navdan

He has spent A LOT of money on that car and couldn't keep it up this year. That's a whole lotta car just sitting there so best to pass it on WE will be back

I think the main problem with late time was that the penalty didn't reflect the crime. Take a couple of examples from our event... Just after the pass on Weldborough we had an intercooler hose blow. We made it to the end of the stage, found another service crew who we could use some tools from and proceeded to fix the problem to get us through Pyengana and on to the St Helens service. As we took longer than the required time + late time we were handed a 20 min penalty, effectively ending our event. From memory we were 6 mins over late time and still 10 mins ahead of 999 into service. The other example is that after Cethana, we stopped for fuel at one of the suppliers on the side of the road. Not wasting any time we kept moving after that as the liaison distance was 36kms in 36 mins. Most of you will know the roads that are between Cethana and Gunns and for mine, to expect crews to average somewhere close to 60kms/h on these roads taking into account other traffic as well, is poor form and just asking for "risky" overtaking. As it was we were 7 mins into our late time when we jumped ahead of the 20 or so cars that were parked well up the road from the start line (as we all do for a chat). Add to this the "time marshall" who refused to move from the yellow time control boards to take down car numbers and I'm surprised more teams weren't slapped with the 20 min. I realise the late time rule was laid out well before the event, but this doesn't make it sensible. Whats wrong with a 5 (or 10) sec per min late penalty? Keen to hear other people's thoughts and yes I know we have road closure windows to meet

This was just after you told Handbags it's "easily" clean-able haha

How many rallies (tarmac) have been lost due to gravel dragged onto corners? (rhetorical question peeps) Most times there's a clean line through it anyway and thats where you should be. If not, you deserve to be slow Not going to get into discussion re the above pic

So that was YOU!? Hahah nice On another note, feeling lucky we aren't using BIGRED for Targa...fingers crossed that's the only engine Handbags does this year

Ben, I'm guessing that your old man's car is at Pete's in Lonny? Saw one very very similar there on Monday after TWP while we dropped off a couple of cars for some 'lovin' prior to Rally Tas.

Hahaha not a bad effort seeing he started one car in front of us hehe

I must have missed that...no-one caught us on big river...we drive flat out. It's how we drive!

Is anyone else suffering de-ja-vu??

I know he was watching us pretty closely and got a little sooky (for want of a better word) when we matched him on Jamieson and were 20ish seca up on him at lunch on Sunday... What coverage?

Not that I'm aware. Imported another from what I hear. We have support Blaise, but the support is suffering too! Ha

Was having a chat to Tony as they were unloading his slightly bent Evo off the tray and by his reckoning I suspect we won't see the 7 until this time next year. I agree that Brendo won't be flipside at every event and to beat him you need to be faster than us anyway...the kid is amazing! Having the worst case of post rally blues ever!! Seems the higher you are the harder you fall hehe

Paul, the extra confidence came from having a good weekend of recce and being able to do 3 passes over every stage. That extra side int. bar and the seats mounted to the cage certainly helped though...have never felt so safe in a car before I look forward to it Woo, I reckon you can keep us very honest or even give us someone to chase! Now to convince Newton to buy a GT2RS and go hunting Jims...

For those that aren't over at EvoOz too often: Well, back in the land of earning a living after what I rate as the best week EVER! Had some niggling doubts about our potential for a win after a good hard look at the Early Mod form, from which I had pencilled in 5 teams as possible victors. Adam arrived Thursday night to the sight and sound of leaking coolant, so a quick replacement of hose clamps on Friday morning put that baby to rest. It took me until lunchtime on Saturday to get back into my rhythm and used to the speeds we do in these awesome events. I seriously thought we would be trading fastest stage times with Snowball until he developed that high speed handling issue (broken swaybar link will do that!), alas Newton stepped up the pace in the arvo and ensured our 32 sec lead overnight into Sunday. By the way, having not competed at Buller can I just say....what a freaking awesome piece of road! On Sunday after absolutely nailing Jamieson and having the ride of my life on Big River with drift boy in the drivers seat backing it into 4s, 5s and 6s, news came through of the 2nd placed M3R crashing on big river...our lead extended to 1min 30. This little black duck decided that it was speed management time. Mind you, hitting the crest at the end of the long straight on Eildon north of 200 and taking the 10r into 10l at 190 was absolutely amazing! Our bad stage was Mt Terrible, where we were rushed to the start a little and I came off notes near the end of the stage. Still, we managed to share fastest time with Paul and Blaise so I let the boy loose up Buller...he drove like a man posessed and we had a blast...it didnt see us better our Saturday time (8:51) but we were only 2 sec slower and had done enough to bring the old girl home in first place early mod and a credible 8th outright. A huuuuge congrats to Paul, Nicole, Blaise and Raechel, it was a pleasure to stand on the podium with you guys (and gals), and speaking of girls...Sammy and Claire in 5th early mod and 20th outright...AMAZING effort Bring on Wrest Point Two of my favourite stages are here:

On our footage there's a nice set of black lines leading from about 2/3rds of the way around that right hander off into the bushes. Didn't have it in the notes? We had it as an 8 and with the speed through the finish it would require a decent prod of the middle pedal.

...and here I was thinking we'd had a cracking first 9kms and had caught you (then we saw the FIV)

Definately was Ben's 10... Glad to see them both out of the car when we passed

Prolly just had it lying around out the back...

The BP on the Mt Buller Rd in Mansfield has 98. We pass it Friday for prologue, Saturday morning after Mirimbah and Saturday arvo prior to Mt Buller...hope they have big tanks!!! Sunday we're clean outta luck! (oh and from memory the Caltex on the main st of Mansfield has Vortex 98 as well) Hope that helps

Who is this imposter.... Hahahah I've already told ya I'll be a bit lighter than at Targa Should make up for our power figure!

I want to know where these fast stages are! Sure there's some quick sections but every stage has it's slow to medium speed section to balance it out. Everyone is in with a crack...or are we smoking it instead??!!

Rallysportmag

I reckon studded tyres and massive drifts are the go!

Ahahahahaha

For those that are looking to be reasonably organised and have as much info with them as possible, the individual stage maps have been posted on the THC website...these include the MANSFIELD stage map (finally!). Don't know about everyone else, but with only 4 weeks to go I'm getting a little edgy... Team Emo FTW! THC Individual Stage Maps