Oberon Nissan Datsun Drivers Club Rally
35 cars started the rally Oberon on a very cold morning, we were seeded at car 5 and drew 4th on the road in a ballot of the top 5.
Stage 1 was still a bit wet from some over night rain so it was tip toe and test the grip. Stage 2 was 25 odd k's long and we got into a flow still on the safe side under brakes and the grip here was very good. Stage 3 we upped the pace and took some seconds back as we were 1 second behind 3rd, the grip here was very good and our time showed as we took 9 seconds off the next 2WD and only missed fastest by 3 sec which was taken by Carlos in his VR4 turbo 4WD, this placed us 3rd outright.
I think it was stage 3 that we hit a huge rock on the crest of a jump that I missed, it smashed the sump guard and the sump, but we were still able to continue. Stage 4 was another long stage of some 26km, we were well in the groove now and set about climbing up the leader board.
We tried to have another big go but we encountered a clutch problem as it was slipping in 4th and 5th gears after 10 or so k's, it felt like it got hot and lost clamping pressure, so I had to use less throttle and short shift as I thought this could well be the end !, some how it stop slipping and we continued, we still ended up in 3rd fastest on the stage.
It was now was a matter of holding position and making it to the end as we were only just half way. I didn't dump the clutch off the line now and just took off slow for the rest of the night. This time Brett in his 180B set fastest time. Stage 5 we kept it clean and tidy with one over shoot ( I swore Owen said 200mtrs , but it was 100, Doh !!) but we still set 2nd fastest time again. Stages 6 and 7 were just good clean runs, Oh and I always held it on that bit more at the speci points, anything for good pics ;).
Last stage was a repeat of one of the earlier long ones, and with a thin line to stay on, and grass on both sides covered in dew for the first 3-4 km I kept it very clean and tidy which was enough to get another 2nd fastest stage time. The roads were great some jumps but not that many for that area, there were some very fast roads that were open and allowed us to throw the car in at speed, later Owen told me he had a few moments that made him nervous, but from this side of the car it was a very well in controlled drive and had the car been able I could have gone at that pace for another day no problems.
We ended the day and night in 2nd outright and first in out class (P4) which was the same position we ended up in at the clubman round of the Bathurst State rally 2 weeks ago, we have good points on the scoreboard now and we are looking forward to Bega on the June long weekend.
Given that the only 2 Cams rallies that I have done have not turned out so well, 2GO a DNF first stage and last clubman 3 weeks ago breaking a drive shaft while battling for the lead with fellow team mate Steve Burke was disappointing to say the least!
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WELL this weekend was pay off for all the work I have put in on the car, after making some changes to help handling and power and to remove all weak points we were on track for a good result AND a finish! I had thought about my driving too, and worked out my weak points and paid more attention to "lifting my game" .
This rally was very long 480+km including almost 200km competitive with a 50 km day stage and a 40 km night stage. First stage was Tar which started from the left side of Mount Panorama rear access road and up to the top which then joined on at Skyline for the run down the track to the Dunlop bridge. I was on rally tyres so I wasn't going to have a big go as I haven't driven around the track in a road car at 60kph for a few years. Stage 2 was back to dirt on "hen and chicken lane" A very very fast run which we saw 190 kph many times, the fastest time on the stage was a Commodore, with an average speed of 136kph. It was a very slippery stage too and I was getting used to how much better the car is now turning in.
The rest of the rally was very rocky and fast, yet there was some very tight and tricky tight stuff too. Being seeded at car 25 we were behind some slow cars, and on long stages dust would be a very sore point as I spent most of the time in the thick of it. The 50 km stage is hard on anyone and everything, we pushed as much as we could, but again the dust was bad, but it would have been bad for everyone as most were still running.
After stage 6 we were 11th outright. This was in a field of 70 cars made up of 20 4wd turbo's and a field of 16 in my class. ( above 2lt rear wheel drive P4). The only major concern was the broken extractors that I had made, I may have been a bit tight with the wire when welding :) . At the next 15min service I clamped a spanner with some hose clamps to hold the two halves together . Next stage we set 4th fastest time outright ! Then we had a 60min service at meal break where lucky for us Kevin Shaw (EVO7)lent us his NEW Oxy kit (Thanks Kevin).
This was the end of the Clubman Rally and I finished the Clubman section 2nd Outright and 1st In Class(P4)
The next stage was a 40 km night stage, as the Clubman guys finished just before this stage there were a few gaps in the field including one car in front of us, so we made hay while the cibies shone ;)....well till we got 20 or so k's in where we were blinded by dust, many times we had to stop to see the road! We came out of that stage starting with a 4 min gap and making 2min, 2 seconds up on the car in front. Lucky For the 200B of David King who took out my class had a 6 min gap without dust and made 2 mins up on us in that stage even though we set 5th fastest time.
We ended up with 5th outright and second in our class which is a very good result for any two wheel drive car and one beyond what we could have hoped for. Thanks must go to Andrew Scott and my wife Sue for traipsing around the dust all day to be there for Owen and myself.
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