Caltex Airport Starmart Rally Sept 18th 2004

[dynomatt]

Proflex arrived this morning (sent to wrong address and was actually here yesterday...grrrr) complete with shiny new strut tops that shouldn't be able to break (touch wood)

Started it this afternoon and it goes...that's a plus!

Now just got to bleed the brakes (yay with the pedal box and hydro!!) and she'll be good.

I'm off to Newcastle for a conference till Friday night so Tort will be scrutineering it for me.

I'll see you all on Saturday...looking forward to it.

Matt

[fro]

So, the PFers that I know of that are competing are:

• Swill
• Spac
• Smee
• Rowds
• LegacyRSRA (which is kinda ironic, 'cause this is the event that ended that car)
• Tortfeaser
• ZenithRS
• Dazda

Daveee is sitting this one out, as am I, although I'll be loping around, checking out the action, and saving my pennies for NatCap. Should be interesting, to say the least.

[DAZDA]

you can add DAZDA to that list Fro...

Well, maybe not. I am entered but it all depends on getting the car back together...

[rowdytoot]

Sorry Bede, didn't know you were in when I posted..

hope you make it.. on review brakes are much better, it stops pretty good now, lots of rear bias :D , but I still don't like the feel 100%. I will go for drives to adapt before SS1 on Saturday.

Rowds

[fro]

I don't know if I'd bother, Rowds... I know that mine is conpletely different from tar to gravel. I don't know if the Gemini has the same sort of disparity?

[rowdytoot]

nah, it's pretty the same I think... I've just gotta get used to the bit of travel at the start... if I hate it, we'll just disconnect the booster I reckon

I made a concerted effort on the way home not to think about it, and just feel the the retardation...

Rowds

[rowdytoot]

Good to go apart from sticker drama's ( we all know sticker tunes are worth 0.5 sec/km ), terraphone headset repairs, making sure that the horn button stays in the steering wheel, and some soccer mum's hellbent attempt to run me into a telegraph pole in her new Touareg on the way to work this morning... luckily swimming woke me up, and I missed her by this much & e was completely oblivious!

Rowds




Rowds

[tortfeaser]

LegacyRSRA (should be CelicaGT4ST185RCGrpA) and Tortfeaser good to go. NAFF at scrutineering. Just need to figure funky sound from LR brakes, sort camera mount and spanner check the lot.

So keen. Here's hoping for no fear and the return of Legacy love. Starting car 14. If we get into the top 6-8 it'd be as good as a win in this field - Kev Shaw in Evo VII, Mitch Heffernan and Karl Willet in WRX Stis look to be the tip for outright. Dark horses include Kari Dirickx (sounds Finnish, but isn't), Phil Donohue.

Come for a look. Spectator instructions attached.

[smee]

I'm doing double 0..

Gearbox is back together and torqued up well.
Run will be at 70%.

And don't mention the fact that a clubman championship win is now out the door thanks to no LCCC event.

Go SPAC.......

[rowdytoot]

Official seeded entry list is out( see attachment) and we've been bumped down 1 spot to 57( which makes our start time 13:22 which is annoying - much easier when it was 13:20 ) which we hope to improve on significantly...

Looking forward to getting outa work, and getting stuff together!

See you boys on Saturday (and fro on friday)

Cheers
Rowds

[smee]

Still looking for road closures for the event.

If you can help out at all that would be great.

Contact

Fiona 0429 801 404

or

Stephen 0428 ITSMEE (487 633)

Thankyou

[rowdytoot]

RowdyRallsport Event Report-- Gemini's fly well, but land badly....

I had a fun but weird event, as far as we lasted..

I got really really excited about Starmart on the Tuesday before... like mega excited.. like couldn't sleep for visions of rallying, and stuff...

by friday I was a bit out of sorts and it took me quite a while to get motivated to pack the ute... weird..

Had the best run ever down to canberra, and caught up with the fro's at about 6:15 pm.. had drinks,ate rad pizza watched video's, didn't sleep great,but felt pretty good..

Scrute was no dramas as per usual, and I was getting used to the brake feel on the way to the start, but confident the car would stop.

Twas great to see everyone again, and talk crap for a while..

Got 2 new dunlops for the front, and switched the old fronts to the back. Thanks to the Dunlop guys for bringing down the harness pads I bough for KT during the week, she is much happier now her neck isn't getting chaffed by the harness.

KT marks up the road book, while I do the driver thing and wander... I clean the windows on the rally car while fro, our service bitch watches, and then requests I clean the windows on the RRS ute of death.. I tell him he's probably the only service bitch in the world who can get away with that kinda thing... then I remove a sticker on the bumper and replace it with the canberrarallyexperience one Bog has given me -- while fro watches again... :mutley:

After mucho waiting, it's finally start time.. Kel C tells us she DEFINATELY doesn't want to see us all day... sorry I let you down Kel...

I suspect when i told myself to focus on driving, the part of my brain that was switched on misheard it, and it got remembered as F#$K up...

SS1.... Mucho nervousness, and KT is panicked about getting belted up in time, and can't get belt done up. I tell her to relax and start again.. all is good..

Off into stage... we're a bit rusty, and for some reason we're way off with the road book a lot of the time-- but it appears everyone struggled. ... We both do what we do best and that's scramble to keep it together... which we do sucessfully.. Hated the rough bits... truely horrible.. didn't enjoy at least 1/2 the stage.... but caught great air on the inside hump on river rd ala rally sprint.... still makes me smile

brakes are good though.. YAY!

Get to the end and have done a 12:13... and the allowed time is 15 minutes...... hrrmmmm

see the parking lot in front and stop... start rolling forward towards the trueno, in a repeat of the notorious Bay incident but between me and Bog we stop the car....OOPS .. KT runs to the control and is one of the few to book in on time :D YAY!..

Massive waiting.. .. twas good to have to chat though..

KT decides she's better off and more relaxed sitting the car before the start, and sit belted up with helmet on for 25 minutes.. then says she feels dizzy...

Off into SS2...KT feeling better with airflow around her.. Enjoyed the 1st bit... then lost focus and backed off to the point that KT was about to tell me to get on with it... then got on with it again... got some air off the ROC jump and actually got most of the speccie point right, but then lost focus again coming through the barriers and backed off... got back up it on charcoal kiln rd...

messed up at some point at a TR at TJ or RGR, and was telling KT she meant Left--- I went left, then realized I was wrong... apologised and got back into it.. saw hippensteels off the road and avoided them..
Then I ran wide at TR at T and almost collected a bank... which then lead to the most disgraceful display of over correction ever seen (I assume the road closure at the bottom of the hill was pissing himself) for about 200 metres.. KT goes " WTF was that" I went " F'ing pathetic" and started laughing... :D

TR and see the hill O humps... forget everything I was told about the humps and ignore the presence of Redbull and Ray. Hit the 1st one waay too fast... AIR .. nose down landing... ACCELERATE at the next one( what a 'tard I am!) .. AIIRRRRRRRRRRR... I had time to watch Redbull raise his hands and cover his face, AND think... "shows over kids, this is going to be nasty".. BANG.. car lands on it's nose.... accelerate again... temperature is rising and coolant is starting to spray over the bonnet..... get down the next humps and round the corner.. car cuts out.. electricals are drenched in coolant...

pull over, get triangles out.. inspect the torrent of coolant flowing out of where the core joins the bottom tank... inspect frying wiring... turn battery master off...

SMS fro... hand in time card and withdrawl form.. apologise to Kel C... comiserate with Thornburns.. We are dejected.. take photo's of dead car.. KT is fantastic.. not angry.. just supportive.. and understanding.. Tis for this reason that we'll keep rallying together.. Me love her muchly..
we conclude it was probably a good thing that we DNF'd early, and with such minor damage cos my head wasn't really there..

fro comes in with Michael Wallace and Shannon... load car onto trailer.. drive a bit. comes to big hill with 2 humps.. car gets stuck 1/2 way up... mega tall 1st gear and slipping clutch in the ute do not help.... I have a go.. I reverse to the bottom -- take a run up.. still get stuck... I reverse to the bottom again and completely f%^# it up and attempt to reverse the trailer over a bank and through a tree while fro is yelling at me to go straight... I had NFI where the locked wheels were pointing!!!. sorry dude...

fro goes to look for an alternative route out.. no joy..

take car off trailer and spray mucho WD 40 around.. discover the rotor button had made a bit for escape through the dizzy cap... drive car to top of hill and to stage end before it gets too hot... ute makes it up hill without car.. YAY!..

load car onto trailer... go home.. ute makes nasty noises the whole way like a broken spring or shock.. bugger..

fro is a little annoyed-- mainly for us DNF'ing, partly cos of the trouble with getting out.. he's quiet, and his main concern is cheering me up.., by giving me my birfday pressie early... all I'm thinking is..I need to make fro happy and thank him for not swearing at me too much!.. I know I thanked you about 1500 times on saturday night, but publicly.. thanks man.. you're a fantastic friend :D...

sorry we didn't make it out to the finish venue.. we were all tired and grumpy and a 50 minute drive each way was a bit daunting..

Turns out the ute suspension issue nothing other than car loaded too far forward, and ute packed with heavy stuff on 1 side.. reload car and ute for the trip home and it didn't bottom out once..

will still go for higher stiffer springs and a new clutch before natcap, as well as another new radiator for the gemini which appears to be the sum total of the damage..

thanks to ..
Fiona, smee, and all the volunteers... as always thank you for coming out..

All the guys and girls who we spoke to all weekend..and introduced themselves at the start.- boris, glen farrant etc.. at least 50% of the joy of rallying is hanging with you guys..

fro... thank you a millon times man... for servicing, for the recovery, for the ultra rad birfday pressie, for everything..

Mrs fro for letting fro come out to play, for the digs, and for the best pizza's this side of, well anywhere..

Michael Wallace and Shannon for hanging around during the recovery, helping and giving KT a lift back to Evatt... thank you... we've never met you before and you were nice beyond nice..

KT for getting in the car, and wanting to keep doing it.. for not being angry, for understanding, for doing a great job all day... you know the rest honey :D ..

Cheers

Rowds

[Spac]

Meh. I went OK until I sucked... Basically we were running just outside the top ten (much better than expected), until we had weird, alien abduction-like hassles with dust in the second-last stage and dropped nearly three minutes to those on the road around us... And then had a starter motor lead fall off in the last stage, which we discovered when I stalled after over-shooting a turn... Another minute or two thrown away...

So we finished a distant 21st place, rather than the 'fighting' 14th or so, that we'd been looking like we were going to manage.

Twas a good event nonetheless.

Of the PFers that started the event...

Swill (DNF 3 corners from the end with a busted castor rod).
Spac (finished 21st)
Smee (00 - his results don't count!)
Rowds (DNF SS2 on one of those rotten humps)
LegacyRSRA (DNF SS4[?] while running 3rd)
Tortfeaser (ditto)
ZenithRS (DNF SS1 with busted gearbox/centre diff)
Dazda (Finished 26th after losing 40+ seconds in SS1 when the car wouldn't restart after a spin)

I guess that makes me feel a little better...

[tortfeaser]

LegacyRSRA (should be CelicaGT4ST185RCGrpA) and Tortfeaser good to go. <snip> So keen. Here's hoping for no fear and the return of Legacy love. Starting car 14. If we get into the top 6-8 it'd be as good as a win in this field.

Legacy love returned, the boy can steer. There wasn't one stage where the mirror on my side wasn't folded in The shift light was on in 5th gear a few times.

It took us a while to get going, and was pretty hard work 'till we decided we weren't having enough fun. With laughs came speed. Weird. I was crap for half the first stage, I just couldn't get the rhythm and pace of AWD turbo right. Got better later.

We were putting top 4 or 5 times in up to stage 5, when 8km from the end the centre diff let go (lots of vibration, FWD only). Transmission stopped vibrating, but still FWD and with all the fluid on the ground. Still 5th on that stage, and 3rd O/R at service.

Lots of pinging from the motor after GrpA intercooler fitted. Should not have been a problem. Some octane booster fixed it, but this isn't a long term solution. Needs dyno time and a cheap >100RON fuel solution. We weren't expecting the transmission problem at all. It seems the fluid is coming out the bellhousing, so maybe the input seal is stuffed after overheating the box.

[smee]

We weren't expecting the transmission problem at all.

I didn't know you were driving a Mazda. :p

I have a GT4 box if Dynomatt is interested......