2002 - Round Three Review
Greg Todd Memorial Rally - 14th July 2002

Thanks to our sponsors - Redhills Benz, Valvoline, STS Subaru Reckers.

What a day, the sun was shining, after so many days of rain, I honestly thought it would be canceled, but the organiser's made a great decision and ran the event.

We had a great day, the roads were a little rough but the car ran faultlessly, and finally had a bit more power to play with. Our tyre choice of a skinny 13" over the wider 14" tyre proved to be a great.

We finished 31st o/a, from a start position of 65th. So what happened?:

Stage 1/2: This was the Aranui Loop. First run through we decided to take it reasonably easy and ended in a 9min 53sec run over the 13km. Second time through Sam and I decided to give it a bit of a nudge, and finished at 9min 34sec, we cut a huge amount out of our time. No moments in the stage, as I was still getting used to the increase in power, which was fantastic.

Stage 3/4/5/6: This was the usual Campbell and Ridge run in reverse. The start of Campbell was terribly rutted so I took it easy, had some fun flicking the car for the fast 90 right corner at Forest Headquarters, and then along the nice fast flowing bits along the bottom we were flat out in 4th gear a few times - neat fun. Again first time through we took it a bit easy, and then wound up the pace once I had a chance to look at the road. On the last run through (stage 6) there was a bit of carnage on one corner at the end of a 200m straight, one car had braked, the back had stepped out, hit the bank, and tipped him on his roof and left him in the middle of the road, whilst around the corner another was nosed into the fence.

Service: No real drama, just a bit of food, and a quick check over the car, and it was ready to go for the afternoon. At this stage we were 25th o/a, so it had been a great morning.

Stage 7/8: A repeat of Aranui Loop. Had a great go and managed to equal our last run through. The main problem were the ruts, they were slowing us down a bit as they were smacking the rear diff and throwing the car around a bit. Second time through we caught the car which started 1min in front of us at the 6km mark, and had to wait for about 20secs until there was a spot to pass. Once again we were about even on time to our last run, so it had been a great run through. The car was a bit looser in the rear now, as the old tyres I was running on the rear were wearing down, but otherwise no moments, just flat out fun!!

Stage 9/10/11/12: We had a great run through 9 and 10, and took some time out of our previous times. Lining up for stage 11 I was looking forward to getting our best yet finish of around 22-24th o/a. But about 4km into stage 11 we hit one of the big rocks left on the road by a car in front with our front left tyre, it punctured, and we ran very wide and into a ditch on a fast right hand corner. We very nearly took out a couple of fenceposts, and ran along in the ditch for about 100m. The problem then was finding somewhere to park up to change the tyre, as the road wasn't wide enough to stop on, and the verge was too wet for the jack. So another 3km down the road we found a spot to stop, and changed the tyre. Going on our previous time through the stage, we lost 6min 30 secs, and it was a real downer for such a great day. Stage 12 I had to take a little easy, as the replacement tyre was an old 1/2 worn tyre, so there was need for a bit of caution on the right hand corners.

So it was a great day, our class was won by the fast Darryl Jones, second in class were the Burley's, and third was Ray Reid. Unfortunately Alex Gilmour went out after stage 1 with a front diff failure, and Dylan lost out on third in class by 1sec. As I have said before, Class E is the place to be.

For full results, click here.

Next event is the Rally of the North, on the 17th August. I will be in touch before then.

Thx

Simon Bell and Sam Ackland
Redhills Rallyesport