First time doing flying finish yesterday, was a peice of cake!!
Was a nice change to see the cars driving past at high speed instead of just seeing them take off at the start!

We were a bit more lazy in helping our, ie we didn't and do feel a bit slack for that. We made it up in time to see the start, to the spectator point and the rain, to service for a bit more of a wander. Off to the next spectator point, 450m from the hair pin, missed it but found another spot. Waited in the rain for one complete pass and headed home, getting home at 8.00pm

Shout out to horiznt4l at the road closure for helping pass the time waiting for the cars, and I'll have a photo of you in action on my photo site in the next few days.

new and old, (less than 24hrs in owners possession)




Winner 4WD Class and championship runner up










Dougie doing the technical stuff. (Somebody get him an analog gauge)

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Race Torque Dyno 399 NM, 248Kw @ 20PSI

Straight roads are for fast cars, twisty roads are for fast drivers. I have or am neither.

http://tttmsp.smugmug.com/

Sounds like a great day Steve! Glad to here u got out there the full day!

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kel
yes I'm a chick...yes I will work on my car....

A great day turned to shit for us. The plan was to go at 'Safari' pace about 95% of usual rally pace and wait for everyone elses cars to break or go off the road, which happens every year at this event. The first 3 stages were dry dusty and super slippery, I was tank slapping all over the place, swiped a small tree, bounced out of some ditches, overshot a left on crest then left again going straight ahead through the bush and back onto the road which later caused some concern as someone had reported us for shortcutting the course! With threat of exclusion from the event we continued but upped the pace a bit and fitted soft/cut tyres as The Davies Bros' and John O'Dowd were in front of us and usually I can keep them behind. The next pair of short stages had us back in front of both those guys so I was happier. The rain had settled the dust and there was much more grip. We were looking good for 3rd place and another class win when disaster struck 2/3 of the way through the longest stage of the rally, the second last stage. I thought I could hear some ping on the long straights, it's very hard to hear through the helmet and hearing protection etc. The next long straight it definately lost power and I could smell oil, thought it was a turbo failure but there wasn't enough smoke and it was still making boost. Next thought was a piston failure so I eased it to the end on minimal throttle getting passed by the following car. I poured in the 2 bottles of oil we had in the car and crossed our fingers we could make it through to the end of the following stage ~14km without siezing the engine. We did but lost massive time, slipping back to 8th in the rally. Luckily it was still enough points to get our class in the state championship for the year and 3rd overall. The rules prohibit taking any assistance from anyone else along the route of the rally, so even if I had found some oil along the way it would have left me open to protest.
Saw lots of familiar faces out there doing road closures and controls etc. Big thanks to all of you! Great pics too guys!

I may not post some photos I took during SS5 but will check retirements first. Its little to do with anyone here but a team with steering issues.

Congrats to Leigh for winning his 3rd round, needs points in ARC round, and Doug for his category, That's Subaru doing well.

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Race Torque Dyno 399 NM, 248Kw @ 20PSI

Straight roads are for fast cars, twisty roads are for fast drivers. I have or am neither.

http://tttmsp.smugmug.com/

As requested

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Race Torque Dyno 399 NM, 248Kw @ 20PSI

Straight roads are for fast cars, twisty roads are for fast drivers. I have or am neither.

http://tttmsp.smugmug.com/

Come on Blake, you got the pics now tell the story.
Tell us about your Safari, the car, the season so far as a first time navigator...etc.

which co-driver hurled all over the car during Oak George II? Apparently there was a bit of a stench in the car when it arrived at Stop Control

Haha well. The 2nd last round of the 2wd championship was the safari rally , our aim for the event was just to finish , so we went out there and on the first few stages , started out pretty slow , so after a few lectures given to dad , we started getting into it, we where up against leo iriks , he was pegging time on us all day, and after the second service we got our act together taking about 10 seconds off him. Our last few stages where at night , and we had to make 1 minute up. We went pretty hard through the night stages and managed to make 2 minutes in 2 stages on leo, and because of the rally being so demanding on your cars strength , there was a lot of cars not making the finish and because of that we managed to get third 2wd. This puts us 4th in the 2wd points coming into darling 200.
It was a pretty good event for us , the only thing broken on the car was an exhaust bracket , but just how we went into the first stage with it being dry , dusty and crap , then a big downpoor before the first stage made the roads awesome (maybe not in some places). But because of our dnf free season we managed to win rookies of the year , (sean was owning that class until his rollover). But it has been a pretty fun season and i reccomend people to get into co-driving if they dont have the funds to rally. good experience.

That rolla with the green & red(?) paint scheme. He did not look like he enjoyed the experience

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asian: "i'm the master wanker"