The KCF Forest Finale 22nd November - The final event in the Queensland Rally Championship 2014

 

Introduction

For years now Keith Fackrell has been sponsoring rallying in QLD. This year is no different and fortunately for the competitors he sponsored the final QRC round 6 and put on a genuinely excellent event. This is also a credit to the team which organized set up and ran the event. I’d like to thank all those who organized and also those that manned the controls on the day – it was great of you to assist especially in such heat.

 

The Rally was originally to be near Kenilworth, but ended up using excellent roads around Imbil which are also used in the International Rally of Queensland. They were cleverly re-ordered, so experience IRoQ competitors wouldn’t be too advantaged, and fortunately they were in very good condition.

 

Saturday the 22nd November ended up being a very hot day with a high of 38 degrees. With Rally crews having to wear their mandatory safety equipment it was extremely challenging. In the end some had to pull out, some ended up on a drip, with many suffering heat stroke to some degree.

 

Leg 1

The KCF Forest Finale consisted of 4 stages totaling 40 klm which were repeated 3 times giving a total of 120klm. The four stages were run early afternoon, late afternoon, and for a final loop at night - which was the first night rally I have run for over 20 years. It was a great challenge.

 

Mark had never navigated on a blind rally (one without pace notes) before, so it was a new challenge for him. The first stage was an eye opener, as he quickly realized how difficult it can be to deliver directions as and when required. It is also very strange coming across un-noted corners which appear to be quite dangerous. This is all down to being so used to using ‘pace notes’ of course. By stage two, Mark was well and truly getting the hang of the instructions, and we were developing more of a flow. We had brand new tires on the front, and they were providing loads of grip. The second hand rears from Rally Australia were to last the whole event. At the end of the first four stages, we were up to about 9th overall, and leading the 1600cc entrants. Our main competition, and the winner of the 2wd Queensland Rally Championship Clay Weston was unfortunate enough to get a flat tire, and this lost Clay and Brendon a lot of time. We were still pleased to be beating their stage times on the stages they completed without issue, which is a benchmark for us as to our maximum potential in 2wd.

 

Coming into the first service, Mark Williams and Clare May gave the car the once over, and got her back ready to compete again. The tire wear was a surprise, as the brand new front tires were looking very poorly after only 40 klm. Nevertheless we battled on with these tires for the next 40k’s which certainly had an impact on the stage times. No doubt some other teams put on fresh rubber.

 

Leg 2 

 

The other major factor was the heat. Several drivers began to suffer during leg 2 having become dehydrated during the first leg. Some had to pull out and I was certainly concerned about being able to make it through. We were warned by organizers not to drive if we thought we could faint. Half way through stage 7 something went wrong in the front end of the trusty Mirage. The steering went funny, but I continued on through the stage, driving quite a bit more cautiously. At the beginning of the final stage of leg 2 – stage 8 – I lifted the bonnet to see the right hand strut top was broken. Two other drivers who saw the damage recommended we retire, however, I reasoned that we had driven through the end of stage 7 like this and the rubber top – which was projecting out of the strut was protecting the car from getting damaged. I drove carefully through stage 8 and got into service. We lost around a minute in these two stages as a result of the broken strut top.

 

I can’t thank Mark Williams and Clare May enough. Without their help we would not have got the car back on the road. Mark worked hard in challenging heat all day to secure the result we got. We knew we needed a replacement strut top and scoured the service park for similar cars. All the rally cars similar to ours did not have spares which would fit our car, and in the end we found a road car owned by another crew member competing in the event. The car we found belonged to Erin Kelly, who went on to win the event navigating for Matt Van Tuinen. With permission from her step dad (Keith Fackrell) and her mother (Kate Kelly), we were carefully pulling her car apart and stealing the strut top we required to continue in the event. I don’t want to get a name for doing this, but this is the second time we were able to stay in an event due to the kindness of others – Thanks Erin, Kate and Keith.

 

Almost loosing faith

I hate to admit it, but I said to Mark Williams several times while we were trying to extract the part ‘Is this a lost cause? Should we give up? We knew it would be tight on time as to whether we could continue (as you only have an allotted time for service plus some 'late time'). As it ended up, the 'late time' we lost by exceeding the allocated servicing time was not enough to stop us winning our 1600cc class - P2. It’s also great to have overcome the problem, and managed to get another finish to our credit rather than a retirement.

 

Leg 3

The last 4 stages were genuinely challenging, due to exhaustion, the challenges of driving at night (where lights are very important), and a few little errors with a corner overshoot and getting lost in our own dust. All this aside, we were very pleased to bring the car home and get a pretty decent result.

As it turns out the outright 2wd competition has several cars with far less restrictive rules than our P2 class. This means they often weigh a lot less than us and have a lot more power than us. Having said this Clay Weston (who runs under similar rules) competed in all 6 scored rounds and managed to win the 2wd class in a P2 car (1600cc car like ours). Congratulations to Clay and Brendon, who were very consistent throughout the year.

 

 

Our Queensland Rally Championship Results

Our focus on Rally Australia meant we missed round 5 (in Wowan) and we only bought the car after the first round od the QRC had already been run. This had an impact on our results in the QRC, so maybe next time we can do even better.

 

Despite this - Justin managed to come 3rd Driver in the 2wd QRC, and Mark managed to get 10th navigator in the 2wd QRC- which is worth celebrating.

 

It’s been a great year for Audacious Rally sport, and we have learnt a lot about what it takes at the state and national level.

 

Thank you all who have helped us make it happen.