Yarraman Rally is Cancelled

[skypilot]

Hi All,
Unfortunately the rain has got us again. Yarraman Rally is CANCELLED for tomorrow 6th September. Whilst there hasn't been a huge amount of rain, the roads that have been recently graded are now impassable. We are trying to find another date to move to and will let you know asap.
We are obviously extremely disappointed as are the local community who were geared up to cater for us.

Regards,
Nikki Doyle (secretary)
Adrian Dillon (clerk of course)
Dave Gaines (assistant clerk of course)
Peter Stringfellow (chief scrutineer)

[Dave Scott]

We need to run Tarmac rallys :rofl:

Dave

[MSA77]

anyone organized a day at Kennedy's instead , your all ready to go , would be silly not to go and play , the chances of to much rain there are usually pretty remote , or does everyone want to curl back up in the corner and be defeated

[skypilot]

Quite happy in my corner thankyou.

Paying someone to drive up and down the same piece of road all day just doesnt appeal. Going for a drive through the hills and enjoying the scenery seems much cheaper and almost as productive.

[nummy]

box them all up till next year

[MSA77]

Justin dont take this the wrong way and its meant as support for you , but of all the people in the excel series your the one that most needs time behind the wheel , same bit of road or not ,

[Latho]

Justin, as Nathan said, don't take this the wrong way, but he is 100% on the money... The ONLY difference between a 2nd outright, and embarassingly slow is practice... You've got no less talent than me, but the difference is that I've been up and down those 2 bits of Kennedy's Road hundreds of times. You've got over 2 km's in each direct out from the hut. That's close to 10km of unique road... No less than a stage in a rally sprint.

The other good thing about running the same bit of road is that you can test all the things that people argue about for yourself, and immediately see the results.

- Sway bar setup (Trying with and without at each end, and seeing what works).
- Tyres (I'll happily lend you a set of R800 Khumo's for a couple of runs, so you can compare them to the Silverstone).
- Left foot braking.
- AND PRACTISE!

Not to mention the ability to have people in the car instructing you, or going in a car with someone. All this without the pressure of an event.

Dude, again, don't take this the wrong way, but telling me that you aim to be 44th in a 44 car field is pretty poor when you have a crack at someone who's suggested an ideal day in which to rectify that...

For those that don't know what Kennedy's practise complex looks like this was the vid from when we were there a couple of weeks ago:
http://www.vimeo.com/1550493

[kelvin]

I been to a few IWMAC test and tunes at Willowbank autocross. First Sunday of the month, but probably not this Sunday (father's day, too wet, etc).
They are great for doing car setup. Do a few laps, check tyre pressure & temp, fiddle camber, etc.
I think you can book the track for a few hundred ????? Divided by 5 cars plus other drivers in the same car plus a few invites. Would make a good social day out too. Navies get to have a drive.

[Latho]

Yep, agreed! Although Kennedy's is a bit of a drive away compared to Willowbank, the ability to be able to run rally tyres, on a actual gravel road is too great of an incentive not to go there instead... Its only 10 mins past where we go for Jimna Rally Sprints anyways...

Question Justin... If NDSCC came back and said that could run 1 x 10km stage, 6 times, call it a rallysprint, for $130 dollar entry fee ($400 Kennedy's fee divided by 3 cars) would you have gone up? And what would've been more productive, an event, or a test day in which to improve for the postponed event?

Just a thought! :p

[kelvin]

You've just answered my next Question. Cost.
$400 between 3 cars is a lot. Willowbank between 10 drivers is cheaper, multiple drivers. Rodney can drive my car at Willowbank, but no way at Jimna. Mistakes at Willowbank are minor.
If you can get 5 drivers, I'll be there. Who else??

[VTRacing]

G'day folks. This is my first post on this forum.

In my view, running at Kennedy's is preferable to running at Willowbank, for the simple reason that Kennedy's allows you to run rally tyres.

The behaviour of a car on road tyres at the autocross track bears no resemblance to how it will behave on a gravel stage, so any setup ideas you try at Willowbank you will have to confirm again on gravel.

The only thing Willowbank is useful for is gaining confidence with throwing the car around. But again, I've found that even if I'm comfortable at Willowbank, that confidence does not translate to confidence on a rally, because the surface and the behaviour of the tyres is so different.

In potentially awesome news though, I have heard that a proper gravel rally test road will be going in shortly just behind Queensland Raceway, and that rally tyres will be permitted.

Anyway, that's enough off-topic from me :) It sucks that Yarraman has been cancelled / postponed. :(

[Latho]

You've just answered my next Question. Cost.
$400 between 3 cars is a lot. Willowbank between 10 drivers is cheaper, multiple drivers. Rodney can drive my car at Willowbank, but no way at Jimna. Mistakes at Willowbank are minor.
If you can get 5 drivers, I'll be there. Who else??
Yeah but you're not comparing apples with apples... Running at Kennedy's, and running around the autocross track, in which the surface goes hard, rubbers up, and 'Race Slicks' is the ideal choice of rubber is like comparing hire karts with formula 1...

$130 to do what you want, with as many km's as you can fit in a day is fantastic value.. In fact last time I was up there, I turned what was still quite a good set of rubber, into pretty average rubber (hey matt! :p) I did that many k's...

[kelvin]

Many points which we could argue forever.

Car balance, braking balance will be very similar at Willowbank.
And as Greg suggested. The more time behind the wheel, on the limit, the more you improve. Whether go-karts or F1.
Rally tyres are too expensive to waste on testing, and if you use worn out rally tyres, that's not much different to street tyres anyway. My idea for Kennedy's would be most of the day on road tyres for basic sorting (I have piles of near new tyres, Rodney works at Sandgate Wreckers (free)) wih a few runs to finish on rally tyres. Those with more money than me would disagree.
I'd love to go to Kennedy's. It's been a while since I've driven and need lots of practice. Just need reasonable numbers.

[gremli9]

And photo ops at Kennedys?
Was looking forward to going for a drive and taking some pics.
And if ive got no excuse not to i might end up at work :splat:

[MSA77]

again we get back to getting time behind the wheel , peope are woundering why greg has been putting in some good times at the few rallys we have had , its all about basic set is good and time behind the wheel

[skypilot]

Sorry Greg just got back from unpacking.

I am not sure what I would do, for me I need alot more than just 60kms to justify the expense and time. If we organised a picnic and 20 other cars like an event i would love to go but a test day is just to expensive for me. Rallying for me is about the whole experiance from car prep to socialising in the pits to the driving and the beer afterward. To spend $130.00 on entry fee's, $100.00 on fuel and $600.00 on tyres (assuming I learn to destroy them like you did) to just drive at the test cente is not what I am in it for. To be honest the clean up day at Yarraman was nearly as rewarding as a rally if it had not been for the flu I was fighting. Guys read it how you like but I am in this gig for fun and since I am paying most of the bills it has to be fun for me or its not worth doing it.

[Filthy]

Well as for my 2 cents worth.
It's fathers day and I get to be pampered for once, we will get a Rally in yet.
By the way Happy Birthday Greg, for Saturday:hoot:

[rob323]

I am not sure what I would do, for me I need alot more than just 60kms to justify the expense and time. If we organised a picnic and 20 other cars like an event i would love to go but a test day is just to expensive for me. Rallying for me is about the whole experiance from car prep to socialising in the pits to the driving and the beer afterward. To spend $130.00 on entry fee's, $100.00 on fuel and $600.00 on tyres (assuming I learn to destroy them like you did) to just drive at the test cente is not what I am in it for. To be honest the clean up day at Yarraman was nearly as rewarding as a rally if it had not been for the flu I was fighting. Guys read it how you like but I am in this gig for fun and since I am paying most of the bills it has to be fun for me or its not worth doing it.

Agreed.
Besides, the best thing about Kennedy's is the road from the main road into the place.

[Latho]

Besides, the best thing about Kennedy's is the road from the main road into the place.
That's what we're talking about dude... The track hasn't been used in years.

[rob323]

Last time we asked (which was a few years ago), we couldn't use the road as you had to have road blocks at either end and radios and had to allow access to the deer hunters. But that was a few years ago.

The track is boring and breaks cv joints, doesn't it Greg :)

[Latho]

The track is boring and breaks cv joints, doesn't it Greg :)
Haha... jeez that was a while ago now! That was in the Civic! And again I have to say thank you for assistance that day!!!

Na road, both up to the main road, and down to Kev's place is definitely open for use. We've used them both twice this year already.
Video 1 from May:
http://www.new.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=19631946502
Video 2 from August:
http://www.vimeo.com/1550493

The road's in good nick, and there for the taking!