Oooooo, many things have happened since we last spoke!

The slacker returns to update you on all things rallying in the household of the Tireds!
Hmmm, so were did I last leave you. Oh yes, back in March! Well you’ve seen some of the antics of the intrepid Grasshopper and I was involved in some small way in those events. Wankeratta brings back some nice memories of a pleasant Sat’dy drive and some interesting spectatin’. Thomas the Tank engine is memorable for many reasons, not the least of which is young Tireds first “real” rally! And of course I am still involved in repairing Thomas, after his altercation with a bank.

But far more important than all of these is of course, my rallying “career” in the left seat of the very unreliable and now sold, Corolla.
Now don’t get me wrong, I very much enjoyed my all too brief stays in that seat alongside a man who can best be described a more than competent steerer. They just weren’t long enough!
First event this year was the Cerberus Stage in the classic’s competition. Now this is where the relativly rich boys play in their toys. Some serious money and development is going into these cars of the 70’s & 80’s. It nearly didn’t start when the exhaust manifold developed some serious crack even before the car was loaded onto the trailer, but our intrepid driver/mechanic got it sorted and arrived pretty much on time.
Off into the forest and still a little rusty, my man posted a 4th fastest time on the first stage. At this point I must inform the reader that conditions during the week leading up to the event had been a little wet and wild leaving the course a “little” unpredictable. My man handled it with aplomb, as I knew he would, and it was off to the 2nd stage, which we had been warned was pretty slippery for about 5km not too far into the stage. Pretty slippery! Diabolical more like! But once again, the master was at work, a great experience as he pulled the car back onto line time and time again in the seriously unpredictable conditions. Not just once did I hear an “oops” or “that was slippery” during this stage. Another quick time ensued, 3rd I think, and off to 3.
A long drag uphill from the start had the driver a little concerned, but he needn’t have worried, his ability, plenty of revs and the little beast did not disgrace itself. Now this was a quite a long stage, around 30kms and I expected we would do well as I knew the driver liked long stages and concentrated well throughout them. All was going well until about halfway into the stage when the engine decided to run a little “rough”. Theories on possible causes were discused and for about the next 10 kms the pace was dropped (this is a relative term as I could not possibly drive at this reduced pace!). But the little car was still running and I noticed the pace and revs start to build again and while not at full noise we were again travelling quickly. The fault remained undiagnosed and we returned to service with our rough motor. Closer inspection at service revealed a broken pushrod and with no replacement we was out! Oh yes, and for the record, we were 4th fastest on this stage, broken push rod, reduced pace and all.
So then it was July and the Nissan Nightmoves. Wet again as we pulled into the 1st start control. A pretty uneventful stage with a slight overshoot and then an off between a couple of trees an seriously slippery section that was very hard to read. A few seconds lost on both occasions and through to the end of the stage. As we pulled into the next start control there was a bit of a queue building. Checked out the reason and found there had a been an accident on the stage. Fortunately the injuries weren’t really severe and after observation in hosptipal the guys went home next morning a little sore and sorry.
So our delay was around 30 mins and we transported through the stage only to have the lights die on us several times until all power disappeared and that was the end of our rally. Poor little beastie, it was not popular again and on the walk back to a campfire and road closure, the decision was made to sell it.
I await the completiion of the new car and hopefully the driver has seen enough in me during our 3 outings to ask me back again. Time will tell.
Oh yes, and then there was our annual visit to Rally of Melbourne and more officiating. Hmm, best described as wet and muddy and slippery. Maybe I’ll tell you about that another time.
So to the future and while I don’t see any events on the horizon for me, I think the rebuilding of Thomas will be the priority and plan some events for him in 2007.
Still got some events to officiate at this year though and I’m tipping Grasshopper and I will enjoy the experience as we always do, out there in the forest, fresh air and dust, or rain.
Did I mention the dust? Heheh.
Until next time.