Whitey
07-05-2007, 05:47 PM
http://www.excelrally.com.au/images/egstages1.jpg
Round 2 of the Rally Drive Victorian Excel Series, The East Gippsland Stages resulted in another win for Paul Batten/Craig Jones from Emma Cugley/Jo Robison in second with John Ernst/Bronwyn Metha a lucky third after some misfortune for the Kaitlers.
With a good nights rest prior to the event, Paul Batten and Craig Jones fired up the Victorian Rally Champiohship by taking 2WD outright honours in the East Gippsland Stages, beating a swag of well driven AWD Turbo cars in the process.
The event 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. With average speeds in excess of 91 kph for the Excels it is no surprise that one of them topped out at 155kph.:eek:
So fast was the pace that the cars literally ripped the planks off a wooden bridge, which unfortunately caused Tom and Loretta Kaitler to run into a gap at speed disintegrating a very nice wheel and tyre.
Fortunately Tom and Loretta were fine, and after changing the wheel were able to continue having lost valuable time in what was shaping up to be a great battle between Paul and Tom.
The Rally Drive Victorian Excel Series also welcomed newcomers 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. After a lightening quick new car build they beacame the newest competitors in the series.
More competitor event reports can be found here (http://www.excelrally.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=223)
thanks to John Ernst for the background to this news item
Round 2 of the Rally Drive Victorian Excel Series, The East Gippsland Stages resulted in another win for Paul Batten/Craig Jones from Emma Cugley/Jo Robison in second with John Ernst/Bronwyn Metha a lucky third after some misfortune for the Kaitlers.
With a good nights rest prior to the event, Paul Batten and Craig Jones fired up the Victorian Rally Champiohship by taking 2WD outright honours in the East Gippsland Stages, beating a swag of well driven AWD Turbo cars in the process.
The event 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. With average speeds in excess of 91 kph for the Excels it is no surprise that one of them topped out at 155kph.:eek:
So fast was the pace that the cars literally ripped the planks off a wooden bridge, which unfortunately caused Tom and Loretta Kaitler to run into a gap at speed disintegrating a very nice wheel and tyre.
Fortunately Tom and Loretta were fine, and after changing the wheel were able to continue having lost valuable time in what was shaping up to be a great battle between Paul and Tom.
The Rally Drive Victorian Excel Series also welcomed newcomers 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. After a lightening quick new car build they beacame the newest competitors in the series.
More competitor event reports can be found here (http://www.excelrally.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=223)
thanks to John Ernst for the background to this news item