Whitey
02-10-2007, 12:00 PM
Peter Haggstrom and Bek Flett, of Team Goat, in only their second event driving the Automotive Gadgets Excel have held off a late attack of nerves to win Round 5 of the Race Brakes NSW Excel Series, the Bago 150 Rally.
http://www.excelrally.com.au\images\haggersbago.jpg
photo courtesy of Peter Jerie
With Glenn Farrant officiating to secure the 2007 series Driver title and Crazy Dave Roberts & Mick Gillett also absent a slightly depleted field faced the starter for seven stages at just under 150km.
David White with Crazy Daves’ regular Nav Matt 'Bilbo' Mead on board led the Excel field away but only made it 6km into Special Stage 1 before a hit to the petrol tank broke the fuel pump bringing them to a stand still.
The fastest time on Stage 1 was set by the Cullens, however their event would go pear shaped on Stage 2 with a wheel vibration causing their steering wheel to come loose. Then strangely enough they would also experience fuel pump difficulties on Stage 3 that would see them run out of late time and DNF on the transport from Stage 3 to the first Service.
Haggstrom/Flett set a steady pace and won stages 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 and held a commanding lead over Artamonov/Pisarev of over 4 minutes when the later had a number of minor spins.
The Cullens rejoined at the service and Ben had a cameo steer on stages 5 & 6 before packing it away before the night stages.
As night fell and the wind dropped the organizers extended the gap between cars first to 3 and then to 4 minutes in order to give competitors a good run. The final two stages saw Haggers and Bek get an attack of the “Nervous Nellies” having a couple of moments where Haggers, who had gotten used to left foot braking, was putting his foot on the brake instead of the clutch when trying to restart the car. Apparently some words of encouragement from Bek were required to get Haggers brain back into gear.
Artamonov/Pisarev picked up the pace & won the final two stages to cut Haggers lead from 4 to 2 minutes, White/Mead rejoined just for the fang. But it was history in the making as Team Goat made it home to score an historic first victory.
http://www.excelrally.com.au/images/goat.jpg
All the competitor event reports can be found at http://www.excelrally.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=457
and updated pointscores are at http://www.excelrally.com.au/forum/nswpoints.php
The final round of the Race Brakes NSW Excel rally Series will be the National Capital Rally to be held in Canberra on 17 November
http://www.excelrally.com.au\images\haggersbago.jpg
photo courtesy of Peter Jerie
With Glenn Farrant officiating to secure the 2007 series Driver title and Crazy Dave Roberts & Mick Gillett also absent a slightly depleted field faced the starter for seven stages at just under 150km.
David White with Crazy Daves’ regular Nav Matt 'Bilbo' Mead on board led the Excel field away but only made it 6km into Special Stage 1 before a hit to the petrol tank broke the fuel pump bringing them to a stand still.
The fastest time on Stage 1 was set by the Cullens, however their event would go pear shaped on Stage 2 with a wheel vibration causing their steering wheel to come loose. Then strangely enough they would also experience fuel pump difficulties on Stage 3 that would see them run out of late time and DNF on the transport from Stage 3 to the first Service.
Haggstrom/Flett set a steady pace and won stages 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 and held a commanding lead over Artamonov/Pisarev of over 4 minutes when the later had a number of minor spins.
The Cullens rejoined at the service and Ben had a cameo steer on stages 5 & 6 before packing it away before the night stages.
As night fell and the wind dropped the organizers extended the gap between cars first to 3 and then to 4 minutes in order to give competitors a good run. The final two stages saw Haggers and Bek get an attack of the “Nervous Nellies” having a couple of moments where Haggers, who had gotten used to left foot braking, was putting his foot on the brake instead of the clutch when trying to restart the car. Apparently some words of encouragement from Bek were required to get Haggers brain back into gear.
Artamonov/Pisarev picked up the pace & won the final two stages to cut Haggers lead from 4 to 2 minutes, White/Mead rejoined just for the fang. But it was history in the making as Team Goat made it home to score an historic first victory.
http://www.excelrally.com.au/images/goat.jpg
All the competitor event reports can be found at http://www.excelrally.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=457
and updated pointscores are at http://www.excelrally.com.au/forum/nswpoints.php
The final round of the Race Brakes NSW Excel rally Series will be the National Capital Rally to be held in Canberra on 17 November