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A Weekend at Burnie.		Thur, 10 Jul 2008
The Never Say Dai Rally Team recently packed it's bags, and boarded a ship… to Tasmania. The land of apples, potatoes, fine beer cheese wine and chocolate… and some of the best rally roads in Australia. The Hellyer Rally 2008 saw us place 12th outright and second in class. Click Here to read a full event report....

hellyer_2008.ht

NSDRT heads to Tassie.		Thur, 29 May 2008
The Never Say Dai Rally Team is headed for the Apple Isle…… Over the weekend of June 14, the Never Say Dai Rally Team, and a small army of other Victorian crews are invading the Northern Tasmanian city of Burnie to contest round 3 of the 2008 Tasmanian Rally Series, the 2008 Hellyer Rally. A driving holiday earlier in the year inspired Deb and Mark to make the effort to head back south for a rally as soon as possible. After the disappointment of the Bega Rally cancellation we were reminded that one of the events we were considering, but discounted because of the Bega clash, was now back on the cards. Wheels were soon in motion piecing together the logistics of getting the rally car, crew and support crew and vehicles down to Tas for a long weekend. While it's a little more complicated than just putting the car on a trailer and driving for hours, it's really not that much dearer to cross the Strait than driving to NSW or SA in pursuit of a new event. With entries posted and the boat booked it's now just a matter of finishing some repairs after incurring some minor damage at the Bonnie Doon Rally. Stay tuned, for update and results.

2007 Victorian Rally P1 Champions.		Wed, 12 Mar 2008
It would be fair to say I've neglected this section of the site for a while. It can be hard when you're prepping a rally car, chasing the finances to run it and trying to hold down a job/family/normal life stuff etc to find the time just to sit and type.... Anyway, now I'm updating. Season 2007 of the Victorian Rally Championship is one that we will remember forever. Deb and I started rallying in 1999, and in 2003 we contested our first State Championship round. In 2004 we suffered a heavy crash towards the end of the season while leading the class and lost the title at the last minute. Deb did go on to win the P1 Co-Drivers title that year but it was a TEAM title that we were chasing. It took 2005 to recover from 2004. 2006 was an on and off year developing the new car and while we had some great results in club series rounds, we lacked pace in the state level events that we contested. Roll on 2007. We came out all guns blazing with the aim of finally capturing the title that had eluded us so far, and this is how it unfolded: Round one, the Cerberus Stages, was a wet and slippery affair, but we stayed on the road and suffered no mechanical dramas to record a class win. Round two saw a new event on the calendar, the East Gippsland Stages. We approached the rally as best prepared as we could be driving into the unknown, but at the start line we were surprised by the news that the McKenzies Tourist Services team had suffered an engine failure just prior to the event and would not be contesting the round. This was a huge pressure off us, and meant that we could just go out for a fun run in the bush without worrying too much about defending our points lead. This was almost our undoing as we had a moment or two while having a little too much fun! In the end we made it home, with a few minor (mainly electrical) dramas along the way to record a fairly easy class win. 2 of 2! With a healthy lead in the class and a shortage of funds, the team opted to skip the Round three road trip to NSW for the Bega Rally. It was a calculated gamble, which was to cause us some nervous moments towards the end of the season, but it was decided that the money we would have spent on this round could be put to better use elsewhere in the Championship. The 49th running of the George Derrick Memorial Rally got flooded out (in the middle of a drought!?!) and so the Akademos was promoted to Round 4 and the GDM Rally got bumped down to round seven. In the past the Akademos has been run in some very ordinary conditions, and as we did our Saturday recce in the snow, it seemed 2007 was to be no different. On the Sunday however, we awoke to birds in the trees and a bright sunny Spring day. The mayor of Alexandra flagged us off as we headed for the hills. The roads were fast and dry. We were using a new pacenote system for the first time and this made for some interesting moments. At one point about halfway through the rally, we arrived at a T intersection at about two gears higher than we should have been. I had no choice but to bail out. Pulling on the handbrake we executed a perfect 180 degree spin stopping with our rear bumper only a few mm from the bank on the other side and having what Deb describes as a Marcus Gronholm moment as we sat a little disorientated in our own dust saying "Which way? Which way?"!! This minor indiscretion aside we had a successful event notching up yet another class win and more points in the Championship bank. Before the Akademos, Deb had indicated to me that she was not ready to face the Rally of Melbourne again just yet. It was this event in 2004 that ended our title chase, but this year it was even more vital to be there and do well, as the two heats counted as separate events. Double points up for grabs on one weekend. Deb's decision was a bitter pill to swallow. A Stand in co-driver was subbed into Deb's seat so that the team could contest the event. Young Sandra Cuttle did an excellent job having been 'chucked in at the deep end' in her first pace-noted Special Stage rally. Day one was problem free for us, though we did miss a couple of stages in the middle of the day and were allocated derived times after we came up on a fiery blockade on stage three as another competitors car burned down in front of us. On day two we bent some suspension after hitting a deep rut that I had neglected to include in the notes, and then we had a traffic issue on the final liaison which caused us to run dangerously low on fuel for last competitive stage around the Healsville sports ground complex. We crossed the line with the engine cutting out to notch up two wins from two days. The McKenzies Tourist Services team suffered more mechanical woes in this event withdrawing from day one with an overheating engine in the little Suzuki, and after overnight repairs returned for day two only to shatter a gearbox on stage 14. This basically handed the 2007 title to Deb and I. The postponed George Derrick Memorial Rally became the final round of the Victorian Rally Championship after being resheduled due to the July Gippsland floods. With an unbeatable points lead in the class for the year, Deb and I thought we had the title wrapped up, so the Derrick was going to be just for a laugh. We toyed with the idea of entering the piggybacked club series event, swapping seats so that Deb could have a drive. It was then pointed out to us that because Deb hadn't contested the Rally of Melbourne and we had opted to skip Bega, Deb had not entered enough events to qualify to be classed as a Champion. Suddenly the Derrick became vitally important. We didn't have to win, we didn't even have to finish... To secure the title all we had to do was to cross the start line! After some last minute help from one of our sponsors to raise the funds to field a Championship entry we crossed the start at Rawson in early December to become the 2007 Victorian Rally P1 Champions. The event itself was a big horse-power affair, with the turbo 4WD cars disappearing into the distance. We had a blast, spending a lot of time flat to the boards in top gear, even negotiating a triple caution at over 130km/h. It was loads of fun... It's taken nine years (nearly a third of my life) and three cars, more dollars than is reasonable and god only knows how many hours of work... But we're here. A huge thankyou to all our supporters and sponsors. To Mark and Ange who have serviced, housed, fed and helped us out so often and in so many ways they can't all be listed here...this title is as much yours as ours. This is the best sport in the world, and when you achieve something like this after chasing it for so long.... Wow, it feels magic. We're having a quiet year in 2008. We don't have the funds to back up and defend our title. Keep an eye out for us at selected events (state and club rounds) just for fun, and stay tuned here for updates as we have a few developments planned for the car. More soon....

Quiet Mid-season Break.		Sat, 29 Jul 2007
Round 4 of the Victorian Rally Championship was scheduled to run on July 28, but due to the recent floods that laid ruin to much of Gippsland over the last couple of weeks, CCRMIT was forced to postpone the 49th running of the George Derrick memorial Trial. This means there is no VRC rally action until the middle of October when the Akademos runs around Thornton. This long forced break, while disappointing, is a chance for the team to do some mid season maintenance on the car and piece together the finances to complete the season. We already had to skip round 3 of the Championship up at Bega because of the cost, and still to come this year is the Rally of Melbourne (Rnd 6&7), by far the most financially draining event on the calendar. It is unclear at this stage if the postponed round 4 will be run later in the year. CCRMIT is potentially looking at early December, but there are a lot of if's and maybe's. We will keep you posted as more information comes to hand.

Walkover in the East.		Sat 12 May 2007
Round 2 of the Victorian Rally Championship, the East Gippsland Stages was run out of Bairnsdale last weekend. Some of the roads were a real challenge to read thanks to the 80 metre wide fire breaks and numerous crests, but we didn't put a mark on the car and posted another class win, our second for the season. It was a easy win and in the end we even backed right off for the last couple of night time stages due to a Terratrip problem making Deb a little unsure as to the distances between some of the cautions (and there were many). The Sanders had a terrible lead up to the event, blowing a head gasket and overheating the little Suzuki while doing a pre-event test, so the defending class champions didn't even make the start line in Bairnsdale. The event ran in two sections, first at day, then a night section. This was a great concept giving us a bit of everything. There was a couple of bridges used in the event that started to come apart as the night progressed making crossing them a little interesting for our little Charade. Our regular service crew were unavailable the weekend of the event so we required another. Big thank you to Lofty and Patrina for standing in. We made sure they had very little to do in the hour long service break, but a quick check of the car and then some fresh scones with jam and cream!! (It's great when the locals do catering!). At this stage funding is an issue so it is likely that the Never Say Dai Rally Team will have to miss the road trip to NSW for the Bega round, but we will be back, regrouped and ready for action at the end of July for 49th George Derrick Memorial Trial, round 4 of the Victorian Rally Championship. We look forward to seeing you in the forest.

Heading East for round 2.		Wed, 25 Apr 2007
Round 1 of the Victorian Rally Championship, the Cerberus Stages was run in wet conditions despite the current drought. The area around Neerim was under a total fire ban the day before the event and during the event we were paddling in mud! Click here for picture. For the Never Say Dai Rally Team the event went well. There was a slight teething problem with the new gearbox, but nothing too drastic. Our arch rivals in their Suzuki suffered a far more serious gearbox drama forcing them to park the car on stage 2. We had a second gear spin in early in stage three, but with the Sanders out, the pressure was off, so the handful of seconds that we lost restarting the car counted for nothing. From here to the end of the rain shortened event we drove for a safe finish. 31st outright saw us take a class win and an early lead in the Championship. That was a month ago. Round two, the East Gippsland Stages is only a couple of weeks away. The Sanders have their car up and running again, and we have been ironing out the little glitches that affected our run at the Cerberus Stages. Running out of Bairnsdale the East Gippsland event is a little further East that originally planned due the serious bushfire that Victoria suffered over the summer. Starting at about 1pm on Saturday 5th of May from the Main street, the event is going to be run in two sections, day and night totalling about 200kms. A comprehensive spectator guide will be available at the start of the event on Saturday. There will be two alternative points in the forest. Each point is visited two times by crews, once during the day and once at night. We look forward to seeing you in the forest.

Countdown Has Begun.		Sat, 17 Mar 2007
It's been a little while since an update. Work has been rolling along on the car at a steady pace and we should be ready for a short test run in the next day or two. Round One of the Victorian Rally Championship is only one week away. The event is being run out of Neerim, (east of Melbourne) on Saturday March 24th, starting at 11.00 at Neerim Oval where spectator guides will be available. The roads in this area are a lot of fun and suit both car and driver. We'd be lying if we said there weren't a few nerves heading into season 2007. Trying to take the P1 title in 2006 was always going to be a tall order, with the debut of a brand new and un-tested car built from the ground up in-house, and of course being our comeback season after our 2004 crash. We proved that the team lacked nothing in car building and preparations, with a snapped suspension bolt in the first event being our only technical drama all year. We were a little off the pace for most of the year, but when we analyzed this, we discovered that we hadn't lost any of our winning speed of 2004, but simply that the competition had got faster while we had been away. For the 2007 season the car has been developed a little to try and get us back up to the pace of the front runners. A new gearbox has been built, and we are taking a slightly different approach to the way we setup our suspension and a few other small developments. All the work, as always, has been done in-house and on a very tight budget. Further development is planned later in the year as finances allow, but for now we feel we have the right equipment to tackle the challenging Gippsland roads of the first two rounds of the championship. We look forward to seeing you all in the forests around Neerim on the 24th.

Preparations Continue.		Tue, 6 Feb 2007
Last week we got the final part for our new gearbox back from the metal hardener and the box should be together by the end of the week. We found the guys at Metal Treatment Services in Clayton to be very helpful and prompt and I would strongly recommend them to anyone requiring metal treatment. Click here for their website Other works are coming along well with the long weekend spent on some rewiring, and fabrication of some new in-car fittings. We are still short a couple of brake hoses and a few other little bits and piece, but the car will be ready for the start of the season Our plan is to have the car ready in time for the Challenge of Clubs Trial running on the 10th of March, and to use this event as a bit of a shakedown for the Vic rally Championship. This is still to be confirmed. All going well, and depending on the Victorian fire situation, the Victorian Rally Championship should kick off on March 24 with the Cerberus Stages around Powelltown and Noojee. As soon as our plans for the year are finalised with the team we will post a full season of event here on the site. Until then, stay tuned for the next update.... coming soon.

Happy New Season.		Tue, 23 Jan 2007
Ok ok, so it's been a while since I've done an update. I've been copping flack from all quarters about it. Happy New Year to you all. I hope Santa brought you what you wanted. I didn't find Daihatsu Works funding or a factory drive in my stocking…. Guess that's coming next year :) My new year's resolution is to stay up to date with the website. We'll see how I go. Season 2007 is well into the planning stage. Our aim is to go one better in the Victorian Rally Championship P1 class after coming runner up to the Sanders again in 2006. We are implementing a number of measures to ensure that we have the best shot we can at this. The car is undergoing some equipment updates for both performance and reliability. A close ratio gear set is currently under production and should be fitted before round one. Brakes are also receiving some attention with thanks to our sponsors, and we have changed our wheel/tyre combination. We are hoping to get in some tyre testing before the start of the season. There were no mechanical dramas for the Never Say Dai Rally Team in season 2006, a fact that we are very proud of considering that the car was built from scratch in-house and finished just in time for round one of the championship. If you haven't already seen the video, there is a time lapse of the production of the new car here on the website. We are striving to maintain that record in 2007. There will be a few new innovations added to the website over the coming months as well… so stay tuned Next Update: Soon (I promise)