BATHURST CLUB RALLY - 25th September 2004

As told by Adam Brydson.................

 

A few things went wrong...

Stage 1
Around 500m after the start, the car wanted to lurch to the right whenever I pressed the go-pedal. The car wanted to spin on left turns and needed to be thrown in more than normal on right turns. It was a bit weird holding the car sideways on the straights - only got to 100-120kph. We pulled over and changed the tyre when we heard it flapping against the wheel arch.

Stage 2
Started off good. On song in 3rd gear (130-150kph), then drifted off line onto a covering of pine needles, hit the brakes, sideways a few times to throw off speed, then fell off the left side of the road at about 30kph, the front right wheel was still on the road but the other wheels were down a loose hill, not enough grip to get back on. Slid down the bank onto a pine tree. It took over well over two min's for the VR4 (4WD turbo - faster car than mine) behind us to go past, so we must've started off ok.

We watched the rest of the field go past. It took the two recovery vehicles (Landcruiser and a Patrol) to get us back on the road - by then we'd run out of late time, so officially the rally was over for us.

We kept going. Had one Spin, then popped the selector out, so we were stuck in second for the rest of that stage.

Stage 3
By now it was dark and we'd left the driving lights back at service. Still had a go - sideways over jumps, through any trees that were on our line - the usual. The gearbox selector gremlin struck again on the way back to service and the clutch stopped releasing, so we called it a day.

We've since worked out the clutch problem - too much freeplay on the release lever. The gearbox selector's getting fixed now, should replace some bent front suspension arms in the next week or so (gained an inch or two toe in on the 2nd stage off). There's also a leak somewhere in the front brake circuit, buggered if I can find where though - explains why I lost 1/2" from the reservoir and had to keep winding on more front bias.

Adam Brydson.

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