With WRC fast approaching and having set ourselves a goal of having our Bronze Rally CAMS license for the events, we needed to find someone insane enough to assess us in the field. That was planned for Rally Queensland earlier this year but… it just never happend.
We were able to find another event close by that we could attend and hopefully have someone eyeball us and give us the nod. So off to Benarkin we went.
Coates Rally Qld
March 31 to April 1, 2007
Now that was a rush, a bit of a whirlwind tour and I still haven’t unpacked the trailer. But that’s ok, pictures are up, video is yet to be edited.
I didn’t race in this one, it was a weekend away with the crew to enjoy, no vehicle breakage intended (Az!). I’d contacted Greg Sewell of Brisbane Sporting Car Club (BSCC) a while back to volunteer our services in recovery, such was not to be, the Sierras being judged a tad undersize for the job. Greg however did keep in touch and when the need for SOS volunteers came up we jumped at it.
What’s an SOS crew do? Well the BSCC flier can be found in our downloads area at www.pointnshoot.org, but in short, we provided a regular check of vehicle location (every 5k) by VHF back to rally comms central and logged intermediate time via Skynet. It also meant if a car failed to proceed near us, we fed information back on the crew, their vehicle and the ongoing viability of the track.
In practice, we head out early, set up camp beside the track and kick back till our stage (Cutters Long) was opened. After that, it’s a bit of organised mayhem, not helped by the fact that our stage seemed to claim a fair bit of metal.
A confusion at the start (shared with Cutters North) meant that the Corolla of Evans and Subaru of Herridge were both pulled up on Day One (SS 6), then issued adjusted times for the stage. Our input, trying to yellow flag the flying Subaru as he came through, a better prospect than the driver of the Zero car at Long 10 who was tasked with pulling him in!
Further carnage ensued when the new S2000 Corolla of Bates ceased to proceed 100m down the hill from us, teething problems with the fuel system cost about 15 minutes, while I checked through the dust cloud with each passing competitor to make sure Neal and Carol were still intact! I must say, it was a fairly calm and controlled business of roadside diagnosis and repair.
Various other cars suffered damage on Cutters Long SS6, an old Lotus Cortina in the classics blew a half shaft (did it again day two SS15), a Gemini flipped between us and Long 10 and upon cruising the maintenance park Saturday night, plenty had found the trees and kept going.
Saturday night, Nambour Showgrounds, MASSIVE CROWDS!
Nambour packed itself into the showgrounds I swear 80-90% of the town was there! I know we had trouble finding a feed other than Maccas in town. It was a good indication of local support for rally racing, and the outlook for WRC next year. The cars put on a good show in the two car pursuit, although I’m not sure the media crews trackside enjoyed it so much, dirt circle racing gets a bit boring for the drivers, so a running competition of spray the sidelines ensued.
There were some good displays of buggies, 4WD, drag and other motorsport styles but no doubt the ARC boys were the stars for the night.
Day two, we slept in. Till 0700!!
Then out to the SOS point again, reverse order meant we’d be seeing the ARC then QRC then classics. Mitsubishi’s and Subaru’s were popular in the field, as were the old Datto 1600’s, Car 47, the XC Falcon of Harris Autospares was a hoot to see fanging through the pines.
More carnage, with four recovery rigs following sweep in at the end of the day, they nearly needed to recover me after I trotted off to find the Brisbane Proton Satria, ass high in a gully at 6.4km, no damage, just driver error.
It was great to see the local community around Imbil getting involved, a warm welcome was rolled out to all the crews at the local pub and cafes, with live music Friday night and the local scout troop running a very reasonable carwash at the showgrounds (a great place to eyeball the cars up close). Another pleasant surprise was the number of ladies in the field at all levels, navigators and drivers, this probably reflects the family networks that support many of the competitors in the sport.
By 1500 Sunday, we were done and well and truly dusted, a car every two minutes will do that. Packing the trailer just as the rain started falling, we headed out up the track back to Imbil, rally cars still pushing hard on the West Traverse.
All in all, a good weekend, that I’ll be keen to repeat.
If you want to help out, on Road Block or SOS, contact BSCC (3846 0233) or Greg Sewell (0428 55 00 62) and maybe we’ll see you in the scrub.
