage, the only slight error being an overshoot on a bend. We finished our event on a high note and without a scratch on the car.
When we reached the final control at rally HQ, we found that the crew that had rolled in Comp 1 were feverishly working on what was left of their car. As it turned out it was also their transport home. This is one of my fears and the reason that I'm going to try and secure a trailer for each event we compete in from now onwards.
All up it was a fairly eventful night. There was a fair few DNF's. There was a number of mechanical problems amongst the other teams, and at least three cars rolled. One of these was the only other car in our capacity class. Unbeknownst to us until the end, they had turned the car over on stage two, handing us the class win despite our massive loss of time in the first stage. It's not really the most satisfying way to win the class, but strictly speaking we did out drive them on this particular night by simply staying on the road.