Rallye Des Femmes

[HMCA]

I'll start a quick report

I think we had 15 starters with Kimbo and Cathy seeded car 3, Naomi and Fro 9 and charlotte and Rick bringing up the rear.

We cruised down Friday after school and met up with the Mexicans for dinner and the team meeting to discuss tactics. Worked out the jobs for Sat morning and I relaxed with a coupla beers-how good is this team manager roll- drinks the night before:clap:

Saturday filled the excel to 1/2 a tank and filled 2 Jerrys (still untouched in the back of the trailer) followed Wayno out to Kowen- we got lost-Gavin the navman and Beryl tomtom are hopeless off the bitumen.:splat:

Moved the seat forward(gunna need my 6 year old to get it off the trailer) fitted the girls intercom and our Radio and worked out what rubber we were gunna use- the michos or the pirelli's & we chose the second hand dunlop volleys.

The event ran pretty smooth from here on but Cathy was a bit hard on the remote Zero (I think she thought is was her brake pedal) and the pin came out. Talk about silly things going wrong- 2008 has been about that silly things going wrong for the team!!

Well the car is home, washed and ready for 2010 well almost- Dan Carney needs to come up and clean the inside up- don't know what those girls got up to but is sure is dusty in there.

Now the thankyou's in no particular order

Mark and his team of officials put on a no bull event that was easy, simple great fun to compete at- well done guys:clap:

Wayno- this guy is always ready to go to another rally with us, no problems he hasn't been at home for a month, got back from Adelaide on Tuesday and drives to RDF with the trailer full of spares Thanks mate and no you can't have the clubby back!!! possession is 9/10's you know

JC if rallying had as much enthusiasm as this man all the bogan spectators at Homebush Bay watching the taxi races would be glued to their TV's or out in Kowen forest today. I recon JC spends 50% of his life doing rally stuff what an asset to our Excel rally series this guy is.

Trev and Dan for assisting with servicing today and keeping the girls focused on the job. It was good fun laying crap on you Dan- hope the flight home is OK.

Kimberley and Cathy- good job bringing the car home so high up the ladder and on the podium. Not a mark on it and it was good to get some communication and input on the setup and fix the Tyre pressures. I guess with Friday's media and sponsor commitments its been a pretty full on time, I hope you are rewarded.

The Smith family who's garage and Wednesday night we take up. Harv and I last competed in Kowen forest in about 1991 in the original version of Andew Fified's RX2 it was rough then too and the car was very hot- blocked Radiator.

Kylie and the kids for allowing my drug habit -dirty dirty dirty Roads that is!!!

and Hyundai for the opportunity to rally under their banner and use their resources.
cheers Mick

[HMCA]

here is a couple of photos I managed to get rightish

[gumbootracing]

Following on from Mick’s post, I too would like to extend thanks on behalf of Cathy and myself to the following people after the Rallye des Femmes. Firstly, Mark Kent, Jane Ward and the rest of their organising team; this was my first outing at RDF and it was a seamlessly run event. A special thanks also to all the officials and road closure guys and girls who were out there yesterday so that we could run, it was certainly hot and dusty and your dedication to rallying is much appreciated.

We'd like to thank Hyundai Motor Company Australia, Hyundai Genuine Parts, Ferntree Gully Hyundai and Mr Hyundai himself Mick Gillet. Thank you so much for everything, the use of the car, the organisation that went on behind the scenes, the preparation of the car and the other 1,000 things I’m sure that were done without us even realising. We’d also like to thank the service guys and gals, thankfully we returned the car in one piece such that there wasn’t much for you to do!!

Thanks must also go to Dad (Trevor Barson) and Daniel Carney for coming along to support us throughout the weekend.

I’d also like to thank John Carney from Team Gunnawyn Motorsport, 2009 has been a memorable year for me. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to compete in Victoria in one of your Excels and for the generous sponsorship by Traf Tractor and Machinery. Your enthusiasm for the sport is unsurpassed.

I have been very fortunate throughout the course of 2009, being afforded many fantastic opportunities all of which have culminated in a great drive and result at RDF (oh and the awesome car certainly helped too!!).

Rallye des Femmes turned out to be a much bigger weekend than I could have imagined, all starting very early on Friday morning at Ferntree Gully Hyundai for some promotional photos in the very fancy Hyundai race suits for which thanks must go to photographer extraordinaire Mr John Doutch. (Note: after a day in the Canberra heat and sun the fancy suits are still fancy, but are in desperate need of a clean!)

Finally, thanks to Cathy for agreeing to co-drive, you did a sterling job and kept me focussed throughout the day.

It was a fantastic event, one which I would love to compete in again and if anyone has any photos of us in Car 3 I would love to see them please (kimberleyb1981@optusnet.com.au).

Kimberley Barson and Cathy Rainer
Car 3

[Bargy]

This was actually Charie's (youngest daughter of my regular co-driver, Steve) debut rally as a driver and mine as a co-driver. Her driving experience to date is less than 1 year on her Ps and 2 khanacross events.

We went for a quick run on gravel on Friday night where Charlie managed to have a situation causing us to leave the main road unexpectedly. A grreat learing xperience for her. Fortunately, no damage. I also encouraged her to give left foot braking a bit of a go but she got confused a couple of times betweeen clutch and brake pedals. Interesting...

SS1 saw Charlie pushing a bit harder than I was comfortable with. 2/3 through the stage had us facing perpendicular to th road, looking down a VERY steep embankment. Somehow Charlie managed to pull the car up facing the right way along the road, but 4 metres off to the right with the nose ploughed into a large mound of dirt. Nearly 3 minutes later we managed to get the car back on terra firma and in the running again.

I managed to convince Charlie to back off just a tad for SS2 and things ran much more smoothly. Unfortunately, Charlie didn't have enough strength to work the handbrake properly so I was giving her a hand to get around the tighter corners.

As the day progressed, corners got smoother and faster - the only thing missing was her confidence with straight line speed (max speed for the day was 115 kph). Despite this lack of speed, we did just manage to get some air over the "yumps" and again coming off the bridge at the speccie point (SS9) followed by very smooth drift through the RGL past the bollards and then the 2 tight RGR past the spectator wall and off into the forest again.

Charlie drove really well, much better than expected for a first timer - we finished and didn't come last. And the car managed to get through with the only damage being a hole and scuffing to the front bumper (time for a new one anyway).

Thanks to the many volunteer oficials who made the day flow so smoothly.

Great fun, but give me the driver's seat any day!

[HMCA]

Here it is

[Mark H]

Here it is

:lmao::hail: Love the artwork

[John C]

you pair will keep:attack::spank::):

[Mooa42]

Nice work all, might have to get Nikk organised for 2010.

JohnC what a lovely pic, it really brings out the colour in your cheeks:lmao:

[Bargy]

A bit of a moment in SS1 for Charlie.

YouTube- Charlie in the HEMP

We only took 2'45" to get on our way again. Give me the steering wheel any day.