Australian Safari August 2009
Driver Darren Green
Navigator Wayne Smith
Manager Bruce Hughes
Mechanic Andrew Casser
After a 3 day trip across the country we arrived in
First taste of the event was the prologue; this was a short 18km stage through some natural forest near
Day1
Day 1's driving consisted of 101ks of competitive and 473ks of transport with 1 refuel but no services. There were 2 sandy stages 1 was 74ks and the other 28ks. The tracks were mainly soft sand & corrugations, some of the tight corners and large dunes had us down into first gear wishing we had a little more power.
Day 2 Geraldton - Mt Magnet
We started Day 2 as the 11th car on the track, this is worked out from the results of the previous days competition. The day consisted of 381ks of competitive driving and 222ks of transport. we had 1 refuel & 1 service for the day.
Today’s stages were much longer, with the first for the day being 245ks with lots of mud. This stage really suited us and the end result was a 5th for the stage. The second stage was 136ks but we had a few flat tyres that caused us to finish down the order. With our 5th place finish in the days first stage we had moved into 7th position overall by the end of the day.
Day 3 Mt Magnet - Leonora
The day started early for us, we woke up early as channel 7's Fifi Box done a live cross from our camp back to the Sunrise program. We had a busy day ahead with 4 stages totalling 496ks and 249ks of transport with 1 refuel and 1 service. The 1st stage was 122ks of tight rocky tracks with a few fast station tracks. Race leaders PWR's Paul & Kees Weel had brake issues on this stage and we were able to catch them in the tight stuff. We then started the next stage in front of them. Stage 2 was another 173ks of rough and rocky
tracks, Our overtaking of PWR didn’t last long as they caught us on 1 straight. We were doing around 140km/h when we got a tap from behind to let us know they were coming through. Stage 3 was only 63ks but one of the worst for us. We had a few tyre issues on this stage with 5 flat tyres. As we only carry 3 spares we were stuck without 2 tyres. lucky for us another competitor and our main class rival, Brian Robinson, stopped and gave us both his spares. We
were the last finisher for the stage loosing over an hour. This cost us on overall results but we were still able to fight on and try for a class win.
The 4th stage of the day was after a service and our service guys had managed to beg some tyres off Tambry Racing, these proved to be almost bullet proof although they wore down very fast, and @ $960 per tyre were very costly. We were one of the last to start this stage and done most of it in the dark. We were 9th on this stage but had lost a few overall places for the day.
Day 4 Leonora - Laverton
We were the 13th car on the track today; we had to overtake all the slower cars again! The days driving was 301ks of competitive and 163ks transport with 2 refuels and no services. 3 stages today , the first was 66ks of rough & rocky tracks with spectacular scenery and large rocky outcrops, this stage was hard work having to contend with overtaking slower cars again.
The 2nd stage was 203ks , we finish 5th in this stage. we are finally starting to get some clear track ahead of us instead of trying to get past slower cars. Our service crew had a bit of trouble on this stage, on the way to the refuel point they had an issue with a cattle grid, the car went through ok but the trailer did not resulting in the full trailer being rolled. Lucky there wasn’t a lot of transport left for the crews. The last stage for the day was a short 30k one,unfortnately we took a wrong turn on this stage and finished down the order.
Day 5 Laverton / Laverton loop
Today’s driving consisted of 460ks competitive and 85 of transport. 2 refuels during the day but no service. The wrong turn on day 4 had cost us a few places and we had to play catch up yet again. The first of the days stages was 250ks , this was the longest stage of the rally and travelled through the great Victorian desert, it was a tough stage with lots of sand dunes and then finishing up on fast shire roads. The second stage was 126ks we finished 3rd on this stage and got our top speed of 175km/h on this stage as well. The stage was on mostly tight tracks and overgrown fence lines, we have finally worked through most the slower cars and got to drive dust free for a change. the final stage for the day was only 84ks of tight & technical tracks we had a great drive only finishing 2 minutes behind the lead car.
Day 6 Laverton -
The last full day of competition with 391ks of competitive and 238ks of transport with 3 refuels for the day. We were 5th car on track today and we are much happier with this sort of result. There were 3 stages for the day, the first was only 86ks but was a rough technical stage with a tricky creek crossing to contend with, this wasn’t an issue for us and we finished 7th overall for the stage and moved to 6th overall for the event. The 2nd stage for the day was another long one, 242ks this stage started with some fast tracks but the last 100ks was very tight through trees with lots of lock to lock action. We finished 4th on this stage. The last stage for the day was only 62ks and another 5th place for the stage under 2 minutes of the lead car. We are getting close to the end of the race now; we can’t make up any positions unless cars in front break. We are 6th overall and first in our class. We were also 3rd fastest car for the day.
Day7
The final 2 stages of the day they are only short with a total of 164ks for the day. Was great being 3rd car on the track, was no dust to contend with, both stages were very tight technical stages on well used bush tracks. On the 1st stage at the 14km mark we came across the lead car bogged on the side of the track, we decided it was the right thing to do and stopped to pull him out. Although this cost us a fair bit of time we finished 9th on the stage. The second stage for the day and the last of the rally was just another short blast through natural bush. We finished 2nd on the stage under a minute behind the first car. Our best result for the week
We had travelled over 3770ks and were finally crossing the finish line. We went to the event to come in the top 10, we ended up finishing 6th overall and we won our class. We are now planning for next years event.
A big thank you to all the people who helped us with this event, On track 4X4, Induro Offroad Motorsport, Ftg auto salvage , Smithi Engineering , 4H.com.au, Wolf , Blackburn 4X4, Dynamic Wheels , Stud park panels & LRA .........
