Big Field for Series Start

 

Sunday 19th March saw 61 starters ready to crack into PCC’s Bothwell Loop rallysprint in Glen Murray. Maybe it’s been a long time in between drinks but what an opening field, impressive!

Morning fog dissipated quickly into an absolute bluebird day. Wet grass dried seemingly on the way up to an early drivers briefing, club organizers under the pump to get the day going & get into recce to let drivers analyze this new reverse direction stage.

Drivers attacked & the road condition was on point. The thing with a new road or new direction stage is we haven’t all had the chance to note the many caution bits. JP Van Der Meys unfortunately tagging a rock on run 1, pulled drive shaft, smashed the hub & bottom arm – day over.

Class E frontrunners Clinton Cunningham, Phil Campbell & Raana Horan set blistering run 1 times, Mike Goldsbury hard on the go pedal coming in 4th fastest in his Toyota Corolla DX.

Mechanical withdrawals from Mason Grimmer, Tony Young, McCrae Sloper & Carl Adnitt on run 2 thinned the field but the battles were just as fierce. Phil Broadbent & Lucas Ramsay rounding out 2nd & 3rd fastest class B drivers behind Mike Goldsbury. Grant Liston fastest class C with the smallest of margin between Mark Nielson & John Whooley. Ian Wood fastest class D.

Great to see competition building in the G & H classes – classic 2wd & classic 4wd. Jay Pittams fastest Class G & Bryn Jones fastest class H.

We know the class E peddlers are smokin fast, welcome to the top 8 fastest run 2 battles Zeal Jones.

The day was progressing well, just after lunch time & into the 3rd run. This is the run where you see belts tighten & ears pinned. There are eliminations happening from run 1 onwards but run 3 is where the magic happens. Charlie Evans cracking under the 6 min mark in the Mazda, Ian Wood & Daniel Haines chasing hard in 2nd & 3rd place in class D.

Justin Glavish had no other class A competition for the day, but anyone can be in real danger of being pipped by this hard charging 1300cc driver.

Craig Tickle & Colin Cole battled for 3rd in class H, Craig Tickle just taking it out.

Fastest top 4 in run 3, Phil Campbell, Clinton Cunningham, Haydn Mackenzie & Raana Horan, all with times within 5 seconds of another.

Run 4 & some space now appearing in the pits area.

Dannevirke Car Clubs Bradley Stewart & Ben Brown – Subaru vs Mitsubishi – Subaru just taking out 2nd in class G on this run. The mid field competitors are all within seconds, 10ths of a second, 100ths of a second from each other. The temperature’s dipping a notch now & there are many codrivers with a slight unsettlement in their core, the final decent of dips & dives taking a toll on stomachs.

10 drivers sitting under the 6 minute run mark: 7 class E drivers, Jay Pittams in class G, Charlie Evans in class D & Mike Goldsbury in class B.

The final showdown, run 5.

Gary Wainwright charged hard in class H but Byrn Jones finished in the green with a time of 6:09. Jay Pittams V Bradley Stewart for class G honors, Jay got the win with a 5:55 – how’s that to go with the car livery.. Class E blink & you’ll miss it, Phil Campbell seconds in front of Haydn Mackenzie with a 5:32. Class D, Charlie Evans & Ian Wood decided a runoff wasn’t needed, a handshake for a good day ended well. Class C hard charger Grant Liston took the win with a 6 flat over Mark Nielson on a 6:04. Lucas Ramsay & Mike Goldsbury also deciding a runoff was not needed.

End consensus: the hidden rocks were not ideal, however the road was flippin good giving driver/codriver teams something new to bite into. Most stating they like the new direction more than they do not like it, a few more stating they’d have to come back & give it another good crack just to cement which way works better.

PCC would like to thank all competing teams for contributing to a well-run day.

Special thanks to Geoff Ridder for braving big stones for great images.

There is a fairly large rally in the south between this event & the next round of the rallysprint series, but keep those tyres warm as we want to see you dialed in at the next round hosted by SACC.

Point tables up very soon.