Kel

Let's hope no suitcases involved Ben! I'm keen to do NSW- I'm guessing whole series will be outside of the budget this year since I'm also building a brand spanking new house. Interesting choice of name for the series?

hmmm think i better sort that one out! highest bidder?

we were warned about it being tight so I cautioned it but in the end it didn't seem that bad?

I answered my own question on the GPS @ rally tas btw tried it on the first leg, realised it was just a distraction, and left it off for the rest of the rally (didn't even use it on the touring stages) but then i also had to go through my notes after leg one and delete any distance call less than a 100- we were going so quick i barely had time to get the shorter distances out before needing to call the next corner!

I will have to find my carnage pics and post! There was plenty of it, especially on Savage which should bring back memories Benny Anyone who came off this weekend didn't do it by halves that's for sure. And thanks for the congrats- I had an awesome weekend and was just happy to finish - top 5 was a bonus. It was brilliant to see Quinny win - he fought hard for it and deserved it, especially considering he is running a relatively 'undeveloped' car with road tyres. Better get your finger out and get that 35 ready for Targa Tas Russ PS: Hats off to Timmy- teh master navi!

There was definitely a tyre changed involved - Quinn's fronts were worse than shagged on Saturday night! It was brilliant to see Tony and Naomi take the win - Jimmy was a man on a mission this weekend and they had to fight for every second they got up on him and Barry. We pulled up next to Tony after the last stage to offer what we hoped were to be their first lot of congratulations- even then he wasn't sure he'd done enough to keep Jim from first - it was just that close. The 35 is absolutely going to dominate tarmac rallying once the tyres get properly sorted.

Sorry to have missed you at drinks Tim - we piked early to'get some stuff sorted. I am absolutely shagged after nearly 11 hours of reccy really looking forward to this event though lots of high speed stuff Very interesting to be running with the arc guys given some of their recent announcements Not sure if service parks are same Ben waratah has changed

Thanks & that is the plan!

I know Benny, I meant the other Ben on chicane duties

Well, the gear is all (hopefully) re-packed! See you Thursday, if not before, Tim & Ben

So shocking - completely unbelievable. Last week I was reading about competitors staying in the picturesque town of Marysville for the Sprint, as I was juggling the calendar to see if we could get to the event. Now we're reading about the town for very sad and very wrong reasons.

ahh the *have you got donuts* question... if only i had a dollar as they say well, that and the *can you do a donut* question... reckon i'd have 5 x 35s by now for everyone that's asked that one! definitely keen to talk notes- still so much for me to learn! will look out for you at the surf club on thursday night- i will be the one in the pink DK shirt

I'd offer up our terratrip Tim but I don't think we'd have any chance of getting it out the car before I head down to Tassie Working up until I leave and have work stuff on both nights so no chance of spending some quality time pulling out all the bits.

good to hear the work on the only car less reliable than a skyline is still coming along my thoughts exactly on the gps being a distraction but people seem to be increasingly happy with it? for the moment having good notes, and reccy is what i think i'll stick to just interested on whether you can get used to it to use with notes for stages you don't get a chance to reccy a no brainer for transport stages though

You're one up on me Tim, I have printed the stuff out though Does anyone here use a povo GPS on competitive stages - I mean your navmans etc, not the tricky in-dash setups like the Whites run. Quite a few people at Wrestpoint were talking about it being a good sense check for things like tricky turns at the end of fast straights, calls over or after high speed crests etc.

My middle name is calm Pete did a great job to slow the car down and then keep it together as we headed down the bank- i keep saying this but i still have no idea how we didn't roll. He's a bloody good driver, and it's such a shame this happened because he was on track for a pretty good result for his first time in the car.

Yeah, they are not cheap in the scheme of things, but the interesting marks on the base of my helmet where i smacked my head make me think it's more than worth it... hope there are no CAMS scruitineers reading this thread- i promise the very expensive helmet i have worn only 3 times is just FINE Will let you know how I go with it after the weekend. For anyone in NSW looking at one I have to say Joseph @ Revolution Racegear did a great job explaining how it all works, spent heaps of time on the fitting, including getting me to sit in a race seat with all the gear on. And he gave me a very nice price There is a cheaper version out now- its about 400grams heavier than the original carbon fibre jobbie, but claims to be just as good and $500 cheaper. Will still mean at least a $1K investment though. How is your prep for Rally Tas going Tim? I'm heading down Wednesday night, hopefully getting a full day of reccy in on Thursday.

Spoke to Pete this morning btw and the in-car shows we were doing about 60kays as we went off the road and down the bank. Made the latest edition to the race kit this morning a no brainer... a HANS was on the way but that little off-road adventure had me sold on getting one organised for Rally Tas next weekend. I'm still thinking up a fcuk-ed joke to go with the pic

Awesome pics Sarah - also just saw your work in the latest Tarmac - congrats!

and pls pass on my congrats to Kylie, Stuart- she and Kim did a brilliant job to come in third. That car would have definitely been a handful!

I quite liked Glenlusk and Peleverata (well liked Peleverata until we came off it!). They were definitely good, hard, challenging stages that required alot of skill to get through clean and quick. The main thing that worried us was not knowing how the car would handle when it hit some of the bumps - Pete hasn't even had the car on a track yet so we were learning as we went along. From memory we bottomed out twice on Peleverata, and had a few 'oh shite' moments when the car got air and skipped across the road in some particularly nasty spots on some of the rougher stages. Overall though I didn't think the roads were too bad- but then I also thought Cygnet would be fun and driveable It seems our biggest problem was not so much the deterioration of the road surface, but what happened when it combined with dropped oil- Pete found a nice big spot of it, with our tyre tracks running straight through. I think all of that, and the tyres meant we were gone as soon as we hit it, though Pete did a pretty good job of wiping off some speed and holding the car steady as we went down the bank. Still not quite sure how we didn't roll! Anyway congrats to Stuart and the team for organising an awesome event - it was definitely alot of fun, very affordable and a good way to get a taste of rallying. But now for the most important subject in the debrief- why did you blokes pike on the drinking on Sunday night Actually apologies in advance if you were there- it was a BIG night for Kel, and some of the names, face and details from later in the night are a little vague

Shame the weekend finished this way for us- we were running 8th outright at the end of the first day - not bad for Pete's first steer in the car. Sadly, it looks like just a case of crap road surface (gravel, melted tar and oil don't mix) coming out of the corner, putting an end to an otherwise good run. I think Pete's driving is the only reason we didn't roll- he managed to wipe some of the speed off and hold the car balanced as we slid 12ft down the bank! Actually Liz, alot of the farmers who raced up to see the damage thought i had been driving - I ofcourse told them I would have caught it if that were the case

Stop being a big girl Neil Too tired and sore to post tonight - not sure if my headache is concussion or just a really bad hangover Here are a few quick pics from the phone- sorry about the quality

Yeah I am sure Stuart is more the authority on this but it did look like there was quite a bit of carnage!

Sorry to see Snowman out btw - thought something might have been up when I didn't see the car parked at the end.