Category: Latest Updates

  • Latest Rally Sprint Update

    Latest Rally Sprint Update

    Hello everyone, and welcome to this latest update.

    It’s been a little quite within the series over the past couple of months due to the large gap in the calendar, but it was back to business a couple of weekends ago with the final round of the 2018 series. Once again it was another superb event, with a new look Maramarua Forest and for some, a very pleasant change. Firstly before we carry on a big thank you to the South Auckland Car Club, of course all marshals and helpers deserve a big thankyou but also a special mention to Waverly Jones, who was secretary for the event as well as co driving for Michelle Brunt. A busy day for Waverly.

    Waverly Jones co-driving for Michelle Brunt.
    Waverly Jones co-driving for Michelle Brunt

    Another mention here must go to Dale Perry for all his often un-noticed work within the forestry, people are quick to complain but I have not seen too much praise after Sundays event and in my view and what I saw of it, it was brilliant.

    So, this brings us to our next event…..prize giving, hopefully you can all make it but at the time of writing we are still working on a date and checking the competition calendar to make sure we do not have any clashes. It is hoped to have it pretty soon after the Bathurst weekend, I’ll post it ASAP.( looking at Saturday 10th November, at this stage ) Hopefully everyone can make it, even if you’re not on the winners list I hope you can still make the effort, your part of the series and I’m sure you would enjoy the evening, it’s a great opportunity to catch up with everyone, have a few laughs and of course a few beers, dinner will be provided.

    Moving onto the 2019 and Tracy and myself will be stepping away from the organising and running side of things, were actually hoping to jump the fence and join you guys on the competition side as our Starlet is almost ready. We have thoroughly enjoyed doing what we do, we feel we’ve made heaps of friends but find catching up with everyone very difficult at events, so hopefully we can do that next season.

    I’d also like to say another huge thank you to Jason Byrne of “A little bit sideways”. His coverage of our events has helped lift the series, it’s opened the door of our series to the rest of the rallying community and I’m sure bigger and better things are to come for our sport due to Jason’s efforts.

    I’ll just go back to last round for a moment and without giving too much away (As there will be a full report & photos in the next edition of “A little bit sideways”) I’d like to congratulate all our winners, whether it be overall positions or classes. To all other competitors’ thanks so much for supporting the series, it really has been fantastic to see the numbers of entries at all the rounds, it has been the best season for quite some time regarding entry numbers and series registrations.

    One thing that has been evident over the 2018 series has been our “laid back” interpretation of our rules, over the years they have normally been fine, occasionally being “tweaked a little”, but with this season proving to be very competitive and numbers high it has highlighted several grey area’s which will be top of the priority list at the upcoming conveyors meeting.

    At this stage I do have a little info regarding the 2019 Series, and it’s looking like round one will be on the 20th January, and it’s a beauty…..Ruarangi Road, hosted by the Northland Car Club. What a cracker to start the season, and believe it or not we also have our first registered driver as well. Motorsport Bay of Plenty member Mike Torr.

    We are on the lookout for someone to take over the running of the series, and possibly sponsorship as well. We have had someone show some interest but as the series is run by several clubs a decision has to be made at the conveners meeting, so if interested please get in touch.

    But, before committing number one priority is enthusiasm for the series, it’s all pretty simple and with only 6 rounds, plus prize giving I guess you could say it’s only going to take up 7 weekends of your year. So, for those interested here’s what the job description covers.

    • The website and facebook pages need to be updated on a regular basis, these are the only two avenues of getting info out to the competitors (Possibly some assistance with these tasks)
    • Registrations are open for the first three rounds, so you need to be able to collect these, registration forms need to be at these first three rounds, as well as internet banking details need to be online. (website)
    • Results and points tables need to be on the website ASAP after each event, you will also need to allocate points, update points tables.( possibly some assistance with this task)
    • Possibly write reports for “A little bit sideways”, and photos!
    • Take care of any sponsor’s needs.
    • Sort out all trophies and organise end of season prize giving.

    Well, there we have it……a conveners meeting coming up, then prize giving and back into it with Ruarangi Road on January 20th 2019.

    The prize giving date is not 100% confirmed, pencil it in 10th November, but I will notify ASAP.

    Once again, thanks everyone for the support, Cheers for now.

    Steve & Tracy.

  • Round 5- Pirongia West Road. 2018

    Round 5- Pirongia West Road. 2018

    Hi everyone,

    It’s been a while since a decent update so whilst we have an unfortunate break between our last round, the Pirongia West road event, and our final round on the 9th September I thought I’d put up a post to let you know things are not standing still regarding the series.

    But before we go any further I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved with the series. The Car Clubs and their members, the competitors who have really come out in great numbers to support the series, Our sponsors & supporters, and of course a bunch of people who let all this happen…..the residents who allow us to use their roads, Probably none of them will ever see this post but never the less your tolerance is greatly appreciated.

    Round 5 of the series has just gone by, and what a superb event, set as usual in stunning country side with a road “as smooth as a baby’s bum “, 60 crews took to the start line, and what a line-up of cars. Where else would you have such a number of entries with such a variety of cars covering 70 decades of motoring, from Phil Campbell’s Fiesta AP4 car to Jo Worth’s Volvo Amazon and Chris Alexanders MK1 Cortina.

    It was an event full of incidents, which lead to a nail biting last run, Congratulations to Matt Jensen on taking the victory, congratulations also to Phil Campbell for building such a car and going extremely well on his debut event, fastest on the first three runs but, a bit of a splutter on the fourth. Jensen, however was super-fast on his fourth, but you can read all about it in the next report in A Little Bit Sideways. As mentioned above there was of course plenty of other little incidents and accidents!!! Which you can read about in the same report.

    The results of this event have really made the upcoming last round very interesting, there are quite a few very close scenarios that could play out, especially when you take into consideration the “Drop round”. So although round 6 is some time away, it’s going to be a cracker….and the other consideration is the fact that a few competitors now have time to fix up their cars, were as if we were running next month then their season could well be over!

    Prior to this next round we will be having a convenors meeting, were I know we have a lot to talk about, mainly the disruptions of the early rounds, timing issues and correct protocol of our rules & regulations. Next seasons dates will also be another big topic, as it always is but, the recipe we had for this year’s calendar was pretty good apart from this big gap between rounds 5 & 6. So, hopefully we do the same in 2019, and can rectify this break in our calendar.

    Another topic on the discussion list will be our 2018 prize giving, with our last round being in early September it’s fair to say that sometime in mid to late October would be the date.

    Work behind the scenes is also ongoing regarding “North v’s South” Rallysprint, that’s a one off rallysprint at a neutral venue between the competitors of the” ABC Pipefitters Northern Rallysprint series”, and the competitors of the “Engine Room Automotive Sprint series”. This event could well be a fantastic finale to both series, the interest it could potentially stir up for our sport would be invaluable, so fingers crossed we can pull it off…..more to come on this topic soon.

    Last, but certainly not least is this new look website, which if your reading this your obviously on to it. We are in the early stages of development, the information posted on here at the moment is virtually the same as the old site but hopefully it’s easier and more attractive to look at than the old site. There’s a lot more to come, so please keep calling back, any updates on the site will be also posted on the ABC Rallysprint facebook page. I would also like to thank Jason Byrne for all his hard work on building and updating this site, his help, patience, knowledge and enthusiasm is unbelievable, it’s the same passion that he puts into his magazine, hopefully it rubs off on you and you all subscribe to his mag. See else were on this site to find out more details.

    Well, there we have it. A superb series so far, plenty of ups & downs, plenty of controversy, plenty of incidents but still plenty to look forward to, read all about it in A Little Bit Sideways. Keep checking back.

    Cheers for now.

    Steve Russell.

     

  • Win for Matt Jensen at Pirongia West Road 2018

    Win for Matt Jensen at Pirongia West Road 2018

    Well, with round 5 over and dusted just one round remains to settle the 2018 ABC Pipefitters Northern Rallysprint series. However that round will not be untill 9th September, this will be the South Auckland Car Club round in Maramarua forest….More to come on that later.

    But what event the latest round turned out to be, firstly a massive well done to Lyndsay Homes and the Hamilton Car Club and all other marshal’s and helpers. With such a big field of 60 cars the event was superbly run and the way it was re-shuffled from previous events was credit to the car club.

    Well done to Matt Jensen on taking his first victory of the series, he’s been so close on several occasions so a very deserving win, now that will make the last round very interesting!  The event did have it’s dramas with several rolls and breakdowns, all playing a very important part in the results.

    The results & points tables will be updated in the next few days, apologies to a couple of you who had points missing from the last round, it will be rectified and will be on the new table once updated.

    As mentioned above there was plenty of incidents and a full report and pictures  will be in ” A little bit sideways” magazine.

    Thanks also to all the competitors that turned out in such large numbers to support both the event and the series, see you all at Round 6.

  • Pirongia West Entry List

    Pirongia West Entry List

    Here is the entry list for this weekends Pirongia West Road Sprint –  Round 5 in our series.

    Pirongia West Entries 2018

    For those of you that have not seen this road before, here are a few images

    https://alittlebitsideways.co.nz/nrss-pirongia-west-road-gravel-sprint/