Whitey
05-01-2007, 09:23 PM
Farrant’s Rally, Gillett’s Series
Summer came early to Batemans Bay for the 2006 Bay Stages Rally. Saturday dawned fine, sunny and hot for the Round 5 of the Hyundai NSW Excel Series and consisted of 8 special stages.
The rally was won convincingly by Glenn Farrant and recently returned long term CoDriver Jason Woods, making his first appearance for the season. Farrant/Woods won every stage on the way to winning the event by well over 3 minutes. It was a dominant display of driving on some of the fastest roads in the 2006 Excel Series. Their event was not drama free however. They were slowed by a mushy brake pedal during the middle stages and then had the tripmeter fail on the rally’s longest stage "Western Distributor”.
Mick Gillett needed only to finish the event to score enough points to secure the title in the 2006 series and was driving to a plan. He was joined on this event by fellow Hyundai employee & regular co-driver Marek “Prettyboy” Didzowski. The plan was on track until a slippery right hander on SS6 where they ran wide and hit a bank with the rear of the Excel. The car continued on over the bank and some 20 metres into the forest, mowing down some small vegetation before returning to the road with the crew a bit shaken but still in the event. At stage end they checked for damage and found the cars driving lights had broken glass lenses but still worked. The lights were pointing in all directions and the crew eagerly sought assistance from the service crew at the following service.
The second Hyundai supported car from Victoria was being piloted by Hyundai’s Senior Customer Care Manager and regular circuit racer Greg Sticker with Colin Haycroft in the Nav’s seat. This was Greg’s first competitive outing on dirt and he set a steady pace until he also struck trouble on the tricky SS6, where he put the car off the road sustaining suspension damage and was unable to continue.
Series regular Dave Roberts was breaking in a novice Codriver, Nicholas Tumbri.. Their event was to be over very early on when they hit trouble on a particularly fast section in Stage 2. The car slipping off the road, hitting a bank and rolling. Fortunately neither were injured and they scrambled from the car to warn following crews that the stricken car was partially blocking the road. The car will need some attention prior to the series final at the NatCap rally in Canberra on November 25.
Summer came early to Batemans Bay for the 2006 Bay Stages Rally. Saturday dawned fine, sunny and hot for the Round 5 of the Hyundai NSW Excel Series and consisted of 8 special stages.
The rally was won convincingly by Glenn Farrant and recently returned long term CoDriver Jason Woods, making his first appearance for the season. Farrant/Woods won every stage on the way to winning the event by well over 3 minutes. It was a dominant display of driving on some of the fastest roads in the 2006 Excel Series. Their event was not drama free however. They were slowed by a mushy brake pedal during the middle stages and then had the tripmeter fail on the rally’s longest stage "Western Distributor”.
Mick Gillett needed only to finish the event to score enough points to secure the title in the 2006 series and was driving to a plan. He was joined on this event by fellow Hyundai employee & regular co-driver Marek “Prettyboy” Didzowski. The plan was on track until a slippery right hander on SS6 where they ran wide and hit a bank with the rear of the Excel. The car continued on over the bank and some 20 metres into the forest, mowing down some small vegetation before returning to the road with the crew a bit shaken but still in the event. At stage end they checked for damage and found the cars driving lights had broken glass lenses but still worked. The lights were pointing in all directions and the crew eagerly sought assistance from the service crew at the following service.
The second Hyundai supported car from Victoria was being piloted by Hyundai’s Senior Customer Care Manager and regular circuit racer Greg Sticker with Colin Haycroft in the Nav’s seat. This was Greg’s first competitive outing on dirt and he set a steady pace until he also struck trouble on the tricky SS6, where he put the car off the road sustaining suspension damage and was unable to continue.
Series regular Dave Roberts was breaking in a novice Codriver, Nicholas Tumbri.. Their event was to be over very early on when they hit trouble on a particularly fast section in Stage 2. The car slipping off the road, hitting a bank and rolling. Fortunately neither were injured and they scrambled from the car to warn following crews that the stricken car was partially blocking the road. The car will need some attention prior to the series final at the NatCap rally in Canberra on November 25.