KCF Short Course Rally Series was on last Saturday. Its kind of unique in that they use 2 stages, run 3 times each. First stage was ~8km and the second ~11km.

The nerves didn't really kick in until half way through the first stage... I was taking it pretty easy just trying to get a bit of a feel for the car and everything... but half way through the stage I had pretty much decided that rallying was not for me - its absolutely crazy out in the forest! And it takes some big bloody balls! but by the end of the second stage I was feeling much more confident and starting to get a decent rythem up in the car.

second run through I dropped 23 seconds off my 8km stage time. It turned out to be a quite respectable middle of the field time which I was pretty happy with. The second run at the 11km stage was going in a similar fashion (ie lots faster!) as well until the fuel pump died about 3/4 of the way through... lost over 15 minutes fixing that... and I can tell you working on a car on the side of the road in the middle of a stage is not much fun!

By the 3rd run, I had seen our times on the board at Rally HQ, and was pretty pleased with how we were going. I started pushing a bit harder on the faster sections as well now because I was getting more confident, but that led to me overshooting a tight 4R at the end of a long straight and got stuck for about 6 minutes down a bank resting the belly of the car on a log... We managed to get back on the road (much to the surprise of the officials at the roadblock just down the road) after a bit of ramp building to get over that log. And then on the last stage, we had a BIG moment coming into a 3R with about a 100m cliff on the edge of the road, after a long fast section of 1 and 2 corners. I braked hard and late, threw the car into the turn sideways on the approach and it simply got no bite - just washed out across the road. I should have paid more attention to the advice from some of the old hands - "stay on the hard line". As soon as I turned it in I knew we were in trouble, and it was about that time I decided that drivers shouldn't have microphones on their helmets - because my navigator probably didn't need to hear the "oh ####, this is bad" comment... Anyway, i just managed to keep it on the road, but I took out the poles and the bunting at the edge of the cliff! Apparently in rally circles an inch is considered as good as a mile, but at the time I decided that I'd just back off and get my navigator Tim, and the borrowed rally car back to the service park in one piece, to be followed shortly by myself and Tim having a stiff drink at the pub...

But we did finish the event, albeit at the bottom of the feild due to our problems on a couple of the stages. But it was a bit of an achievement just to keep the car going and make it to the end.

It was a real eye-opener. And you certainly can't beat forest rallying for the adrenaline fix! The Supersprints and Hillclimbs I've done just can't compete on the heart-in-the-mouth adrenaline stakes! In the forest the difference between crashing and being fast on the perfect line is a pretty fine line... I had a blast though and so did my navigator. I'm even going back for more at the last rally for the year at Gallangowan in about 4 weeks. I might have been bitten by the rally bug... We'll see after the next event. Unfortunately, the Stanza's owner will be back in the seat next year, so i might just have to get myself a rally car if i want to keep going in the bush...

Good stuff Harry!
My original 1200 that i had was building before i moved to QLD was going to a rally car,A-14 twin su's, and after one event i relised ralling wasn't for me, somthing about flying through the bush doing 100+kms with trees on either side, left me disenchanted! you are 100% right! you need balls of steel to be competent and compeitive, but i'm willing to admit you get both of them through experience, personally i much more enjoy being on the bitumin!
So what sort of rally car are you going to build? 1200? or are you just going to use yours?

Quote:

reminds me of a sticker I saw on a datsun 1200 at the taupo classic rally last month-
'Tarmac is for pussies!'

No offence fellas, and I love all form of motorsport on all surfaces.

Good stuff Harry! Sounds like a bit of fun!

Harry, congrates on finishing your first event.

From where i was situated (sitting on the bank with the Sunny arse end sticking out of it, mumble mumble mumble!!!) You looked more than confident throwing the Stanza around, Your line and speed was far better than some of the more experienced drivers in the rally. Would be good to see you competing in more events, you've definately got what it takes.
Gallangowan this year sounds like its going to be excellant as usual.

Ok as a long time road racer of first bikes then cars and a Rally organizer , it is easy to think Rally is about a pair of gazongas. If you start using every inch of the road well there are 500 corners at a Rally and conditions change with each passing car so.... your going to go off if you drive 100% of the car everywhere. That is why the Navie is there to slow down the silly arsed driver , we all believe we can save it. West Coast Rallys in the USA are rough so we have 20-40% of the cars falling out. My favourite line is from a muti time SCCA champ. "roads don't break cars , drivers do"
Anyway Congrats Harry , Rally is an absolute blast way more challenging then our road race stuff.

Tom Grossmann LVR SCCA Rally Chair

it defitinetly is more challanging than circuit stuff. And more demending on the driver in terms of car control skill as well as physically and mentally. But geez its good fun. The day just seemed to go so fast...

Looking forward to Gallangowan in the Stanza, then I'll have to look at getting my own rally car for next year I think. Don't know wether to convert my 1200 into a forest car - it would be alot of work, but would be worth looking into if I can get hold of an L14 block and the homolgation papers. Then again, it's a pretty clean car to be taking into the forest - I've seen the floorpans of rally cars. So I might look at getting hold of a pre-loved 1600 or Stanza rallycar - I've got lots of L series pieces and you can get some decent grunt out of them easily.

I tryed my first bitumen motorkhana on the weekend and i sucked, stuffed up so many times but still had a lot of fun.
Somehow i seem to have no problems racing in the forest, its a kick arse experience if u ever get the chance, after a few rallies u find the nerves go away and u concentrate on the lines to take, and getting your braking points right , but the buzz you get from when the start mashall starts counting u down 3 2 1, thats what gets the blood pumping!!!!!!!!!!
did u get to pace not the courses before u started?
where allowed to pace note here in SA and boy does it help with your stage times and confidence.

yeah, it was a pacenoted event. It certainly helped to know what was over every crest, but I'm sure the experienced crews had much better notes and were much more confident in relying on them to be right, and therefore not backing off as much. I just used our notes as a guide of what was coming up while driving it as I saw it basically, until I started to remember section of road at least.

The thing that got the adrenaline going for me were the fast corners, and any corner with a big cliff on the outside of it! The corners on and over crests were the highlight of the day for me - the feeling of the car getting all light as you come over the crest on full noise and opposite lock is pretty cool!

Next event (a state round) is a blind rally.

Nice work, i love forest rallying and have never actually competed on tarmac before but would like to, rather do a tarmac rally than track work but i'll probably have a go at wakefield park or oran park next year. Forest rallying certainly gets the blood pumping!! Although I've only done 6 rallies my advice would be work on keeping the car o the road and finishing for the first few events even if you're a bit slow then work up to speed. I'm doing the last round of the NSW state rally championship on saturday down in Canberra, eager to see how we compare with the other P1 guys!

What are you using for suspension???