Overdue 38th after Day3.
We’re actually going backwards in the results once you allow for faster cars DNFing.
No moments, no dramas, just that I am not driving fast enough and the car doesn’t have enough grunt.
Lots of BIG long uphills - literally one part where I was on song in 5th gear, hit the hill, had to go back to 4th, kept my foot pinned but still had to go back to 3rd gear before the top….
First two stages were ok, except for the rear tyres going off towards the end of both stages.
Third was a very fast 7km blast through some paddocks and I completely sucked. Just not brave enough committing to the very fast corners and then punished more with the lack of power.
Fourth stage was a dinky little 2km stage just out of Omeo that was a farm track through long grass. Happy to just potter through it.
The long (37km) stage was cut when we were about 80% of the way through. A 240Z had rolled into a gutter, and as far as I can tell, the crew had a bit of a freak out and were still in their inverted car when the next car arrived.
The crew of the next car arrived and saw that they were still in the Zed. The Zed crew hadn’t hit the OK/Not OK button on the Rallysafe, so the second crew assumed they were in trouble and pressed the SOS button… which “Red Flagged” the stage.
I know that it is easy to make excuses after the fact, but ending this stage hurt us competitively. We had a good flow on, and it was definitely our best stage of the day. I am NOT saying that we were going to win the stage or any such nonsense, but I am confident that we would have made ground on the cars around us.
Instead, we all get the same derived time. Meh - I would prefer people to be overly cautious than indifferent to another crew apparently in trouble.
Last stage was 1km onto and around the Bairnsdale Speedway track. 21st outright on this stage was nice, even if all of the times were very similar.
(Potato Cam photo from my mate Heimo just after the speedway stage).
Today is the last day. 105km competitive spread over five fairly even length stages, and about 130km transport. I have been driving well within myself, so I am not expecting fatigue to be a big issue for me.
Would like to sneak inside the top 30. Last time (2019) were finished 29th before penalties and 34th after penalties, so they are two benchmarks to try to beat.
