East Gippsland Stages

[ernysp76]

With a good nights rest prior to the event Paul and Craig fired up the VRC by taking outright honors as the first 2WD home in the East Gippsland Stages beating a swag of well driven AWD Turbo Cars. This will go down as one of the quickest in road speed of any event in recent years with no rain and hard compact roads offering all crews the opportunity to extend the little Excels to the limit. So fast was the pace that cars literally ripped the planks of bridges which unfortunately caused Tom and Loretta Kaitler to run into a gap and a plank at speed causing the disintegration of a very nice wheel and tire. Fortunately Tom and Loretta were fine, and after changing the wheel was able to continue but lost valuable time in what was shaping up to be a great battle between Paul and him. Results for the event saw Paul Batten and Craig Jones win from Emma Cugley and Jo Robison with myself and Bronwyn Metha a lucky third due entirely to Toms misfortune. We also welcomed Fiona White and Michael Loxton to the series bringing Victoria's total to 9 Excels. They apparently were inspired after Fiona had a drive of Emma's car result a lightening quick build of new car and a new competitor in the series. With average speeds in excess of 91 kph for the Excels it is no surprise that one of them toped 155kph.

[Col Vic]

Ernie has beaten me to this one....

Yay.... we had a dry Rally, the first for 12 months !!!

John has pretty much told the story, congratulations to Paul and Craig on their Rallydrive Excel Series win and also on taking out first 2wheel drive.

Welcome to Fiona White and Mick Loxton, our newest converts. We now have 9 Excel's ready to go in Victoria, all we need now is to get them all in the one place at the same time !! - there were 6 starters this weekend and all finished. Interesting to note that of the 7 Excel events we have run in Victoria, all but one have now been won by a single cam car, Paul is running Greg Moulden's 5 door which only saw it's first event at the start of the year.

Col

[Whitey]

Paul Batten Racing has continued in the 2007 Victorian Rally Championship Excel Series. Driving a four door single cam Hyundai Excel. Not only was Paul, Craig and the team able to win the Excel series round and P2 under 1600cc class, but they also managed to walk away with the outright 2wd round win outlasting and outperforming much faster cars.

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Held in the forests around Bairnsdale it was the first time the Roads had been used for a VRC round in over ten years. Fast Flowing Roads, Long straights and Hairpin corners made the competition fast and furious, but Paul and the team played their own game not worrying about the opposition, a plan that payed as the team continually moved up timesheets. “It really was a perfect day” stated Paul Batten at the conclusion of the event. “The Dunlop Tyres from Stuckey’s Tyre Service really copped a work-out and were up to everything we could throw at them, and our new Otomoto – HSD Suspension proved to be the best set-up around”.

Currently Paul Batten racing is leading in the Hyundai Excel Series after two rounds along with a narrow lead in the 2wd Victorian Rally Championship, a position that the team didn’t expect to find themselves in. “We definitely didn’t expect to be leading the 2wd competition outright, but I guess it shows that with consistency, the excel series cars can really surprise”. Said team co-driver Craig Jones.

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Paul Batten Racing would like to thank Greg Moulden and the students from Kangan Batman TAFE for their event preparation and service. Along with Stuckey Tyre Service, Rallydrive.com.au (http://rallydrive.com.au/), WURTH, Coxy's Motorsport Parts, and Pitman Trucks.

The next event for Paul Batten Racing is the Rally of Canberra, round three of the 2007 NEC Australian Rally Championship. Not only will this begin the teams attack at the 2007 Rally Challenge but the Rally of Canberra is also a round of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship and allows the team to test there ability against international Rally Stars.

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