Rally Rotorua

Hi all

We finished Rotorua, what an event, we had a bit of an eventful time, here's our story...

FRIDAY

SS1, blew fifth gear off the line...so only had a top speed of 120km/hr for the rest of the event, instead of 180km/hr ..talk about boring and an easy way to lose truckloads of time on long straights and fast corners.

SS2, hit a huge rock, damaged the manifold, lost turbo boost...an 1800 with no turbo = a gutless wonder. Still, least we did the stage.

SS3, no boost, well only about 4psi, compared to the usual 15psi, decided to attack the downhill twisty last 6km of the stage, arrived at time control with brakes on fire...the cow cocky at the finish control looked at them and was quite amazed.

SS4, Motu One..wow what a stage, so fast in places next to the river, then uphill and really twisty. We had no boost, a loud noisy exhaust, but thankfully no long straights...but on the uphills we about as fast as Marion Jones runs the 100m now...not so fast.

SS5, Motu Two..wow, another fantastic stage, manifold has nearly fallen off, no boost whatsoever, and holed the header tank to the radiator about 3/4 of the way through, lucky it is higher than the radiator, and the car didn't loose to much fluid, nor overheat...

SS6, Whakarau, clocked out of service 14min late, incurred 2min20sec in lateness trying to weld the manifold, got 3psi boost, and radiator header tank still leaking a bit, but fantastic stage, and again attacked the downhills..thankfully the brakes were good. This was a terrific stage, such flowing roads that were smooth and fast, it was a drivers road, one that would have been the highlight of the rally.

SS7, Rakaroa, another grouse stage, header tank leaked, but managed not to overheat the car, passed Dave Bone in the Mini on this stage, well only just, the mini had more go up the hill than the mighty boost-less leone...so again had a real go at the downhills to try and make a up a bit of time. Again had slighty smoky brakes at the end of the stage.

End of day one, we were 13th o/a in clubmans, 4th o/a in class, not a bad result consider the problems. At the 45min service before we headed back on the 200km tour to Rotorua from Matawai, we managed to fix some of the leaky exhaust.

SATURDAY

SS8, had the manifold 3/4 welded in the mornings service, got 8psi boost, and some semi-respectable stage times, although this stage was really fast, and needed 5th gear, so we got caught by the Impreza behind us on the road...there goes 13th, back to 14th o/a.

SS9, no real problems, just the same, not much boost and no 5th gear

SS10, 1km in, a 4Left, I threw the car off the road at 110km/hr, bent the control arm like a banana, and left the car high and dry, lost 22min waiting for the recovery car to pull us out, then clocked in 14min late at the next time control, as I could only drive through the stage. Glad we only drove, as it was incredibly rough.

SS11, drove through the stage... still didn't set the slowest time...ha ha.

We finished 15th o/a, 4th in class...could have got a top 10 if all was working ok...but hey that is rallying...

I will be in touch before we head to Waikato.

Thx

Simon Bell & Sandy Bansal
Redhills Rallyesport
Redhills Benz - Mercedes Benz Parts Specialists