The Rally of the Manning Valley

[ae86trueno]

:hoot:

We had our first outing in the new Excel and all went well,
We completed all our objectives for the rally, which was good as we didnt get to do any amount of testing beforehand,

Mathew drove well and kept within limits he set for himself,
The car went really well didnt have to touch it all rally, except for the little amount of fuel it used, we did the whole rally on 50L of fuel !!! the Sprinter would have used double that.

It was interesting being in the silly seat for me, i didnt make too many mistakes and tried to be a back seat driver as little as possible :)

Congrats to Glenn for the win and Race Brakes for the great stopping power..

Ben.

[Crazy Dave]

Awesome event and roads. Thought we would be driving straight home with it raining all night and still in the morning. But they seemed intent on going with it and glad they did. My result was not worth it but the roads were. Apart from a bit of slop on stage 2 and the event shortened a bit, you wouldn't have thought of the rain and if anything they made the roads better.

Thanks Matt J for driving the car up there for me to try to get a few km on the engine befire the event. It was a rush getting the car ready and I dropped Matt of at the wheel alignment shop where I had them rush a quick wheel alignment for me. Met him again half way up the free way with some vibrations which turned out to be the rear wheel nuts all being loose.

First 3 stages went extremely well. Shifting at 5800rpm and no holes in side of block. Matt Mead doing great first time job in rally car which showed by us slotting in just in front of whitey, and only about a second a km of Glenn. Looked like being a good 3 way battle at this stage.
The it started to go wrong. Left my sunnies on roof of car :whine:at stage 4 start which whitey tells me he managed to swerve to miss. Very upset as favourite driving glasses. Next stage coil pack brackets break of engine and we loose 10 minutes trying to sort it. Finally get it going and catch up to RX2 on fast sweeping roads at end of stage. Take it easy on SS6 as zip ties holding coils in place and map light failed so Matt using torch on phone to read the book (good tool to have).
Have fun on last 4 stages on the fast sweeping roads and just amazed at how steep 7 and 9 are as you see the car lights getting up a few hundred meters so quickly from the start.
Finsihed event last, but happy to finish after dnfing last 2. Car going well, especially after lifting shift light to 6100 for last 2 stages and will go to 6500 for the next event, especially on the hills. We have to go back again next year for those great roads.
Thanks to Boris (servicing and accomodation), Lizzy and Mrs Farrant (forgot name againOoops) for servicing and Matt Mead for Naving.

[matt mead]

i dont know how to start. :rolleyes:

what a fun weekend!!!!.... although we came last.. it was an awesome time sitting in the silly seat for Dave... and i cant wait for bega...

thanks to the skdac crew and dave for giving a newbie like me a run in the car

[Whitey]

We had a pretty good event with no major dramas.
After waking up a few times on Friday night to the sound of rain falling, i wasn't too confident of whether the event would run. So we lobbed down to Rally HQ where they assured us that it was still on and that the weather was going to clear.

The first loop of stages felt pretty good, getting close to or matching :crazy:Daves times. We had a few strange noises coming from the rear suspension which turned out to be a loose nut in a strut, we fixed it at service.

The second loop, we managed to improve a bit. I had to swerve to avoid :crazy: Daves sunglasses which were laying on the ground about 20 metres from the start line. Unfortunatley i don't think they survived the car after us.
We were disappointed to see :crazy: Daves car stopped at a THR with the bonnet up.

Stages 7 & 9 were fantastic, two sections of uphill connected by a fast flat bit in between. It was great to hook in to the corners flat out.

On the first run down the Knodingbul stage (SS8) i got a bit psyc'd out by the two cars off within a few hundred metres of the start and then just could concetrate and find a good rhythmn resulting in a couple of spins, one of which was a full 180.

The second Knodingbul run was better, i was a bit tentative to start but got into it in the second half.

Paul got a bit car sick on the four night stages, which was a suprise given he is a rallying veteran.

Overall a fantastic event, i am pleased we selected our calander based on road and event quality. The only gripe would be the late finish cutting into the drinking/socialising time. Maybe an earlier start next year???

Thanks to Paul Bailey for doing a superb job in the silly seat.

I don't know what we have to do to catch the Fazz, maybe we need to make him drive with the handbrake on.:)

[Crazy Dave]

The second loop, we managed to improve a bit. I had to swerve to avoid :crazy: Daves sunglasses which were laying on the ground about 20 metres from the start line. Unfortunatley i don't think they survived the car after us.


I don't know what we have to do to catch the Fazz, maybe we need to make him drive with the handbrake on.:)

I do anything to win. We were having such a good battle and with you behind me I was ready to start dropping all sorts of things on the road to slow you down.

As for Faz, we have to do more of those things we did last year and loosen of earth straps and things. I have a couple of big weights we can off balance his wheels with. Oh hang on, he reads this stuff as well........... dag nab it.