Glenn
29-11-2011, 12:50 PM
Great Drive Tony!
Huge thanks to Stuart and his team. That must have been a difficult few days. The scoring must have been a nightmare (and probably still is)!
Thanks to everyone who stood out in the forest. Especially everyone who were out there on multiple days…and the guys who were hailed on in SS12!
We made a very late decision to enter the Alpine. We were up at the WRC in Coffs and hanging out with our mates and decided that we couldn't let it go by without entering. I'd only driven once in the last two years and the Excel would be getting a run, so we'd be going down just for fun and adventure….and we really got that! Rus Taylor jumped in the nav's seat and we had a ball.
With 6 Excels in the event it was going to be like an Excel round. I was hoping to be able to keep up with Tony at the "pointy" end of the Excels….in the end Tony had a fast/blemish-free drive to get us by 2 seconds at the end of Sunday! Great drive Tony!
Friday
SS1-3 We took it pretty easy. I hadn't driven the car over 20km/h on dirt for a year and I knew that the roads near Lakes Entrance were pretty tricky. The car was feeling a bit weird, like there was no front/back balance in the tight stuff. We had plenty of understeer moments and I thought it was mostly my rusty driving.….
It turns out that it wasn't just my rusty driving, but the left front strut had pulled the control rod out of the strut body. We didn't have a lot of options for fixing it, so we just welded the control rod to the bottom of the strut to make a non-servicable DMS. Thanks to Bean (Anthony Edwards) from Automotive Gadgets for the mobile welding love!
Saturday
We started car 54 on the road a couple of cars ahead of Tony in the black Excel…and the rain kept falling.
SS4,5 Car felt much better but we still took it pretty easy through the first couple of short wet stages. We were so slow on SS5 that we managed to pick up a snail that held on to Rus' door all the way to the first service :)
At the first service we put some 165-width tyres on the front to try to bite into mud a bit better.
SS9,10 The roads up in the hills were brilliant with very little impact from the weather. So we were on the wrong tyres! Regardless we started to get in a bit of a groove. I was still not committing to 3rd gear corners and I left a lot of time up there, but the tight downhill stuff was Excel Heaven. We finished those stages with huge smiles on our faces.
On the way to service at Cann River we got a bad vibration and couldn't work out what it was. Didn't find anything at service and in the end we think it was loosening wheel nuts….phew! BUT, we had managed to kill another DMS. This time one of the rears that we had borrowed from Fro had spat out all of its oil…and was really just a spring guide. Luckily I had my other non-broken DMS to put back in….had to guess a bit at the ride height. But at least the car was working again. Tim did a magnificent job with servicing all weekend (originally he was planning to just come down for a look) and this was the toughest service of the lot.
SS11 This stage had everything. Fast bits, grippy bits, slippy bits, even a big storm. We had a big moment leading into a narrow bridge on a sloppy downhill bit and got away with it. Very lucky indeed. I backed off even more after that. Lots of cars off in the last part of the stage. The 165 tyres were definitely the right thing in here.
SS14 and 15 Two very short night stages back near Lakes Entrance to finish the day. I hadn't taken the time to adjust the lights very well and after the moment on SS11 we decided to go into super-nanna mode just to get through.
On the way home from Forestech we experience a total light failure. Only the high beams were working when I pulled on the stalk (i.e. to flash high beams). So glad that didn't happen in stage.
During all of Saturday we had been within a few seconds of Tony on every stage…except for the last two stages where our super-nanna mode cost us 36 seconds in 10km (talk about wussing out!). So we were going to start Sunday about 24 seconds behind Tony and Nikki. Brilliant. There now was a challenge ahead and that was going to make Sunday even more interesting.
Sunday
SS16 A stage near Lakes of the type that I haven't being going well on…but we're in competition mode for the first time so we have a bit of a go. It was slippery and I had only one small moment. At the end of the stage I was a bit deflated when we were told that Tony had taken 4 seconds out of us, but I was already determining where I could make up the time….however it turned out that the controllies had made a mistake and we had actually taken 27 seconds out of Tony.
SS17 Fast flowing stage with a crown in the road. The Excel was doing its best impression of a grader with the sump guard which cost us a bit of time. I also felt that the car wasn't quite running as well as it usually did and at the end of SS17 we lose intercom. Turns out some of my pre-event dodginess was to blame as the battery cut-off switch and main earth were loose…we race-tape it back in and head off. Rus occasionally has to hold the switch down to get an earth. We set the same stage time as Tony.
SS18 Tight and twisty with big ruts…more grader action and I also find that the car doesn't want to turn left in the tight twisty stuff. Usually a bit of late left-foot braking is all that's required, but not this time. Back off a bit as a result and resorted to using the handbrake. Turns out that the ride-height on the DMS that was replaced late on Saturday was off and the corner weights were such that the Front right/left rear diagnonal was light. The car was turning right fine, but not left. Once I realise this I could drive around it with the handbrake. Tony takes 20 seconds out of us.
SS 19. Fast stage (we even got into 4th!) We had a good run, but I wasn't reading the road well. Drop 12 seconds to Tony.
Big service at Nowa Nowa - Seems I was going slow again as I had picked a small frog this time. We put the wider tyres back on the front and Tim fixed the cut-off switch dodginess
SS 22……well actually we ended up at the start of the cancelled SS20….and then had to high tail it back to SS22. Was worth it for the bit of air we got over a tree root on the transport into SS20 :)
On this stage it finally started to come together a bit. We had the right tyres on. The car felt good. I was starting to read the road a bit better. Rus was still doing a stellar job (as he had all rally). We took 1:43 out of the car in front and 38 seconds out of Tony. Excellent.
SS23 We continued to have a bit of a go…but after passing Shab's poor 180B on its side we approached a diabolical-looking left-hander across a creek…I thought I had slowed down enough, but no…we slid wide and got stuck. That immediate awful feeling came over us….actually Rus vocalised it even as we were still heading for the hole…we were sure we were out. However, once we came to a stop we could see a bunch of guys in the area (apparently a bunch of others had done the same thing). With the help of these champions we managed to jack the car up and push it out after 15 minutes …..and then I promptly backed the car into an even bigger bog on the left hand side of the road. What a huge wally!!!! It was really stuck this time. I was half embarrassed and half demoralised after getting the car out of a hole that an Excel would never get out of and being elated for about 2 seconds only to put it into a hole that a Cruiser would get stuck in. Whilst trying to get it out I had a moment where I lost all faith and started throwing mud whilst on my knees in front of the car…not real proud of that, but pretty funny in hindsight. However some more people appeared (including the super-service-dude Tim) and we managed to lift the back of the car onto the road and then push it out of the hole. I tried to help by driving the car out as it was pushed, but the clutch smoke was horrendous as the wheels were locked with mud. Even once it was in the middle of the road on a slight downhill section, we needed a few blokes to give us a push to get it going…..one-wheel-spinners FTL. :) I tried to catch up with everyone at the presso but only found a few of the guys who helped…..I hope I get a chance to catch up and buy everyone a beer (or 10) some time…or maybe just pay their washing bill for the mud bath they endured.
One of the funniest moments in the rally happened about 30 seconds after we finally got going again…some of the guys had been up at the spectator point about 500m from where we got stuck and told us about the opportunity for a "super-cut" we could do inside a big tree…way inside the apex. Being a big fan of a mega cut I was all over it….inside the big tree, across the bush and lots of LOLs resulted. Thanks for the tip Pat! Team Super-Cut was born!
About 2km down the road we almost DNF'd for the 3rd time on this stage. There was a bog hole on a straight where Bill Dunn and another car was stuck. We stopped in the middle of the road with the big XT Falcon up our clacker…assessed the situation…thought that there was no hope in the 1WD…and went for it anyway. We went bush and somehow made it through. It was very dicey there for a while. Anyway we made it to the end of the stage and couldn't believe it. It turns out that it appears that we were given a derived time for the stage due to all the dramas the cars around us were having. In the end it worked out that it didn't affect Tony's and my relative placing which I was grateful for.
SS24 Last stage. Super fast stage….we were super slow. After all we had been through the last thing I was going to do was take any risks whatsoever. So we finished. Dropped 21 seconds to Tony who finished 2 seconds in front of us overall. Top drive mate! Hope we get a chance to do it all again some time.
The beers were very sweet at the end (thanks Ric) and like Rus said to me at the end, I've never felt so good about just finishing a rally. According the the unofficial scores we were 34th outright.
The Alpine is a tough event to come back to after not driving lately. I think we set our expectations appropriately and as a result we had a lot of fun and came away with some great new stories.
By Sunday arvo I felt as if I was starting to get my eye in again. On Monday morning I was ready to do another few day's rallying. I hope it's not not another year or two before getting behind the wheel again.
However, I think I've used up all of my rally luck in one event:
- 2 broken DMS that didn't cause much time loss
- One big moment in SS11 that we were very lucky to get away with
- Total light failure on the way home in the dark on Saturday night
- Serious electrical problem that was found quickly
- Sticking it off twice in 10 metres only 15km from the end of the rally, but having enough people around to lift it out of a major bog… and getting through the second bog….and being given a derived time for that stage due to the multiple people that had similar problems.
Thanks
Thanks to Rus for jumping in and having almost as much fun as me….and tolerating the fact that I was working up to a decent speed all weekend. SS22 was a bit of an insight to what an Excel can do. I hope we get a chance to do it again some time.
Huge thanks to all the supporters especially Tim for the service love, Brian and Heather for the most excellent rally accommodation and catering in the universe, Wayne for the cartage and service love, Team Stigma for the LOLs
And finally Jess and Aurora (whose 4th Birthday it was on Saturday) thanks for your support and enthusiasm and tolerating me turning even more self-centred when getting into driver mode :)
Huge thanks to Stuart and his team. That must have been a difficult few days. The scoring must have been a nightmare (and probably still is)!
Thanks to everyone who stood out in the forest. Especially everyone who were out there on multiple days…and the guys who were hailed on in SS12!
We made a very late decision to enter the Alpine. We were up at the WRC in Coffs and hanging out with our mates and decided that we couldn't let it go by without entering. I'd only driven once in the last two years and the Excel would be getting a run, so we'd be going down just for fun and adventure….and we really got that! Rus Taylor jumped in the nav's seat and we had a ball.
With 6 Excels in the event it was going to be like an Excel round. I was hoping to be able to keep up with Tony at the "pointy" end of the Excels….in the end Tony had a fast/blemish-free drive to get us by 2 seconds at the end of Sunday! Great drive Tony!
Friday
SS1-3 We took it pretty easy. I hadn't driven the car over 20km/h on dirt for a year and I knew that the roads near Lakes Entrance were pretty tricky. The car was feeling a bit weird, like there was no front/back balance in the tight stuff. We had plenty of understeer moments and I thought it was mostly my rusty driving.….
It turns out that it wasn't just my rusty driving, but the left front strut had pulled the control rod out of the strut body. We didn't have a lot of options for fixing it, so we just welded the control rod to the bottom of the strut to make a non-servicable DMS. Thanks to Bean (Anthony Edwards) from Automotive Gadgets for the mobile welding love!
Saturday
We started car 54 on the road a couple of cars ahead of Tony in the black Excel…and the rain kept falling.
SS4,5 Car felt much better but we still took it pretty easy through the first couple of short wet stages. We were so slow on SS5 that we managed to pick up a snail that held on to Rus' door all the way to the first service :)
At the first service we put some 165-width tyres on the front to try to bite into mud a bit better.
SS9,10 The roads up in the hills were brilliant with very little impact from the weather. So we were on the wrong tyres! Regardless we started to get in a bit of a groove. I was still not committing to 3rd gear corners and I left a lot of time up there, but the tight downhill stuff was Excel Heaven. We finished those stages with huge smiles on our faces.
On the way to service at Cann River we got a bad vibration and couldn't work out what it was. Didn't find anything at service and in the end we think it was loosening wheel nuts….phew! BUT, we had managed to kill another DMS. This time one of the rears that we had borrowed from Fro had spat out all of its oil…and was really just a spring guide. Luckily I had my other non-broken DMS to put back in….had to guess a bit at the ride height. But at least the car was working again. Tim did a magnificent job with servicing all weekend (originally he was planning to just come down for a look) and this was the toughest service of the lot.
SS11 This stage had everything. Fast bits, grippy bits, slippy bits, even a big storm. We had a big moment leading into a narrow bridge on a sloppy downhill bit and got away with it. Very lucky indeed. I backed off even more after that. Lots of cars off in the last part of the stage. The 165 tyres were definitely the right thing in here.
SS14 and 15 Two very short night stages back near Lakes Entrance to finish the day. I hadn't taken the time to adjust the lights very well and after the moment on SS11 we decided to go into super-nanna mode just to get through.
On the way home from Forestech we experience a total light failure. Only the high beams were working when I pulled on the stalk (i.e. to flash high beams). So glad that didn't happen in stage.
During all of Saturday we had been within a few seconds of Tony on every stage…except for the last two stages where our super-nanna mode cost us 36 seconds in 10km (talk about wussing out!). So we were going to start Sunday about 24 seconds behind Tony and Nikki. Brilliant. There now was a challenge ahead and that was going to make Sunday even more interesting.
Sunday
SS16 A stage near Lakes of the type that I haven't being going well on…but we're in competition mode for the first time so we have a bit of a go. It was slippery and I had only one small moment. At the end of the stage I was a bit deflated when we were told that Tony had taken 4 seconds out of us, but I was already determining where I could make up the time….however it turned out that the controllies had made a mistake and we had actually taken 27 seconds out of Tony.
SS17 Fast flowing stage with a crown in the road. The Excel was doing its best impression of a grader with the sump guard which cost us a bit of time. I also felt that the car wasn't quite running as well as it usually did and at the end of SS17 we lose intercom. Turns out some of my pre-event dodginess was to blame as the battery cut-off switch and main earth were loose…we race-tape it back in and head off. Rus occasionally has to hold the switch down to get an earth. We set the same stage time as Tony.
SS18 Tight and twisty with big ruts…more grader action and I also find that the car doesn't want to turn left in the tight twisty stuff. Usually a bit of late left-foot braking is all that's required, but not this time. Back off a bit as a result and resorted to using the handbrake. Turns out that the ride-height on the DMS that was replaced late on Saturday was off and the corner weights were such that the Front right/left rear diagnonal was light. The car was turning right fine, but not left. Once I realise this I could drive around it with the handbrake. Tony takes 20 seconds out of us.
SS 19. Fast stage (we even got into 4th!) We had a good run, but I wasn't reading the road well. Drop 12 seconds to Tony.
Big service at Nowa Nowa - Seems I was going slow again as I had picked a small frog this time. We put the wider tyres back on the front and Tim fixed the cut-off switch dodginess
SS 22……well actually we ended up at the start of the cancelled SS20….and then had to high tail it back to SS22. Was worth it for the bit of air we got over a tree root on the transport into SS20 :)
On this stage it finally started to come together a bit. We had the right tyres on. The car felt good. I was starting to read the road a bit better. Rus was still doing a stellar job (as he had all rally). We took 1:43 out of the car in front and 38 seconds out of Tony. Excellent.
SS23 We continued to have a bit of a go…but after passing Shab's poor 180B on its side we approached a diabolical-looking left-hander across a creek…I thought I had slowed down enough, but no…we slid wide and got stuck. That immediate awful feeling came over us….actually Rus vocalised it even as we were still heading for the hole…we were sure we were out. However, once we came to a stop we could see a bunch of guys in the area (apparently a bunch of others had done the same thing). With the help of these champions we managed to jack the car up and push it out after 15 minutes …..and then I promptly backed the car into an even bigger bog on the left hand side of the road. What a huge wally!!!! It was really stuck this time. I was half embarrassed and half demoralised after getting the car out of a hole that an Excel would never get out of and being elated for about 2 seconds only to put it into a hole that a Cruiser would get stuck in. Whilst trying to get it out I had a moment where I lost all faith and started throwing mud whilst on my knees in front of the car…not real proud of that, but pretty funny in hindsight. However some more people appeared (including the super-service-dude Tim) and we managed to lift the back of the car onto the road and then push it out of the hole. I tried to help by driving the car out as it was pushed, but the clutch smoke was horrendous as the wheels were locked with mud. Even once it was in the middle of the road on a slight downhill section, we needed a few blokes to give us a push to get it going…..one-wheel-spinners FTL. :) I tried to catch up with everyone at the presso but only found a few of the guys who helped…..I hope I get a chance to catch up and buy everyone a beer (or 10) some time…or maybe just pay their washing bill for the mud bath they endured.
One of the funniest moments in the rally happened about 30 seconds after we finally got going again…some of the guys had been up at the spectator point about 500m from where we got stuck and told us about the opportunity for a "super-cut" we could do inside a big tree…way inside the apex. Being a big fan of a mega cut I was all over it….inside the big tree, across the bush and lots of LOLs resulted. Thanks for the tip Pat! Team Super-Cut was born!
About 2km down the road we almost DNF'd for the 3rd time on this stage. There was a bog hole on a straight where Bill Dunn and another car was stuck. We stopped in the middle of the road with the big XT Falcon up our clacker…assessed the situation…thought that there was no hope in the 1WD…and went for it anyway. We went bush and somehow made it through. It was very dicey there for a while. Anyway we made it to the end of the stage and couldn't believe it. It turns out that it appears that we were given a derived time for the stage due to all the dramas the cars around us were having. In the end it worked out that it didn't affect Tony's and my relative placing which I was grateful for.
SS24 Last stage. Super fast stage….we were super slow. After all we had been through the last thing I was going to do was take any risks whatsoever. So we finished. Dropped 21 seconds to Tony who finished 2 seconds in front of us overall. Top drive mate! Hope we get a chance to do it all again some time.
The beers were very sweet at the end (thanks Ric) and like Rus said to me at the end, I've never felt so good about just finishing a rally. According the the unofficial scores we were 34th outright.
The Alpine is a tough event to come back to after not driving lately. I think we set our expectations appropriately and as a result we had a lot of fun and came away with some great new stories.
By Sunday arvo I felt as if I was starting to get my eye in again. On Monday morning I was ready to do another few day's rallying. I hope it's not not another year or two before getting behind the wheel again.
However, I think I've used up all of my rally luck in one event:
- 2 broken DMS that didn't cause much time loss
- One big moment in SS11 that we were very lucky to get away with
- Total light failure on the way home in the dark on Saturday night
- Serious electrical problem that was found quickly
- Sticking it off twice in 10 metres only 15km from the end of the rally, but having enough people around to lift it out of a major bog… and getting through the second bog….and being given a derived time for that stage due to the multiple people that had similar problems.
Thanks
Thanks to Rus for jumping in and having almost as much fun as me….and tolerating the fact that I was working up to a decent speed all weekend. SS22 was a bit of an insight to what an Excel can do. I hope we get a chance to do it again some time.
Huge thanks to all the supporters especially Tim for the service love, Brian and Heather for the most excellent rally accommodation and catering in the universe, Wayne for the cartage and service love, Team Stigma for the LOLs
And finally Jess and Aurora (whose 4th Birthday it was on Saturday) thanks for your support and enthusiasm and tolerating me turning even more self-centred when getting into driver mode :)