RallySport Magazine July 2016
The July 2016 issue of RallySport Magazine, featuring news, interviews and features from Australia, New Zealand and the World Rally Championship.
The July 2016 issue of RallySport Magazine, featuring news, interviews and features from Australia, New Zealand and the World Rally Championship.
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Dedicated coverage of rallying in Australia and New Zealand<br />
Issue #3 - <strong>July</strong> <strong>2016</strong><br />
EVENT REPORT<br />
Holder takes<br />
first NZRC title<br />
WRC POLAND<br />
HEARTACHE<br />
FOR TANAK<br />
INTERVIEWS<br />
Harry Bates<br />
David Waldon<br />
FEATURED<br />
South African<br />
rallying<br />
5 MINUTES WITH<br />
Jack<br />
Monkhouse<br />
FAMOUS STAGES<br />
Canberra’s<br />
Mineshaft<br />
PLUS: RALLY QLD l JIM RICHARDS l HYUNDAI’S RALLYING HISTORY<br />
rallysportmag.com.au<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 1
OFFICIAL <strong>2016</strong><br />
SPECTATOR TOUR<br />
BROUGHT TO YOU BY<br />
EXCLUSIVE<br />
VIEWING<br />
LOCATIONS<br />
CLICK HERE to download<br />
the <strong>2016</strong> Rally Australia<br />
Tour brochure<br />
The tour includes:<br />
➜ Five nights twin share hotel room at Aanuka Beach Resort<br />
➜ Cooked breakfast each day ➜ Boxed lunches on 3 rally days<br />
➜ Tours and transfers by private coach with driver<br />
➜ Exclusive tour activity pre-event<br />
➜ Welcome dinner function on Wednesday evening<br />
➜ 3-day Rally Super Pass<br />
➜ Official <strong>RallySport</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> tour merchandise<br />
➜ Priority viewing at Ceremonial Finish and/or Power Stage<br />
➜ Pre-event Shakedown, Rally Show and Ceremonial Start<br />
➜ Farewell dinner on Sunday night<br />
Official Rally Australia Tour hosted by <strong>RallySport</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong><br />
2 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong>
CONTENTS - #3 JULY <strong>2016</strong><br />
FEATURES EVENT REPORTS REGULARS<br />
FOLLOW<br />
US ON:<br />
12 DAVID WALDON INTERVIEW<br />
THE ARC CHAIRMAN SAYS THE <strong>2016</strong><br />
SERIES IS MAKING PROGRESS<br />
19 THE MINESHAFT<br />
AN INFAMOUS ROAD JUST OUT OF<br />
THE NATION’S CAPITAL<br />
29 GENTLEMAN JIM<br />
JIM RICHARDS HAS A SUCCESSFUL<br />
RALLYING BACKGROUND<br />
42 HYUNDAI IN RALLYING<br />
IT ALL STARTED IN AUSTRALIA<br />
50 SOUTH AFRICAN RALLYING<br />
A UNIQUE RALLYING HISTORY<br />
68 HYUNDAI I20 R5<br />
A CLOSE LOOK AT A THE NEW I20<br />
70 HARRY BATES INTERVIEW<br />
WE CHAT TO THE SURPRISE ARC<br />
LEADER<br />
24 RALLY OF QUEENSLAND<br />
ROUND 3 OF THE <strong>2016</strong> ARC<br />
34 WRC ITALY<br />
HYUNDAI’S THEIRRY NEUVILLE<br />
FINALLY RETURNED TO FORM<br />
38 RALLY OF GISBORNE<br />
DAVID HOLDER CLINCHED HIS FIRST<br />
NZRC TITLE<br />
56 HEARTBREAK FOR TANAK<br />
WET AND WILD IN THE WEST<br />
60 CLASSIC OUTBACK TRIAL<br />
CLASSIC CREWS HAD A BALL IN<br />
AUSTRALIA’S OUTBACK<br />
63 YPRES RALLY<br />
BELGIUM’S ERC ROUND<br />
77 EVANS DOES IT AGAIN<br />
3 OUT OF 5 FOR YOUNG STAR, BUT<br />
NOT ALL SURVIVED (BELOW)<br />
04 EDITORIAL<br />
GIRL POWER IS EMPOWERING IN<br />
LOCAL RALLYING AT PRESENT<br />
05 RALLY ROUND-UP<br />
NEWS FROM AROUND THE SPORT<br />
64 BOOK REVIEWS<br />
TITLES TO ADD TO YOUR LIBRARY<br />
66 COMING EVENTS<br />
EVENTS WORTH CHECKING OUT<br />
72 RALLY CLASSIFIEDS<br />
WHAT’S FOR SALE THIS MONTH?<br />
74 HOLMES COLUMN<br />
MARTIN HOLMES AND HIS MONTHLY<br />
RALLY COLUMN<br />
SEE<br />
THIS?<br />
Click the link and<br />
watch the video<br />
LISTEN TO THE<br />
PODCAST HERE<br />
MANAGING EDITOR<br />
PETER WHITTEN<br />
peter@rallysportmag.com.au<br />
CONTRIBUTORS<br />
Martin Holmes, Luke Whitten,<br />
Blair Bartels, Jeff Whitten, Dallas<br />
Dogger, Matthew Whitten, Geoff<br />
Ridder, John Doutch, Craig O’Brien<br />
SENIOR WRITER<br />
TOM SMITH<br />
tom@rallysportmag.com.au<br />
PUBLISHED BY:<br />
Peter Whitten<br />
<strong>RallySport</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong><br />
peter@rallysportmag.com.au<br />
www.rallysportmag.com.au<br />
ADVERTISING<br />
Dominic Corkeron, 0499 981 188<br />
dominic@rallysportmag.com.au<br />
COPYRIGHT:<br />
No material, artwork or photos may be reproduced in<br />
whole or in part without the written permission of the<br />
publishers. <strong>RallySport</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> takes care in compiling<br />
specifications, prices and details but cannot accept<br />
responsibility for any errors. The opinions expressed by<br />
columnists and contributors to this magazine are not<br />
necessarily those of <strong>RallySport</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong>.<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 3
EDITORIAL<br />
Rallying in its purest form<br />
By PETER WHITTEN<br />
I’ll be the first to admit that there’s<br />
no sight in rallying more exciting<br />
than watching a World Rally Car<br />
being thrown through the forest by one<br />
of the world’s greatest rally drivers.<br />
But for sheer pleasure, I’m not sure<br />
anything beats standing in a dark<br />
forest listening to the sound of an<br />
approaching rally car, then watching it<br />
trail off into the distance.<br />
Night rallying is, perhaps, rallying in<br />
its most pure form. As a road closure<br />
official, waiting in the forest on your<br />
own, it simply doesn’t get much better.<br />
Picture this ….<br />
We’ve been set up for three hours,<br />
ensuring that the roads are closed and<br />
that nobody can enter the forest and<br />
cause any unplanned incidents.<br />
It was 4pm when we were dropped<br />
off at our “private spectator point”,<br />
and in the ensuing three hours we’ve<br />
gathered enough fire wood to keep<br />
ourselves warm on a chilly winter’s<br />
night, cooked ourselves some sausages<br />
on the gas barbecue, and kicked the<br />
footy around to pass the time.<br />
Once it’s completely dark, we wait<br />
some more as the start time for the<br />
stage draws nearer.<br />
It’s a clear night, there’s not a cloud in<br />
the sky, or a breath of wind, and right<br />
on schedule at 7.10pm we hear the<br />
first car leave the start control, some<br />
5km away.<br />
Having driven into our location<br />
via the rally route, we listen to the<br />
approaching Commodore and<br />
visualise the pieces of road he’s<br />
attacking as the engine revs rise and<br />
fall, and it makes its way towards us.<br />
A couple of kilometres from us, we<br />
hear the big Holden brake hard and<br />
turn right off the main road, before<br />
heading in our direction via a tight<br />
and undulating forest track.<br />
Moments later we see the flicker<br />
of headlights in the distance, and<br />
watch as the car ducks and weaves<br />
its way in and out of the trees,<br />
before finally sliding around our<br />
private corner and powering its way<br />
towards the stage finish in an everdiminishing<br />
glare of tail lights.<br />
Even before the Commodore has<br />
reached us, however, we also hear<br />
the far off grumble of a Subaru WRX<br />
as it leaves the start and also heads<br />
in our direction. Pretty soon there<br />
“Moments later<br />
we see the flicker<br />
of headlights as<br />
the car ducks and<br />
weaves in and out<br />
of the trees”<br />
are finely tuned engine notes echoing<br />
all through the forest as our senses are<br />
alive with the sounds of rallying.<br />
The pièce de résistance, however,<br />
is the performance of eventual rally<br />
winner Luke Sytema and his Ford<br />
Escort. The sound of the Escort<br />
powering through the forest is like<br />
a Bach symphony for petrol heads,<br />
and the few minutes listening to that<br />
car alone makes the three-hour wait<br />
worthwhile.<br />
In a nutshell, we came, we saw, we<br />
conquered. Surely it doesn’t get any<br />
better than that?<br />
But try explaining that experience to<br />
a non-rally person, and you’d probably<br />
be looked at strangely as though you<br />
have two heads. Similarly, a circuit<br />
racing fan used to a track environment<br />
and the blare of commentators on the<br />
loud speakers would also struggle to<br />
Listen and watch Luke<br />
Sytema in action in the<br />
Nissan Nightmoves Rally.<br />
really connect with what you’re trying to<br />
explain.<br />
Even those fans of daylight-only<br />
state or national championship rallies<br />
wouldn’t know of the sheer thrill of<br />
watching a club rally at night.<br />
If you’ve never experienced it, do<br />
yourself a favour and contact your local<br />
car club. Find out when their next night<br />
event is, and volunteer to man a road<br />
closure and experience the real ‘sounds<br />
of rallying’. Believe me, you won’t be<br />
disappointed.<br />
You’ll notice in this third issue of<br />
<strong>RallySport</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> that there<br />
is an increased advertising<br />
presence, and to those businesses I am<br />
extremely grateful.<br />
I urge you all to patrionise our advertisers,<br />
for without their support of RSM,<br />
there will be no magazine in the future.<br />
I’d forgotten just how much work<br />
goes into producing a monthly<br />
magazine, but I hope that you, the<br />
readers, are enjoying the new era of the<br />
magazine as much as we are enjoying<br />
bringing it to you each month.<br />
My continued thanks go to Tom Smith<br />
and Martin Holmes for their tireless<br />
efforts in helping to produce the<br />
content each month.<br />
Their support, research and skills are<br />
invaluable.<br />
See you next month!<br />
4 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong>
NEWS@RALLYSPORTMAG.COM.AU<br />
TASSIE TARGETS ARC RETURN<br />
A group of key rally<br />
people in Tasmania are<br />
well down the track in<br />
attempting to bring a round<br />
of the Australian Rally<br />
Championship back to the<br />
island state.<br />
While still some way from<br />
coming to fruition, the<br />
event would be based on<br />
the state’s north west coast,<br />
using roads not used in the<br />
ARC since the early 1990s.<br />
ARC Chairman, David<br />
Waldon, himself a<br />
Tasmanian, told <strong>RallySport</strong><br />
<strong>Magazine</strong> that the plans<br />
were well advanced.<br />
“There’s a group who<br />
are very, very keen and<br />
they’ve been talking about<br />
it for some 18 months.<br />
They’ve done a lot of the<br />
groundwork so far,” Waldon<br />
said.<br />
However, he stressed<br />
that it wasn’t simply a case<br />
of Tasmania applying for a<br />
round and being given one.<br />
“From the championship’s<br />
perspective, we have to a<br />
fine line between a series<br />
that’s sustainable with a<br />
certain number of events.<br />
There’s no good just putting<br />
a heap of events forward to<br />
have nobody turn up.<br />
“I think there’s a number<br />
of hurdles for Tassie at the<br />
moment, and for any other<br />
event that wants to hop into<br />
the fray, for that matter.”<br />
The ARC will return to<br />
Victoria in 2017 with an<br />
event based in Ballarat.<br />
That event was originally to<br />
be held in November this<br />
year, but a last-minute date<br />
change for Rally Australia<br />
saw the new Victorian<br />
event postponed until the<br />
following year.<br />
ARC FOCUSED ON MODERN CARS<br />
The future of the Australian Rally<br />
Championship will continue to involve<br />
four-wheel drive cars, but the age<br />
of the machinery eligible to win the<br />
championship will be restricted.<br />
Australian Rally Championship<br />
Chairman, David Waldon, says that<br />
while there is virtually no age limit on<br />
cars this year, that will change in the<br />
next couple of years, meaning that cars<br />
like Simon Evans’ 1998 Subaru Impreza<br />
WRX won’t be eligible to score points.<br />
“ The simplest way to manage the<br />
process is exactly the same way we<br />
manage all the other classes, with a<br />
rolling timeframe,” Waldon said.<br />
“At the moment we’ve taken that<br />
away and we have something like a 20<br />
year time period, but I think the reality<br />
is that in a couple of years time it will be<br />
The ARC will focus on<br />
modern cars in the coming<br />
years. (Photo: Geoff Ridder)<br />
a five and 10 year process.”<br />
Cars such as Evans’ Subaru would run<br />
in a second tier championship.<br />
“But we’ll certainly keep the national<br />
series open for those kinds of cars,”<br />
Waldon said.<br />
Read the full interview on page 12.<br />
- Peter Whitten<br />
COFFS COAST NSW<br />
17-20 NOVEMBER <strong>2016</strong> FOLLOW<br />
THE ACTION<br />
AS IT HAPPENS<br />
SEE OUR FACEBOOK PAGE FOR<br />
FANTASTIC PRIZES AND OFFERS<br />
#YOUHAVETOBETHERE<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 5
NEWS@RALLYSPORTMAG.COM.AU<br />
Subaru Australia Managing Director,<br />
Nick Senior, has explained<br />
the reasons behind running Molly<br />
FLYING<br />
Taylor’s WRX STi as a standard Group N<br />
car in the wake of another stirring drive<br />
from the 27-year-old in Canberra.<br />
Many have questioned Subaru’s<br />
reasoning for entering a car that is an<br />
incredible 280kg heavier than Harry<br />
Bates’ Super 2000 Corolla, and up to<br />
VISIT<br />
180 horsepower down on some of its<br />
other rivals.<br />
However, Senior believes that Subaru<br />
is heading down the right path, and that<br />
Taylor’s stock standard WRX is showing<br />
just how competitive Group N cars can<br />
still be.<br />
Brendan Reeves’ Kiwi Mazda AP4 Test likely to be a one-off<br />
National Capital Rally winner,<br />
Brendan Reeves, made a<br />
rushed trip to New Zealand late<br />
in June to test drive Andrew Hawkeswood’s<br />
AP4-spec Mazda.<br />
While Reeves currently has no plans<br />
to compete in a car of that specification,<br />
it was a good opportunity for him to<br />
sample a specification of car that has<br />
not yet reached Australian shores.<br />
“There is a lot of talk and hype about<br />
the new AP4 rules. We have seen Maxi<br />
and Proto cars in the ARC, but haven’t<br />
seen the new versions built by Force<br />
Motorsport in New Zealand,” Reeves<br />
told <strong>RallySport</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong>.<br />
“I’d been talking to Andrew<br />
Hawkeswood all year about testing<br />
one to get a first hand impression, and<br />
maybe helping the development and<br />
awareness.<br />
“Along with actually driving the car<br />
on the day, we made some set-up<br />
changes throughout the day. Andrew’s<br />
6 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong><br />
Mazda 2 runs MCA suspension built by<br />
Murray Coote in Queensland.<br />
“The cars have been built fast to a<br />
high demand, so Andrew hadn’t had<br />
much development time, so we were<br />
able to help him with that.”<br />
As expected, the differences between<br />
Reeves’ PRC Subaru and the AP4 Mazda<br />
are vast.<br />
“There are quite a lot of freedoms in<br />
PRC, but my car is close to Group N,” he<br />
explained.<br />
“The most notable thing is the mass.<br />
The AP4 is nearly 200kg lighter, making<br />
the performance and drivability better.<br />
It feels like a race car to drive with its<br />
6-speed sequential gearbox, pedal box<br />
and huge suspension travel.<br />
“The Mazda had a 1.8-litre turbo<br />
motor, but Force Motorsport tell me<br />
they have plans to develop a 1.6-litre<br />
turbo in the future to comply with the<br />
new rules.”<br />
Although the test drive was, at this<br />
Brendan Reeves tests<br />
the NZ-built Mazda 2 AP4<br />
recently (above). Photos:<br />
Ian Moss, Geoff Ridder<br />
stage, a one-off, Reeves believes that<br />
the AP4 car would be well suited to<br />
Australian conditions.<br />
“I’d love to try one out in competition,<br />
for sure. Australia is a tough<br />
battleground for a rally championship.<br />
We have a huge landmass, with the<br />
most diverse roads of any national<br />
championship in the world. I think a<br />
car of that quality would do really well<br />
here.”<br />
In Europe, the R5 class has been<br />
a tremendous success, with many<br />
manufacturers involved in the sport<br />
at the highest level. The introduction<br />
of the AP4 class in Australia and New<br />
Zealand has been a joint process<br />
between the countries in order to get<br />
manufacturers involved in the sport,<br />
and to offer a stable set of rules in the<br />
region.<br />
“The AP4 rules are certainly a<br />
cheaper option than an R5 car, with<br />
similar performance, but a PRC car is<br />
where most teams can afford to be in<br />
Australia,” Reeves says.<br />
“AP4 is a way of getting different<br />
models of cars out on the stages and<br />
will hopefully help the sport grow.”<br />
Australia has seen a Peugeot Maxi<br />
Car running in the hands of Mark<br />
Pedder, and a Hyundai i20 Proto with<br />
Justin Dowel at the wheel, but Reeves<br />
says regardless of what cars are being<br />
used at a national level, stability in the<br />
rules is imperative.<br />
“Each car has their own differences,<br />
but aim to give the same result. The<br />
biggest thing is that the rules need to<br />
be sorted and set until at least 2020, so<br />
teams can get on with building new cars<br />
and enjoying the competition,” he said.
Specialising in:<br />
➜ Transport and crane work<br />
➜ Semi-mounted cranes and rigid<br />
➜ Onsite HD all terrain Forklift work<br />
➜ Semi Tilt Tray towing for machinery and heavy vehicles<br />
Proudly supporting<br />
Victorian Rally Champion<br />
Darren Windus<br />
Photo: Craig O’Brien<br />
Contact us today - Phone: 0477 559 267 - Email: darren@wvct.com.au<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 7
NEWS@RALLYSPORTMAG.COM.AU<br />
NEWS@RALLYSPORTMAG.COM.AU<br />
RALLY ROUND-UP<br />
Macneall joins Makinen<br />
Australian co-driver, Glenn<br />
Macneall, has landed a<br />
lucrative deal with Tommi<br />
Makinen Racing (TMR) for the<br />
remainder of <strong>2016</strong>, co-driving<br />
for up-and-coming Japanese<br />
driver Hiroki Arai.<br />
Macneall recently<br />
completed a four-day test<br />
with TMR, and also attended<br />
one of Toyota’s tests for their<br />
new 2017 World Rally Car.<br />
“Straight after Canberra<br />
I went to Finland where<br />
we did a four-day test in<br />
R5 Fiestas. Markko Martin<br />
Motorsport is running the R5<br />
cars for us this year, with the<br />
whole programme managed<br />
by TMR,” Macneall told<br />
<strong>RallySport</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong>.<br />
“Hiroki did a brilliant job in<br />
his first rally in an R5 car and<br />
set fastest time overall on<br />
the first stage of the Finnish<br />
Championship rally last<br />
weekend.”<br />
The next step in the<br />
program is to enter the<br />
European Rally Championship<br />
Rally Estonia, and then WRC<br />
Rally Finland.<br />
“It is a seriously impressive<br />
program,” Macneall adds.<br />
“Toyota are really committed<br />
to the whole project.”<br />
Rallycross at Raleigh<br />
Raleigh International<br />
Raceway, near Coffs<br />
Harbour, will host a fourround<br />
rallycross series in<br />
<strong>2016</strong>.<br />
The track is the first to<br />
receive CAMS approval<br />
since the mid 1980s, and<br />
come and try days have<br />
already been successfully<br />
held.<br />
The 1.1 kilometre circuit<br />
consists of 50% dirt and<br />
50% tarmac, and includes<br />
a 132-metre “Joker Lap”<br />
section.<br />
According to Raleigh<br />
Motorsports Association Inc.<br />
marketing manager, Helen<br />
Haworth, they are now in<br />
the process of extending<br />
the track to a length of<br />
1.5km, with the ultimate<br />
goal of hosting a round of<br />
the FIA World Rallycross<br />
Championship.<br />
The Raleigh International<br />
Raceway has previously<br />
hosted rounds of<br />
the International<br />
Championships for Go-<br />
Karting.<br />
Proudly announcing the<br />
Southern Cross<br />
Gold Anniversary Rally<br />
November 8 to 19, <strong>2016</strong><br />
Re-trace the 1966 route through<br />
Victoria and then via Canberra to<br />
Sydney to enjoy the classic roads<br />
of the later Southern Cross Rallies<br />
around Port Macquarie.<br />
The rally finishes in Coffs Harbour<br />
where you’ll join the field of<br />
WRC cars competing in the final<br />
round of the <strong>2016</strong> World Rally<br />
Championship and compete on<br />
some of the WRC route..<br />
Another Classic HRA re-run<br />
www.hra.org.au<br />
Daily competitive<br />
sections including:<br />
• Closed road<br />
stages<br />
• Hillclimbs<br />
• Timed track<br />
sections<br />
Each day finishes<br />
in time to enjoy a<br />
meal and lots of<br />
socialising!<br />
Head to the website for more information<br />
www.southerncrossanniversaryrally.com.au<br />
Albury Mansfield Sale Jindabyne Canberra<br />
Parramatta Taree Port Macquarie Coffs Harbour<br />
The new rallycross looks challenging and exciting.<br />
Sordo injured in test shunt<br />
Dani Sordo crashed his<br />
latest spec Hyundai NG<br />
i20 WRC in pre-Neste Rally<br />
testing in Finland when a<br />
suspension arm failed.<br />
The impact sent the car<br />
off the road in sixth gear<br />
into a massive track side<br />
rock, which shot the car<br />
high into the air before<br />
landing on the driver’s side<br />
of the car.<br />
Sordo suffered a fractured<br />
vertebrae in the accident.<br />
This is a remarkable<br />
replay of the accident for<br />
Sordo during the 2006 rally,<br />
which again ended when he<br />
impacted a very big rock.<br />
As a result to the accident,<br />
the test session was<br />
cancelled, as was his entry<br />
in this weekend’s Autoglym<br />
Rally.<br />
It is reported that the<br />
crash happened on the<br />
Pihlajakoski stage, 400<br />
metres from where Pekka<br />
Mällinen crashed his<br />
Escort RS2000 during the<br />
Thousand Lakes in 1983,<br />
which cost the life of codriver<br />
Reijo Nygren.<br />
- Martin Holmes<br />
8 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong>
Emma Gilmour will<br />
compete in the Italian Baja.<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 9
NEWS@RALLYSPORTMAG.COM.AU<br />
AUSTRALIA’S LOSS IS NZ’S GAIN<br />
Irishman’s all-new Fiesta Proto will compete in NZRC in 2017<br />
By PETER WHITTEN<br />
Sydney-based Irishman, Richie Dalton,<br />
is eagerly awaiting the arrival<br />
of his brand new Ford Fiesta Proto<br />
that is on its way to Australia from<br />
Poland.<br />
The Fiesta will run with Mitsubishi<br />
Lancer Evo 9 running gear, and after a<br />
debut in Australia later this year, Dalton<br />
and co-driver John Allen will contest the<br />
2017 New Zealand Rally Championship<br />
in the purposeful looking car.<br />
When he ordered the building of<br />
the car, Dalton had originally planned<br />
to contest the Australian Rally<br />
Championship, but a change in the<br />
regulations now means that the car’s<br />
double-fin rear wing is not eligible in<br />
the ARC.<br />
An application by Dalton and<br />
his Shamrock Motorsport team to<br />
alternatively run a single fin wing from<br />
a Fiesta rallycross car was subsequently<br />
rejected by the Australian Rally<br />
Commission, meaning New Zealanders<br />
will now get the enjoyment of watching<br />
the new Fiesta in action. (Read ARC<br />
Chairman David Waldon’s thoughts on<br />
the issue HERE)<br />
“The car is running six months<br />
late and still hasn’t arrived, so we<br />
may look to debut it in the NSW<br />
Rally Championship round that runs<br />
alongside Rally Australia in November,”<br />
Dalton told <strong>RallySport</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong>.<br />
“I decided to build a car to the G4<br />
regulations rather than the new AP4<br />
rules, because the big wings that the G4<br />
cars can run really look the part.<br />
“However, as the car is no longer<br />
eligible in Australia, we’ll be heading to<br />
New Zealand next year.”<br />
Dalton says by the time<br />
the car is finished it will<br />
have cost a similar price<br />
to an AP4 car, and after a<br />
recent visit to the Rally of<br />
Canterbury in NZ (where he<br />
was a guest of the NZRC),<br />
he can’t wait to compete<br />
over there.<br />
“I’m not interested in all<br />
the politics, I just want to<br />
drive the car and have fun,”<br />
he says.<br />
“The way the New<br />
Zealand Rally Championship is run is<br />
very appealing to me, with less time<br />
away from work and less restrictions.<br />
“The Otago and Whangarei events<br />
have been on my ‘Bucket List’ for a<br />
while now, and with smoother roads<br />
and events that are cheaper to run in,<br />
I can’t wait.”<br />
The Fiesta Proto is the first righthand<br />
drive car built in Poland, a<br />
decision Dalton made to help with<br />
the re-sale of the car in a couple of<br />
years time.<br />
He also ordered a spare WRC body<br />
kit, which he will use to make spare<br />
bumpers and other parts from.<br />
Other than a debut run in<br />
November, it looks like Australian<br />
rally fans will miss out on seeing the<br />
Fiesta in action – something that is<br />
certainly New Zealand’s gain.<br />
Richie Dalton’s Fiesta<br />
Proto is an impressive<br />
looking machine.<br />
Tasmania targets ARC return - page 5<br />
10 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong>
Who the heck<br />
is “Stonie”?<br />
Adelaide’s John Stoneham, a.k.a. ‘Stonie’,<br />
is a motoring and motorsport cartoonistillustrator<br />
who has been producing his uniquely<br />
Australian cartoons for over 40 years.<br />
‘Stonie’ is no stranger to rallying, having<br />
been a successful navigator in his day.<br />
He co-drove twice for Team Toyota in the<br />
media car, finishing eighth in the 1990 SA<br />
Forest Rally and sixth outright in the first ever<br />
Targa Tasmania, with Tim Lynas in a Ford Laser<br />
TX3.<br />
In his 70th year, he has been a regular<br />
contributor to the national Auto Action<br />
weekly magazine and the monthly Unique Cars<br />
magazine.<br />
<strong>RallySport</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> is proud to be able to<br />
continue to publish some of Stonie’s favourites.<br />
YOUNG LAPS UP JAPAN DEBUT<br />
Michael Young has<br />
delivered his promise<br />
of securing a finish at<br />
Rally Toya, a round<br />
of the Japanese Rally<br />
Championship (JRC),<br />
where he was invited to<br />
compete with his Cusco<br />
team.<br />
Piloting a Cuscoprepared<br />
Subaru<br />
Impreza, Young and<br />
local co-driver Takahiro<br />
Yasui overcame<br />
multiple challenges<br />
throughout the two day event to finish<br />
in sixth place after holding third for<br />
most of the rally.<br />
At the rally finish, Young said: “It was<br />
a tough rally, that’s for sure, though I’m<br />
really happy to finish. Yasui-san and I<br />
worked well together all weekend and<br />
we showed some good speed over the<br />
weekend, and even won a stage.<br />
“Cusco has asked me if I’d like to<br />
come back and obviously, I would love<br />
to!” Young said.<br />
“They [Cusco] looked after me and<br />
I really enjoy rallying with them. Plus<br />
rallying in Japan is simply awesome and<br />
I love it.”<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 11
INTERVIEW: DAVID WALDON<br />
FORWARD PLANNING<br />
ON TRACK FOR ARC<br />
By PETER WHITTEN<br />
Tasmanian David Waldon took<br />
over the role as Chairman of the<br />
Australian Rally Championship<br />
(ARC) in December 2015, and has so<br />
far been working flat out to regenerate<br />
the championship and to attract more<br />
entries to the once fledgling series.<br />
With a change in rules this year, and<br />
with a kit bag full of ideas and plans for<br />
the future, Waldon’s efforts (and those<br />
of the ARC committee) are already<br />
bearing the fruits of his labour.<br />
Increased competitor numbers and<br />
a spike in public interest are just two of<br />
the most notable positives to come out<br />
of the season so far.<br />
<strong>RallySport</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong>’s Peter Whitten<br />
chatted to Waldon to check on the<br />
progress the ARC has made in <strong>2016</strong>.<br />
RSM: Three events into <strong>2016</strong>, has this<br />
year’s ARC been a success so far<br />
DW: It’s the start of a success, and<br />
certainly some of the goals we set out<br />
to achieve at the beginning of the year<br />
have been achieved. But I very much<br />
treat it as a work in progress, as it’s a<br />
transitional year, and a year of review in<br />
how the championship needs to build,<br />
and in what directions.<br />
Certainly the promotional side of<br />
things has been a success, but there are<br />
more tricks in the bag to play with yet,<br />
and we need to make sure we achieve<br />
what we set out to achieve in the first<br />
instance.<br />
Are the changes in vehicle regulations<br />
working?<br />
Yes they are, and again it’s only in<br />
the transitional period, but the future<br />
direction is what we’re really focussing<br />
on at the moment. The change in<br />
regulations to allow four-wheel drive<br />
cars, and effectively four-wheel drives<br />
of all ages, was a methodology to entice<br />
people to compete again and making<br />
sure there were no roadblocks for state<br />
competitors to move up into the ARC.<br />
Clearly that’s not something that<br />
is sustainable in the long term - the<br />
championship needs to eventually<br />
regain its point of being the modern<br />
championship, rather than one for all<br />
comers – but having said that, that<br />
doesn’t mean we need to<br />
lock the door for those cars<br />
either.<br />
It’s been a mistake in<br />
the past to formulate a<br />
championship that didn’t<br />
allow everybody the<br />
opportunity to compete. So<br />
I think yes, overall it’s going<br />
to plan.<br />
Subaru’s Nick Senior made<br />
some interesting comments<br />
regarding a one-make ARC in<br />
the June issue of <strong>RallySport</strong><br />
<strong>Magazine</strong>. What are your<br />
thoughts on that?<br />
I love the idea of a one-make series,<br />
and that’s always been successful in the<br />
past when it’s been well supported, but<br />
I don’t like the V8 Supercar model for<br />
rallying.<br />
I don’t see that there’s any life in<br />
having a one-make series as the<br />
outright championship, and that would<br />
be a pretty poor world to be in, I think.<br />
There are the fundamentals of<br />
rallying that is a bit of a ‘run what you<br />
brung’ kind of thing that’s gone on over<br />
50 years or so, and that’s part of the<br />
attraction.<br />
What about a control tyre? In the same way<br />
that a one-make car restricts opportunities,<br />
does a one-make tyre do the same?<br />
The tyre supply is a very difficult part<br />
of this whole process, and it’s the one<br />
thing we can do that maintains a sense<br />
of parity and tries to keep a cap on<br />
costs for the competitors.<br />
If you wind back 10 years or more<br />
when we had an open slather, we had<br />
some very special tyres being flown in<br />
from Europe overnight for competitors,<br />
and that made it unreachable for most.<br />
We go back to that same<br />
conversation about what the regulation<br />
changes meant, and without the control<br />
tyre it takes away any chance of a state<br />
competitor stepping up and taking on<br />
the big guns.<br />
Having said that, competition in the<br />
market place, if we contained it well, is<br />
something that’s in the future, but at<br />
the moment tyre supply is something<br />
that helps the championship pay<br />
its way and gives exposure to the<br />
competitors.<br />
They (the competitors) have to realise<br />
that the money basically bounces over<br />
to promoting the championship and to<br />
them individually, and it has a net effect<br />
to the bottom line.<br />
Certainly, from a parity point of<br />
view, it has achieved that role pretty<br />
well, and I don’t get much grief from<br />
the competitors about the one-make<br />
tyre supply. A couple of the pseudo<br />
manufacturer teams would like to go<br />
off in a different direction, but mostly<br />
it’s well received.<br />
Playing Devil’s advocate, it seems<br />
disappointing that two of the three events<br />
have been won by drivers who aren’t<br />
registered for points. Is this how you see it?<br />
No, I have to say that I spin it the<br />
other way.<br />
Going back to the plan of knocking<br />
down the fences and making it easier<br />
for people to compete, I think it’s great<br />
that guys can drop in and out of the<br />
championship. It bolsters numbers<br />
from a financial and economical point<br />
of view, it bolsters championship<br />
numbers by having more competitors<br />
drop in and compete, and it has an<br />
effect on the outright results at each<br />
event. I think that’s a great thing.<br />
Yes, it would be great if they could<br />
find the dollars and sign up for the<br />
championship as a whole, but maybe<br />
Photo: Geoff Ridder<br />
12 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong>
this year is a bit of a toe in the water for<br />
some of those guys as well.<br />
I like the idea that people know<br />
that they can drop in and out of the<br />
championship when they like, and I<br />
think that makes a big difference for<br />
individual events.<br />
Canberra was probably a classic<br />
case – in 2015 they had 8 or 10 ARC<br />
entries, this year it had 28 – so for me<br />
that’s building the profile, building the<br />
show and making sure we actually have<br />
something to sell to the big wide world,<br />
and also to make sure there’s enough<br />
motivation to compete.<br />
I’d like to see numbers of 60 to 80 at<br />
every round, and the only way you’re<br />
going to achieve that is by having no<br />
hindrance to guys dropping in and<br />
doing selected events.<br />
I’d want to get back to where we see<br />
guys actually wanting to do their own<br />
ARC round as their one big event of the<br />
year, rather than foregoing it to do all<br />
the other state rounds instead. In years<br />
gone by that was the case, but it isn’t<br />
happening as much these days.<br />
The ARC registration fee to score points<br />
is $3300, yet in NZ the fee is only $750. NZ<br />
have a dedicated PR team and TV programs<br />
after each event. How can there be such a<br />
discrepancy, and where is the money going?<br />
I can’t comment on what New<br />
Zealand does, as I don’t know how<br />
they fund their process and their<br />
championship, but in Australia the bulk<br />
of our registration fee goes into the<br />
basic back-end of management of the<br />
sport.<br />
There’s a portion that goes straight<br />
to CAMS, that then utilises that to pay<br />
for airfares, car hire and other costs for<br />
the key personnel that is required for a<br />
“The championship<br />
needs to eventually<br />
regain its point of<br />
being the modern<br />
championship, rather<br />
than one for all<br />
comers.”<br />
championship, such as the Sporting and<br />
Technical Director, the series scrutineer<br />
and the series steward.<br />
Also bear in mind that the cost to<br />
fly these guys around to the various<br />
rounds in Australia is considerably<br />
more expensive than flying them up<br />
and down through New Zealand.<br />
The rest of that (money) just goes into<br />
the staffing of the administration in the<br />
back-end, so it’s not an ad-hoc cost that<br />
we throw towards everything else.<br />
In reality, none of that money goes<br />
towards the promotion. The work that<br />
we do with individual sponsors and<br />
the tyre deals, that’s what pays for the<br />
promotion.<br />
Has the idea of charging a smaller<br />
registration fee and getting more competitors<br />
to register been considered as a better way<br />
of building the championship?<br />
Absolutely, and it totally comes down<br />
to busting up that overall cost in the<br />
year across the entry base.<br />
I have no doubt there’s a review<br />
process to take place on all of the<br />
fundamentals to make the cost process<br />
better – the way the events have to<br />
pay their permit fees, the way the<br />
insurance is covered off, even the costs<br />
of the things we bring to the events<br />
can probably be managed in a slightly<br />
different manner to push them across<br />
the entry base better.<br />
More entries are the obvious answer,<br />
and even another 20 entries in one<br />
single event can make a massive<br />
difference to the bottom line.<br />
Richie Dalton has declared that he’ll run<br />
his new Fiesta Proto in NZ because the twinfin<br />
rear wing doesn’t comply with Australian<br />
rules. Surely this is a non-issue in terms of<br />
the car’s overall performance?<br />
I don’t know the exact reasons, but<br />
Richie is certainly passionate about<br />
running a car and having it as wild<br />
looking and as spectacular as possible,<br />
which is a great thing.<br />
He, along with others, bought cars<br />
that currently sit outside the vast<br />
rulings that were put together between<br />
Australia and New Zealand.<br />
There’s an agreement to what AP4<br />
cars look like, what G4 looks like, and<br />
by all means we can look at change,<br />
but there’s no way in the world we can<br />
change half way through the year.<br />
That’s not fair and reasonable on<br />
anyone, and to me that’s a key indicator<br />
that one of the issues with rallysport<br />
over the last 10 years is that there’s<br />
been too many changes mid-season.<br />
Bear in mind that those changes<br />
are made by the Australian Rally<br />
Commission, not the championship. We<br />
have a point of view, and make it fairly<br />
forcibly I have to say, but at the end of<br />
the day the Australian and New Zealand<br />
rally commissions are working pretty<br />
hard to come up with a solution for the<br />
next three to five years.<br />
This involes AP4, and what they<br />
categorise as AP4 Plus (cars running<br />
Australia and New Zealand are<br />
working hard to ensure that<br />
the new AP4 category has a<br />
strong future..<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 13
INTERVIEW: DAVID WALDON<br />
engines with more capacity than what<br />
the AP4 rules allow), which I think is a<br />
good thing. We’re pretty close to getting<br />
that put to bed.<br />
I’m unaware that Richie put in an<br />
application as I haven’t seen it, and<br />
certainly popping through information<br />
and saying this is where he wants<br />
to go is probably not considered an<br />
application for change.<br />
Having said that, if we run with AP4<br />
Plus in this country, which may be on<br />
the cards for a transitional period, the<br />
twin plane wing probably doesn’t have<br />
any issue with running in Australia.<br />
I can’t guarantee that, and I don’t<br />
know yet, but that’s certainly the<br />
direction we’re heading.<br />
There are all kinds of issues with the<br />
FIA on what they like and don’t like. The<br />
twin rear wings make the cars look like<br />
a WRC car and take away what the AP4<br />
platform was sold to them on, which<br />
is a more cost-effective Asia-Pacific<br />
version of the R5 car.<br />
If we march out and say we’re going<br />
to put a WRC rear wing on the cars, and<br />
who knows what else, that goes well<br />
away from what they were trying to do<br />
in the first place with R5.<br />
There’s a fine line to tread, and it<br />
seems such an innocuous little thing<br />
to just put a wing on a car, but from a<br />
global perspective – and certainly from<br />
the story that was sold from Australia<br />
and New Zealand to the FIA – we’re<br />
definitely trying to contain costs, but<br />
still have a car that can move off into<br />
the future and be compatible with the<br />
desires of the manufacturers long term,<br />
and meeting their requirements for<br />
smaller engines.<br />
The transition period has allowed<br />
for the 1800 and 2000cc engines to<br />
be used in the AP4 cars initially, but<br />
long term the goal is to have 1.6 litre<br />
engines, which is what the rest of the<br />
world are doing.<br />
On a more positive note, the return of<br />
Subaru has been tremendous for the ARC.<br />
Are there other manufacturers interested in<br />
joining the championship, and if so, what is<br />
attracting them to the ARC?<br />
Interestingly enough, yes there are,<br />
although obviously I can’t name names.<br />
One thing that is attracting them is<br />
the move to AP4, and most of those<br />
manufacturers don’t have a car that<br />
they can roll off the showroom floor as<br />
a production style car.<br />
That’s been most off-putting for them<br />
in the past, and they also don’t want<br />
to have to build a million dollar car,<br />
they need to be able to cost effectively<br />
produce something.<br />
Subaru is in a world of its own<br />
because they can roll something off the<br />
floor, but that’s probably not something<br />
that will go on forever.<br />
AP4 is a fairly simplistic and<br />
well-managed category whereby<br />
manufacturers can still run a car that<br />
still looks like their shopping trolley,<br />
they can put some ‘GT’ stickers on, and<br />
is a car that they can advertise on the<br />
Monday.<br />
Holden’s commitment to a two-car AP4<br />
program in New Zealand in 2017 is obviously a<br />
case in point.<br />
That’s exactly right, and most of the<br />
manufacturers that I have spoken<br />
to are very, very keen to see it well<br />
regulated. They don’t want the rules to<br />
chop and change, which is why we’re<br />
working so hard with New Zealand to<br />
make sure that what we put in place<br />
works for both sides of the water, so<br />
that there’s no discrepancies.<br />
I suppose the biggest thing to lock<br />
down is timeframes, so perhaps a<br />
timeframe for outright eligibility for<br />
2019 would be cars built within a five<br />
year period – and I’m only thinking out<br />
loud here because none of this is put<br />
to bed – but certainly there will be a<br />
timeframe rolling forward that would<br />
eventually see most of the cars running<br />
today fitting into a second tier series.<br />
So older cars such as Simon Evans’<br />
Subaru WRX would be eligible to compete<br />
and win, but wouldn’t be eligible to score<br />
championship points?<br />
That’s how I see it. The simplest way<br />
to manage the process is exactly the<br />
“If we run with AP4<br />
Plus in this country ...<br />
the twin plane wing<br />
probably doesn’t<br />
have any issue with<br />
running in Australia.”<br />
14 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong><br />
Cars like Simon Evans’ 1990s<br />
Impreza WRX will be part of a<br />
second tier ARC, Waldon says.<br />
(Photo: Peter Whitten)
same way we manage all the other<br />
classes, with a rolling timeframe.<br />
At the moment we’ve taken that away<br />
and we have something like a 20 year<br />
time period, but I think the reality is<br />
that in a couple of years time it will be a<br />
five and 10 year process.<br />
Eventually those cars will slot into<br />
a second tier, and certainly they can<br />
still go and win the event outright,<br />
but in terms of scoring points for<br />
the championship, I think that will<br />
eventually die a natural death.<br />
But we’ll certainly keep the national<br />
series open for those kinds of cars.<br />
Many years ago there was a Trans Tasman<br />
Cup conducted between Australia and New<br />
Zealand. Is that something that’s on the<br />
cards again?<br />
Yeah, we’ve had quite a few<br />
discussions about this, and somebody<br />
jokingly named it ‘the grudge match’,<br />
which I quite like.<br />
Look, a series of many events is<br />
probably the ultimate goal, but short<br />
term, maybe a singular event either<br />
side of the water, with an away game<br />
advantage for each one, has probably<br />
got a lot of legs in the short term.<br />
If we can get the rules put to bed,<br />
and we’re working on the same set<br />
of rules, then I see no reason why we<br />
can’t nominate an event on either side.<br />
I think that would be pretty good, to be<br />
honest.<br />
There’s been talk of an ARC return to<br />
Tasmania, with a gravel event based on the<br />
north west coast. Is that a distinct possibility<br />
“Eventually those<br />
cars will slot into<br />
a second tier<br />
championship.”<br />
in the coming seasons?<br />
There’s a group in Tasmania who are<br />
very, very keen and they’ve been talking<br />
about it for some 18 months. They’ve<br />
done a lot of the groundwork so far.<br />
From the championship’s perspective,<br />
we have to have a fine line between a<br />
series that’s sustainable with a certain<br />
number of events. There’s no good just<br />
putting a heap of events forward to<br />
have nobody turn up.<br />
I think there’s a number of hurdles<br />
for Tassie at the moment, and for any<br />
other event that wants to hop into the<br />
fray, for that matter.<br />
I did put everybody on notice that<br />
we’ll be reviewing all events over the<br />
course of the year. Everything is on the<br />
table and nothing is sacred.<br />
Certainly, we have some difficulties<br />
because we’re restricted by the FIA<br />
calendar with Rally Australia and the<br />
Rally of Queensland, so we’ve got some<br />
hurdles to work our way over there.<br />
I wouldn’t like to see the three week<br />
gap between Canberra and Queensland<br />
again, that was madness, so we’ll be<br />
pushing very had to make sure we get<br />
as much notice on, at least, the Asia-<br />
Pacific calendar as possible.<br />
Is Victoria still scheduled to return to the<br />
championship in 2017?<br />
The factory Mitsubishi of Juha<br />
Kangas in the Tasmanian ARC<br />
round in 2004.<br />
(Photo: Peter Whitten)<br />
Yes, and that’s working very well at<br />
the moment, we’re progressing towards<br />
that and it will be lovely to have Victoria<br />
back on board. There’s a very strong<br />
rally community in Victoria.<br />
We’re right in the middle of calendar<br />
works at the moment, so I can’t commit<br />
as to when the date will be, however.<br />
What’s your vision for the ARC for the next<br />
5 years, and how will it look in 2020 or 2021?<br />
I’m committed to rolling out a fixed<br />
vision for the championship, maybe in<br />
the next three or four weeks. Coming<br />
off our discussions with New Zealand,<br />
once they’re put to bed we’ll roll out<br />
this vision, but certainly a return to<br />
the modern championship in the next<br />
couple of years is a focus.<br />
I’d like to see that we have a strong<br />
championship, with good manufacturer<br />
support, within the next two to three<br />
years. But not at the sacrifice of what<br />
we’re building at the moment, with the<br />
current attractiveness to come and<br />
compete in the ARC for all of our state<br />
based competitors.<br />
I think we have a very good and very<br />
strong representation out of each state,<br />
and it doesn’t require much to enable<br />
them to step up into ARC.<br />
I do have a few ideas as well, which I<br />
will roll out, in terms of making it a little<br />
bit easier for the state competitors to<br />
slot into the ARC without having to be<br />
registered competitors and having to<br />
do any more rounds, and just making<br />
the task of them stepping up a little bit<br />
more feasible.<br />
I think the future for the ARC is<br />
looking very good.<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 15
FIVE MINUTES WITH ....<br />
Jack Monkhouse only competes occasionally<br />
these days. We caught up with him to find out why.<br />
5<br />
minutes with ...<br />
JACK MONKHOUSE<br />
Age: 35<br />
Marital status: Married<br />
Children: 1x Datsun<br />
Occupation: Professional Driver<br />
Place of birth: Adelaide, SA.<br />
Where do you live: Sydney, New<br />
South Wales and lots of different<br />
motels around Australia (52 so far in<br />
<strong>2016</strong>, but who’s counting?)<br />
Does your spouse / partner like<br />
rallying? Yes, but she doesn’t really have<br />
a choice ;)<br />
Favourites<br />
Food: Custard tart<br />
Drink: Two months ago I would have<br />
said ginger beer, but now I’m hooked<br />
on the serious stuff, water!<br />
16 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong><br />
Sports person: Toby Price. The guy is<br />
an absolute machine and a great guy to<br />
boot!<br />
Film star: Shane Jacobson. Champion<br />
of a guy!<br />
Holiday destination: What’s a holiday?<br />
Actually, I have been to the snow in<br />
Park City, Utah USA, and Jasper in<br />
Canada, and loved it!<br />
THE BURNING QUESTIONS<br />
How did you start out?<br />
Going to watch my dad compete in<br />
Off Road racing as an eight-year old<br />
and then navigated for him when I<br />
turned 15. He would always bring home<br />
Australian Rallysport News and I slowly<br />
got converted from off road racing to<br />
rallying!<br />
I had a great friendship with the<br />
late Mike and Mark Armitage, from<br />
automotive company Autosport<br />
through dad’s off roading, and<br />
bought my first rally car from<br />
them. They supported me from<br />
day one and still to this day, my car<br />
runs the Autosport signage on it!<br />
The car I bought off them was<br />
a Datsun 1200 Coupe! It was a<br />
prepped car, but hadn’t been<br />
maintained in a long time and<br />
needed some TLC! It had been<br />
parked in their front yard for years<br />
and had grass around it higher<br />
than the windows!<br />
First driver / co-driver you sat with:<br />
A good mate from high school<br />
(still in year 12 at the time), Adam<br />
Greg, sat with me for the first<br />
year. Then he moved to Kalgoolie<br />
for work in mines, but still was<br />
my service crew during selected<br />
events with VR4, Evo7, S15 and at<br />
last year’s Alpine Rally.<br />
First event: Waikerie Rally 1999<br />
First car: First official car was a<br />
540cc Suzuki Alto that I built with<br />
dad out of a wreck when I turned<br />
14 and used at an off road hire<br />
park on the weekends, and the<br />
odd khanacross here and there.<br />
When it came time to compete,<br />
we first built a Datsun 180B for<br />
off road and weekends at the<br />
Pt Gawler hire park. Then, when it<br />
was time to start rallying, the Datsun<br />
1200 Coupe mentioned above was<br />
purchased with my savings.<br />
Which car club do you belong to?<br />
Walkerville All Cars Club and the<br />
Historic Rally Association.<br />
Do you ever officiate on events? I did road<br />
closures and a start control at Alpine<br />
2013 when I had a back injury, and have<br />
been a course car driver/official at state<br />
rally rounds and the well-known Classic<br />
Adelaide Rally four times.<br />
Have you competed overseas? Nope. But<br />
I have a tested a Global Rallycross Lites<br />
car in the USA!!<br />
Where and when? March 2014.<br />
Favourite rally car:<br />
Neal Bates’s RA40 Celica. A ride in<br />
that car on a good gravel road will blow<br />
your mind!<br />
Favourite rally driver: I’ve always looked<br />
up to and admired Simon Evans. His<br />
driving style and never give up attitude<br />
is what inspires me time after time. He<br />
was a struggling privateer who then<br />
made it with a factory team and went<br />
on to win the national championship<br />
a few times! Even today, he still drives<br />
with the same spectacular flair and on<br />
the edge style!<br />
Favourite forest or event: Rally South<br />
Australia prior to 2012 when it was 80<br />
per cent amazing shire roads and 20<br />
per cent forest.<br />
Things you dislike about rallying? The<br />
cost and how easily your world can<br />
be turned upside down with just the<br />
smallest misjudgment.<br />
Best result:<br />
Alpine Rally in 2015! To win such a<br />
famous event that’s historically such<br />
a huge part of Australian rallying in a<br />
very basic, outdated car, with only two<br />
service crew, run on an absolute shoe<br />
string budget against a huge field of<br />
world class machinery and teams was<br />
just unimaginable :)
The exciting Jack Monkhouse in a Galant<br />
VR4, jumping his Nissan Siliva, and on<br />
his way to winning the Alpine Rally in a<br />
Datsun 180B. (Photos: Peter Whitten,<br />
John Thomas, John Doutch.<br />
Best rally memory: The rally family<br />
coming together after my huge accident<br />
at Rally SA and starting #bringjackback<br />
to help raise some dollars after losing<br />
absolutely everything in the fire. To<br />
know that all these people will get<br />
behind you and do anything to help you<br />
get back out into the forest is the most<br />
amazing feeling ever!<br />
Strangest incident on a rally: Running<br />
wide on a tightening corner on the<br />
famous Mt Slide stage at Rally of<br />
Melbourne in 2004, and rolling the<br />
Galant VR4 off the cliff, amongst the<br />
trees, and for it to then somehow land<br />
on its wheels was crazy!<br />
Then I restarted it and drove up the<br />
near sheer vertical cliff face back up<br />
onto the stage, only losing 12 seconds,<br />
with minimal damage! It was just<br />
unheard of. People have destroyed cars<br />
on that same corner just by spinning<br />
and backing into the trees!<br />
Biggest accident: Rally SA 2014.<br />
Clipping a small rock hidden on the<br />
apex of a flat out 180km/h+ 6th gear<br />
left-hander, on a brow, with the left<br />
front tyre. It then sent us flying 40<br />
metres down the road and, terrifyingly,<br />
rolling roof first into the trees. We<br />
somehow, miraculously, escaped<br />
unharmed, but to then have no option<br />
but to watch your pride and joy burn<br />
to the ground is something that’s<br />
incredibly hard to take onboard and<br />
accept. It was such a huge punishment<br />
for a tiny error.<br />
But yes, so eternally grateful we both<br />
walked away with basically no injuries!<br />
Achievements gained from rallying: Lots<br />
of absolutely amazing friends who are<br />
basically family that you can really rely<br />
on all over Australia - including Tassie ;)<br />
Also I’d have to thank rallying for<br />
giving me the skills that helped me<br />
get my current job of eight years with<br />
the Precision Driving Team. Being<br />
paid to slide, jump and drive cars on<br />
two wheels all around the country is a<br />
dream come true.<br />
If you had $100,000 to spend on rallying,<br />
what would you do?<br />
Give the old Datto<br />
a real good freshen<br />
up and take it to NZ<br />
for Otago, Silver Fern<br />
and events around<br />
Australia.<br />
When are we next going<br />
to see you competing?<br />
<strong>2016</strong> was always<br />
going to be a quiet<br />
year. Had plans to do<br />
the Bega Rally that<br />
was unfortunately<br />
postponed due to the<br />
crazy weather, but the<br />
Datto is 100 per cent<br />
prepped and ready<br />
to go, so maybe a small event close to<br />
Sydney could be on the cards.<br />
In what car will that be in?<br />
In the Alpine wining Datsun 180B!<br />
Do you have plans for a regular return to<br />
rallying, either in the SARC or the ARC?<br />
The one major negative of my job is<br />
the weekend commitment requirement.<br />
That means chasing a championship<br />
or series is pretty much impossible.<br />
I’d love to do Rally SA, but it clashed<br />
with work last year and then this year<br />
it’s on the same weekend as Adelaide<br />
Show! So there are a few of us that will<br />
be missing that event due to the clash.<br />
Maybe a NSW or SA state round here<br />
and there, or even WRC in November<br />
if the cash can be raised. If not, I’ll save<br />
my pennies for one or two events next<br />
year, before the mighty Alpine!<br />
Other than money, what decision or rule<br />
change would make you ‘have’ to make a<br />
comeback?<br />
Allow more freedoms for cars such as<br />
the RWD Silvias to be more reliable and<br />
competitive, as I believe they are the<br />
best bang for buck car and by far the<br />
most enjoyable to watch and drive! We<br />
need more exciting, cost effective cars<br />
in the championship, not necessarily<br />
faster cars.<br />
Photos: John Doutch, Peter Whitten<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 17
GET $500 OFF YOUR<br />
NEW WEBSITE<br />
PROMO CODE:<br />
RSM<strong>2016</strong><br />
JOIN THE WINNERS WITH AN R6 WEBSITE<br />
R6 WEB DESIGN CREATE YOUR ONLINE BRANDING, CREATE YOUR<br />
WEBSITE, MARKET IT FOR YOU ONLINE AND MUCH MORE.<br />
TALK TO US TODAY.<br />
MOTORSPORT WEBSITES | DRIVER PROFILES | EVENT MARKETING<br />
18 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong><br />
P: (07) 3889 9822 W: R6WEB.COM.AU E: SALES@R6WEB.COM.AU
THE MINESHAFT<br />
THE MINESHAFT<br />
It’s Australian rallying’s most famous piece of<br />
road, and stirs emotions from both spectators<br />
and competitors alike.<br />
But what makes it so daunting?<br />
Main: Ed Ordynski charges down the<br />
Mineshaft in his LWR Lancer, and (inset)<br />
Bob Watson’s Renault A110 in the Don<br />
Capasco Rally in the 1970s<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 19
FAMOUS STAGES: THE MINESHAFT<br />
MEMORIES ALL THAT’S LEFT<br />
Canberra’s most famous piece of rally road, the<br />
Mineshaft, hasn’t been used in an event run<br />
by the Brindabella Motor Sport Club for six or<br />
seven years, and isn’t likely to be in the near future.<br />
The short piece of road in the Brindabella Ranges<br />
is now badly rutted as a result of rogue four-wheel<br />
drivers trying to claw their way up the incline in the<br />
wet, but according to current National Capital Rally<br />
clerk of course, Adrian Dudok, that’s not the reason it is<br />
no longer used.<br />
“I refuse to use it, as I fear someone will get badly<br />
injured there one day, and that’s not going to happen<br />
on my watch,” Dudok told <strong>RallySport</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong>.<br />
“I never felt comfortable going down it as a<br />
competitor, and that didn’t change when I started<br />
directing events.<br />
“Unfortunately there are competitors out there who<br />
see it as a challenge to see how far you can jump down<br />
it, but that could easily end in disaster,” he says.<br />
Over the years the Mineshaft has changed a lot in its<br />
characteristics. In the 1970s it was a lot narrower when<br />
it was used by events like the Don Capasco and Castrol<br />
International rallies, and often had ruts all the way<br />
down it from running water.<br />
That meant it was nowhere near as fast as it became<br />
in later years. More recently the road was widened, the<br />
bump at the bottom was taken out and it became a lot<br />
faster to drive down.<br />
“It was always a great spectator point, but as I said,<br />
I’m worried that someone will get seriously injured, or<br />
worse, if we use it now,” Dudok added.<br />
With the introduction of digital cameras and smart<br />
phones, frame-by-frame footage of a Mineshaft<br />
disaster would be on social media in minutes,<br />
potentially doing irreversible damage to the sport.<br />
While many of us remember the exciting action<br />
and the huge spectator numbers who flocked to<br />
the famous location every year, it seems that those<br />
memories may now be all we have.<br />
As much as we’d like to see the Mineshaft return, you<br />
can’t knock Adrian Dudok’s logic.<br />
- Peter Whitten<br />
Above: Greg Carr charges down the Mineshaft in the 1980 Castrol<br />
International Rally, while (below) members of the Subaru WRX Club pack<br />
the spectator area during the 2004 Subaru Rally of Canberra.<br />
20 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong>
THE DRIVER: CODY CROCKER<br />
It’s amazing how the<br />
mineshaft has changed<br />
over the years.<br />
My first experience of the<br />
mineshaft was in 1994 when<br />
we competed in the the<br />
Australian Rallysport News<br />
Junior Challenge in Canberra<br />
as the final of the challenge.<br />
We spent a bit of time doing<br />
recce prior to the rally and<br />
used our Mazda 323 as the<br />
recce car. It was a rally car<br />
itself and was probably the<br />
only time in history that a recce<br />
car was significantly faster than our rally car - the old Mazda<br />
RX5.<br />
We were fairly new to this pacenote stuff so we took an<br />
experienced rally expert by the name of Malcolm Hoborough<br />
with us to show us the ropes.<br />
Mal doesn’t think that the mineshaft is<br />
much of a challenge because he fell asleep<br />
in the back seat while we were doing recce<br />
- including a run over the mineshaft! I’m<br />
sure he’s the only person in history to do<br />
that.<br />
Over the next 15 years I got to see many<br />
changes in the mineshaft. Early on there<br />
were plenty of trees at the top to guide<br />
you because it’s not a straight approach,<br />
there’s a slight left turn at the top.<br />
After the bushfires and logging in the<br />
early 2000s it became a lot harder to sight<br />
the exact line needed on approach. This<br />
caused plenty of drama for my team mates<br />
while competing with MotorImage in the<br />
APRC rounds from 2006.<br />
First was Eli Evans who nearly landed<br />
at the bottom on his first attempt. Then came Rifat Sungkar,<br />
my Indonesian team mate in 07-08. He wanted to know what<br />
speed to go over it at. I told him I’ve never been able to look<br />
at the speedo in a rally so I don’t know.<br />
I remember once in recce I was doing around 80kmh and<br />
just lifted a wheel off the ground so I told him that 90k’s is<br />
about the max speed. Rifat thought this was a good idea and<br />
decided to add a few k’s to that. His jump was one of the<br />
biggest ever and he also landed near the bottom - and the<br />
car survived.<br />
When he finally came clean he declared that he might have<br />
added around 30kmh to my speed and hence jumped a bit<br />
further than planned.<br />
It’s definitely one of the most thrilling pieces of road<br />
anywhere in the world and will always be one of the most<br />
challenging jumps to attack. I rate it as 10 out of 10 for<br />
excitement for both driver and spectator.<br />
- Cody Crocker<br />
Click to see how<br />
not to tackle the<br />
Mineshaft<br />
This Datsun 180B driver’s attack on the Mineshaft is<br />
not to be recommended.<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 21
FAMOUS STAGES: THE MINESHAFT<br />
ICONIC SPECTATING<br />
No self respecting rally fan would ever admit to visiting<br />
Canberra for a rally without visiting the iconic<br />
Mineshaft. Of all the special spectator points used in<br />
Canberra rallies, the Mineshaft is far and away the most visited<br />
and the most iconic spot for exciting rally action.<br />
A visit to the Mineshaft will not only strike a chord with rally<br />
fans during an event, but also a feeling of dread amongst rally<br />
crews. It’s that kind of road.<br />
The Mineshaft, a particularly awesome piece of forest track<br />
reached from Paddy’s River Road in Pierces Creek forest, south<br />
west of Canberra, was used in the “good old days” of Castrol<br />
International rallies back in the 1970s and possibly even<br />
earlier.<br />
It’s a favourite stretch of road for event directors, too, who<br />
almost invariably use it to challenge rally crews and to add a<br />
little spice to spectator viewing.<br />
But there are those of you who have heard of the spot, but<br />
have never been there and are asking what the attraction is.<br />
The Mineshaft features surely the steepest descent of any<br />
trafficable roads in the Canberra area or even further afield,<br />
the slope (or descent) something like 1 in 3 – in other words,<br />
too steep to drive up and only able to be walked up with a<br />
great deal of difficulty.<br />
Not that rally route instructions ever require competitors<br />
to drive up this unique geographic feature, for that would<br />
be tempting disaster. And where other forest roads in the<br />
area are relatively feature-less, the Mineshaft is the Bathurst<br />
“Dipper” of scary terrain.<br />
Route instructions usually include dire warnings about the<br />
severity of the descent and anyone foolish enough to ignore<br />
the advice given usually pays the price for their bit of bravado.<br />
All within 100 metres or so, competitors plunge off the forest<br />
track, the road beneath them falling away like a Big Dipper at<br />
an amusement park. One hundred metres or so later the valley<br />
floor levels out and the road continues into a rising left hand<br />
corner.<br />
If you’re brave, it’s all over in a matter of seconds, if you’re<br />
fatalistic it could see you momentarily flying into the void,<br />
before executing a serious crash landing, as has been done on<br />
multiple occasions.<br />
No words, I’m told, could truly describe what it feels like to<br />
go over the top of the Mineshaft at anything more than a fast<br />
canter. Many have tried and paid the price, caught out by a<br />
heavy landing or from not tackling it in a circumspect manner,<br />
much to the delight of the presence of (usually) hundreds of<br />
fans waiting in anticipation below.<br />
New Zealand has its Motu, Bathurst has its Dipper, but<br />
there’s only one Mineshaft, and as a competitor you’re not<br />
likely to find this type of an adrenalin rush anywhere else in<br />
the world.<br />
- Jeff Whitten<br />
4WDs have made a mess of<br />
the Mineshaft’s surface.<br />
The approach is fast and straight.<br />
The view from the top of the<br />
Mineshaft is daunting.<br />
Find us at: www.chicane.co.nz<br />
Call us o<br />
22 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong>
THE CO-DRIVER: GLENN MACNEALL<br />
The mineshaft is a pretty intimidating piece of road<br />
and clearly very iconic throughout Australia. I have<br />
also had several rally friends from around the world<br />
comment on that ‘crazy steep piece of road’.<br />
I was lucky enough to work in Canberra helping to put<br />
together the Rally of Canberra for several years, so I have<br />
driven over the Mineshaft several times, mind you it was never<br />
very fast.<br />
I am pretty sure that the only times I have gone over the<br />
Mineshaft in competition were with Dean Herridge in the Rally<br />
of Canberra around 2003 and 2004. Dean is a very calculated<br />
and intelligent driver and there was never any rush of blood<br />
heading over the Mineshaft.<br />
I am not sure what speed we hit it at, but certainly I think we<br />
only flew for a short distance.<br />
Approaching the Mineshaft is a pretty intimidating feeling<br />
and it’s a bit of a sense of relief once you round the left hand<br />
corner at the bottom.<br />
I remember helping with a Subaru vehicle launch in Canberra<br />
and venturing out to the Mineshaft with a group of engineers<br />
from Japan. We were four-up in a standard Forester, we were<br />
showing them the drive course for the following day’s launch<br />
that included driving up the Mineshaft.<br />
To say that they were a little stunned when we came around<br />
the corner at the bottom to be greeted by a near vertical<br />
climb would have been an<br />
understatement. None of them<br />
thought it was possible to drive<br />
up the MIneshaft.<br />
With white knuckles<br />
clenching the door handles<br />
we headed up and they were<br />
pleasantly surprised and<br />
relieved that the Forester<br />
made light work of the climb.<br />
Several photos and big smiles<br />
later and we were on our way.<br />
The Mineshaft certainly<br />
leaves an impression on<br />
people.<br />
- Glenn Macneall<br />
Juha Kangas launches off the top of the<br />
Mineshaft in his Lancer in 2004, as does<br />
Greg Carr in the factory Escort RS1800 in 1980.<br />
HJC MOTORSPORTS<br />
n: AU 1800 CHICANE or NZ 0800 CHICANE<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 23
RALLY OF QUEENSLAND - ARC 3<br />
Ryan Smart and John Allen<br />
took an unexpected win<br />
on their home event.<br />
COMEBACK A SMART MOVE<br />
18 months out of<br />
the seat proved no<br />
deterrent for local<br />
hero Ryan Smart<br />
Report:<br />
PETER WHITTEN<br />
Photos: GEOFF RIDDER,<br />
PETE JOHNSON<br />
Local hot shot, Ryan Smart, and<br />
co-driver, John Allen, took a surprising<br />
win in round three of the<br />
Australian Rally Championship, the International<br />
Rally of Queensland, leading<br />
for all but three stages in a dominant<br />
performance.<br />
Despite not having rallied for 18<br />
months, and not being eligible for<br />
championship points, Smart drove his<br />
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 brilliantly to win<br />
both heats of the rain-shortened event.<br />
A consistent drive from Harry Bates<br />
and John McCarthy now sees them with<br />
a 27 point lead in the championship,<br />
after Simon Evans and Ben Searcy<br />
crashed out of the event in wet and<br />
slippery conditions on day two.<br />
Molly Taylor and Tom Wilde are<br />
separated by just one point to lie third<br />
and fourth in the title race.<br />
PRE-EVENT<br />
All the talk in the lead-up to the<br />
Sunshine Coast-based event was on<br />
the weather, with “monsoonal” type<br />
24 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong><br />
rain forecast during the rally. Although<br />
Saturday’s stages were held in dry<br />
conditions, the rain arrived overnight<br />
and by the time crews headed out for<br />
Sunday’s stages, the road surfaces had<br />
deteriorated significantly.<br />
The rally was also a round of the Asia-<br />
Pacific Rally Championship, meaning<br />
the ARC cars would start behind the<br />
APRC field.<br />
Evans started the rally as favourite<br />
in his Subaru WRX, but there were<br />
plenty of drivers more than capable<br />
of keeping him honest. Smart’s return<br />
was welcomed, although no one knew<br />
exactly how quick he’d be in his extarmac<br />
Lancer, although his record as<br />
a former ARC event winner held him in<br />
good stead.<br />
HEAT 1<br />
Evans led from the start, but his rally<br />
started to come apart at the seams<br />
from stage four onwards. He had to<br />
overcome broken suspension, a flat<br />
tyre and a time penalty earned as a<br />
result of forgetting his helmet was on<br />
the roof of his car as he drove off on a<br />
liaison stage.<br />
To make up for the lost time, Evans<br />
drove like a man possessed during the<br />
afternoon’s stage, twice going faster in<br />
his 1999-model Impreza than Gaurav<br />
Gill in the latest specification Skoda<br />
Fabia R5.<br />
But it wasn’t enough, and sixth place<br />
was the best he could achieve, nearly<br />
three minutes behind Smart.
Local knowledge no doubt had<br />
a bit to do with Smart’s speed, but<br />
ARC heats aren’t easy to win, and<br />
the Nambour local did a sterling<br />
job to finish with a 21.7 second lead<br />
over Harry Bates’ Toyota Corolla<br />
S2000.<br />
Running in the APRC field, Nathan<br />
Quinn was third in another Lancer<br />
Evo 9, but more than a minute<br />
behind Bates.<br />
Fourth place went the way of<br />
Tom Wilde and Sam Hill in their<br />
Impreza WRX, nearly a minute clear<br />
of the consistent Molly Taylor and<br />
Bill Hayes in fifth. Taylor suffered<br />
damage to a rear lower suspension<br />
control arm late in the day, but that<br />
was replaced by the Les Walkden<br />
Rallying team at the end of day<br />
service.<br />
Brad Markovic’s miserable season<br />
continued and ninth (and last place)<br />
was the best he and Scott Beckwith<br />
could manage in their Subaru. Gearbox<br />
and clutch problems hampered their<br />
day after an off-road excursion on just<br />
the first stage.<br />
Both Mark Pedder and Justin Dowel<br />
are also having seasons they’d rather<br />
forget. Pedder’s Peugeot 208 Maxi<br />
suffered engine problems on the<br />
second stage and retired, while Dowel<br />
had suspension failure on his Hyundai<br />
i20 Proto on stage three.<br />
Only nine cars in the ARC field made<br />
it to the finish on Saturday afternoon.<br />
Neal Bates once again proved too<br />
good in the Classics, driving his Celica<br />
to a three-minute victory over the<br />
similar car of Clay Badenoch, with Mal<br />
Consistency has been the<br />
key so far for WA’s Tom<br />
Wilde and his Subaru.<br />
Keough’s Audi Quattro S1 replica in<br />
third place.<br />
The exciting Thomas Dermody<br />
rolled the ex-Alister McRae Ford Escort<br />
RS1800 on stage five and wouldn’t reappear<br />
on day two.<br />
HEAT 2<br />
The rain arrived for Sunday’s stages<br />
and conditions were treacherous for all<br />
crews.<br />
Simon Evans started day two like a<br />
man possessed, setting the fastest time<br />
by 23.1 seconds on the first stage of the<br />
day as he strove to take a much-needed<br />
heat win. He won the second stage as<br />
well, but the tricky conditions caught<br />
out the four-time champion on the<br />
Cutters Reverse test. Evans’ Subaru slid<br />
off the road at speed and ended up on<br />
its roof.<br />
The car was badly damaged, but the<br />
Evans Motorsport team repaired the<br />
car in order for Evans to arrive at the<br />
final control of the day, and secure one<br />
championship point – something that<br />
may be valuable later in the year.<br />
Tom Wilde was putting in one of<br />
his best drives of the year, winning<br />
stages 11 and 12, but by the time crews<br />
arrived back in Imbil for servicing after<br />
the opening four stages, the weather<br />
was getting worse.<br />
Smart still led comfortably from Bates<br />
and Wilde, but all the talk was on the<br />
weather, and the quickly deteriorating<br />
road conditions.<br />
With the final four stages all repeats<br />
of the morning’s tests, organisers<br />
made the wise decision to cancel all<br />
the remaining forest stages, except<br />
for a super short 1.20km blast on the<br />
Kandanga stage used on the first day.<br />
That gave Bates his first stage victory<br />
Harry Bates finds himself<br />
leading the championship<br />
after 3 of the 5 rounds.<br />
<strong>2016</strong> National Capital Rally - Heat 1<br />
1. Evans/Searcy Subaru Impreza WRX, 1h07m35.2s<br />
2. Reeves/Gelsomino Subaru Impreza WRX STI Spec C +1:18.7<br />
3. Quinn/Calder Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX +2:07.0<br />
4. Wilde/Hill Subaru Impreza WRX STI +2:58.8<br />
5. Taylor/Hayes Subaru WRX STI +3:53.1<br />
6. Patton/Webb Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X +4.00.9s<br />
7. Harding/Thornburn Subaru Impreza WRX +5.21.1<br />
8. Hatton/Allen Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX +6.04.7<br />
9. Markovic/Macneall Subaru Impreza WRX +6.52.1<br />
10. Clarke/Preston Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX +7.29.3<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 25
RALLY OF QUEENSLAND - ARC 3<br />
of the weekend, but<br />
it meant little in the<br />
overall scheme of<br />
things, and Smart and<br />
Allen took a popular<br />
home town victory.<br />
“To be honest I didn’t<br />
expect to be on the<br />
pace. I haven’t done a<br />
rally in 18 months, and<br />
I had only done a quick<br />
shakedown of the car<br />
just before I started the<br />
rally,” Smart said.<br />
“I wanted to come out<br />
and have some fun and<br />
see if I still had some<br />
pace.<br />
“We’re really stoked<br />
to get the result we did<br />
and it’s a big thank you<br />
to everyone that has<br />
helped us this weekend.<br />
“I’ve actually been<br />
overwhelmed with the<br />
help we have received<br />
- people have offered<br />
their time, support, spare parts,<br />
vehicles for service and expertise for<br />
nothing. We wouldn’t have been able to<br />
be here without them.”<br />
With Smart not registered for<br />
championship points, second placed<br />
Harry Bates was given an added bonus<br />
after a consistent and measured drive<br />
in the worst conditions he had ever<br />
driven in.<br />
“This rally is a big challenge, with lots<br />
of tightening bends, fast corners and<br />
sharp crests,” Bates said.<br />
“We drove a front-wheel drive Corolla<br />
in this event last year so I got a feel for<br />
the surface, and the all-wheel drive<br />
Corolla S2000 was a blast to steer here.<br />
“Day two was diabolically wet; some<br />
sections were as slippery as ice. But<br />
we were able to maintain our dry stage<br />
times, which was amazing,” he added.<br />
Nathan Quinn took his<br />
second good result in<br />
consecutive events, but is<br />
not registered for points.<br />
<strong>2016</strong> Rally of Queensland - ARC round 3 of 5<br />
RALLY HIGHLIGHTS<br />
Heat 1<br />
1. Ryan Smart / John Allen Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX 1:15:21.7<br />
2. Harry Bates / John McCarthy Toyota Corolla S2000 +00:21.7<br />
3. Nathan Quinn / David Calder Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX +01:26.2<br />
4. Tom Wilde / Sam Hill Subaru Impreza WRX STI +01:54.3<br />
5. Molly Taylor / Bill Hayes Subaru WRX STI +02:50.1<br />
Heat 2<br />
1. Ryan Smart / John Allen Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX 1:47:00.9<br />
2. Harry Bates / John McCarthy Toyota Corolla S2000 +00:59.6<br />
3. Tom Wilde / Sam Hill Subaru Impreza WRX STI +02:06.6<br />
4. Molly Taylor / Bill Hayes Subaru WRX STI +03:55.4<br />
5. Nathan Quinn / David Calder Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX +05:31.4<br />
Pointscore: 1. Harry Bates 211, 2. Simon Evans 184, 3. Molly Taylor 176, 4. Tom Wilde 175.<br />
Chris Higgs and his<br />
Subaru Impreza lie fifth in<br />
the ARC.<br />
Third place on day two was a fine<br />
reward for Tom Wilde, while Molly<br />
Taylor and Nathan Quinn rounded<br />
out the top five.<br />
“It was extremely slippery. With<br />
our car being lower on horsepower,<br />
it allowed us to drive through it<br />
and keep the forward momentum,”<br />
Wilde said.<br />
“We had a sixth gear moment on<br />
SS4 and I thought we were going to<br />
end up in the trees.<br />
“The plan for the weekend was<br />
always to keep the car on the road,<br />
but that was actually pretty hard.”<br />
For the third event in a row,<br />
Taylor was a model of consistency,<br />
and is still well in the running for<br />
the championship, just 35 points<br />
from the lead with two events still<br />
26 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong>
to come. The Subaru pairing of Chris Higgs and<br />
Kirra Penny had a consistent run in their Subaru<br />
Impreza and now lie an impressive fifth in the<br />
championship, ahead of the more fancied Dowel,<br />
Pedder, Markovic and Coppin.<br />
The championship now goes into a two<br />
month break, reactivating in South Australia in<br />
September.<br />
Queensland quickies...<br />
▲ The promotional start at Mooloolaba foreshore<br />
reportedly attracted about 5000 people.<br />
▲ Local media reported heavily on the event<br />
in the lead-up to the weekend about the<br />
dangerous weather expected for the weekend<br />
- especially Sunday.<br />
▲ Ross and Lisa Dunkerton ran a Nissan Silvia<br />
commandeered from their son, who had bought<br />
it for a drift car. They had fuel filter problems and<br />
retired on Saturday.<br />
▲ Mike Bailey/Steve Andrews ran their<br />
Pulsar GTI-R as Classic C4+ (now eligible) but<br />
their gearbox lost most gears on the Sunday<br />
morning stages.<br />
▲ The presentation back at Imbil was brought<br />
forward to 2.30pm, due to the early finish and<br />
shortened distance. Rain fell through the whole<br />
presentation, with officials and crews all getting<br />
wet!!<br />
▲ Despite the weather (particularly on<br />
Sunday) the event ran to schedule – there were<br />
no serious delays in the running schedule.<br />
- Tom Smith<br />
BORDER RANGES RALLY<br />
Round 4 of the <strong>2016</strong> MRF Tyres Queensland Rally Championship / Clubman Series<br />
Additional Categories<br />
> FORZA Rally Challenge for automobiles fitted with FORZA Brake Pads<br />
> Zupp Property Group Classic Rally Challenge for Classic Rally Cars<br />
Multiple Otago<br />
Winner Derek Ayson<br />
MKII Escort<br />
2015 Alpine Winner<br />
Jack Monkhouse<br />
V8 Manta<br />
Stage<br />
sponsorship<br />
packages<br />
available<br />
26 th & 27 th August <strong>2016</strong> Kyogle NSW<br />
> Border Ranges Escort Challenge for Classic Ford Escorts<br />
> Invitational for vehicles meeting Schedule R<br />
Limited to 55 entries<br />
Rallysafe for all crews<br />
Compact format and central servicing<br />
Nine world class (WRC) Shire Road Stages<br />
All competitors do all the stages<br />
Optional Recce on Friday for all stages<br />
Full Road Book Supplied<br />
One fantastic night spectator stage<br />
Two passes of the ‘Super Special’ as the finale<br />
Media Stage on Friday for invited crews<br />
Rally Forum Friday night in Kyogle<br />
Promotional start in Kyogle Saturday morning<br />
Where to find all the important information<br />
> Event documents at www.borderrangesrally.com.au<br />
> On Facebook and at gctmc.org.au<br />
> Supp-Regs available <strong>July</strong> 18<br />
Service Park with camping & local catering at the Kyogle Showgrounds<br />
Affordable accommodation in Kyogle, Lismore, Casino & throughout the region<br />
www.facebook.com/BorderRangesRally/<br />
‘the best on the best’<br />
best cars<br />
best drivers<br />
best roads<br />
Classics<br />
start at the<br />
front of the<br />
field<br />
Reserve your own<br />
‘spectator point’ by<br />
contacting ‘JT’ our<br />
Officials Co-ordinator<br />
jptruskinger@gmail.com<br />
0407 656 044<br />
www.borderrangesrally.com.au<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 27
RALLY OF QUEENSLAND - APRC 2<br />
SKODA DOMINATES<br />
Gaurav Gill has emerged victorious<br />
after a dramatic end to<br />
the second round of the Asia<br />
Pacific Rally Championship (APRC), held<br />
at the International Rally of Queensland<br />
in Australia’s Sunshine Coast.<br />
With heavy overnight rain, which<br />
continued during the late-morning, rally<br />
organisers had to cancel the final four<br />
stages due to safety concerns, although<br />
it didn’t affect Gill’s position as he had<br />
already built up a substantial lead of 1<br />
minutes 59 seconds over team-mate<br />
Fabian Kreim on day one of the event.<br />
Gill, of India, won all 13 stages in his<br />
Team MRF Skoda Fabia R5 at the event<br />
and said: “It was quite a challenging<br />
rally, quite difficult with the conditions<br />
changing all the time. But yeah, we<br />
got a good setup in the morning on<br />
Saturday, and pushed a little bit [to<br />
build up the lead].<br />
“The MRF team did exceptionally well.<br />
It was really difficult for everyone as the<br />
conditions were so harsh but we were<br />
lucky to have no dramas.”<br />
Team-mate Fabian Kreim of Germany,<br />
who finished in second, was ecstatic<br />
over another podium finish in his first<br />
season of gravel rallying and during his<br />
first visit to Australia.<br />
On his return to the service park on<br />
Saturday, Kreim said: “It was another<br />
really good experience for us… we are<br />
always learning. The speed we had was<br />
good, especially in the first stage [SS9]<br />
because there was no mud.”<br />
Rounding out the podium in third was<br />
New Zealander Michael Young in his<br />
Cusco EZY Racing Subaru Impreza.<br />
“It is a really good result for us.<br />
India’s fastest rally driver<br />
was in a class of his own,<br />
while Mike Young (below)<br />
took a strong third.<br />
(Photos: Geoff Ridder)<br />
We made the wrong tyre choice on<br />
Saturday morning but it all worked out<br />
in the end,” said Young.<br />
“It’s always hard going against the<br />
[Skoda] R5 cars but I think we showed<br />
what we’ve got.”<br />
Local driver Nathan Quinn finished<br />
fourth, after suffering a boost issue on<br />
day one, followed by a blown driveshaft<br />
during the first stage of Sunday, ending<br />
his chances of a podium place.<br />
“We only just made it! It was a pretty<br />
embarrassing rally for us but we’re glad<br />
to make it.”<br />
The two Japanese crews, Atsushi<br />
Masumura (Mitsubishi Evolution) and<br />
Fuyuhiko Takahashi (Subaru Impreza)<br />
finished in fifth and sixth respectively<br />
after a trouble free run.<br />
Mark Beard, the only other Australian<br />
competitor in the international field,<br />
finished in seventh overall behind the<br />
wheel of his naturally aspirated Subaru<br />
Impreza RS.<br />
Rounding out the top APRC cars<br />
was Sanjay Takale of India, in a Cuscoprepared<br />
Subaru Impreza. After taking<br />
a short break from the APRC last year,<br />
Takale was just happy to finish this<br />
tricky round.<br />
“We finally finished! We had some<br />
problems but I think that’s the<br />
character of the event. It’s dry, wet,<br />
slippy and very difficult terrain and you<br />
have to always be on the ball, as it can<br />
catch you off guard easily. I’m just very<br />
happy to be here because finishing this<br />
rally is a big challenge,” said Takale.<br />
Gaurav Gill and co-driver Glenn<br />
Macneall still lead the overall APRC<br />
Championship with four rounds to go,<br />
ahead of Fabian Kreim/Frank Christian<br />
and Michael Young/Malcolm Read.<br />
The Pacific Cup, contested over the<br />
New Zealand and Australian rounds,<br />
was also awarded at the podium<br />
ceremony in Australia and was won<br />
by Fabian Kreim and co-driver Frank<br />
Christian.<br />
The next round of the APRC is a new<br />
venue for <strong>2016</strong> at the China Rally, held<br />
in Zhangye, near the Mongolian border.<br />
28 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong>
RETROSPECTIVE: JIM RICHARDS<br />
Setting a blistering pace<br />
in the early stages of<br />
the ‘73 Heatway. It’s<br />
a different Jim at the<br />
wheel, complete with<br />
moustache!<br />
GENTLEMAN JIM RICHARDS<br />
In 2005 we talked rallying with Kiwi legend<br />
Jim Richards, a man whose proudest<br />
achievement behind the wheel came in a<br />
Mk 1 Escort, way back in 1973.<br />
He’s won the Bathurst 1000 race<br />
seven times, taken victory in<br />
Targa Tasmania on eight occasions<br />
and won countless other races<br />
and championships, but Jim Richards’<br />
proudest motorsport achievement<br />
is something that very few rally fans<br />
would know.<br />
And it’s not surprising, given that<br />
result was achieved back in his home<br />
country of New Zealand, and way back<br />
in the year 1973.<br />
Richards was always going to be a<br />
circuit racer, but rallying played an<br />
important part in his career and saw<br />
him drive cars as diverse as Datsuns,<br />
Triumphs, Marinas and Escorts.<br />
<strong>RallySport</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong>’s Peter Whitten<br />
caught up with Richards in between<br />
Porsche Carerra Cup meetings, and<br />
chatted about his rallying days in New<br />
Zealand, unearthing some amazing<br />
stories.<br />
Story:<br />
PETER WHITTEN<br />
Like a fair majority of successful<br />
motorsport drivers, Jim Richards<br />
started in go-karts at the age of<br />
11 or 12, and then progressed to something<br />
a little bigger when he turned 15<br />
and was able to get his drivers’ licence<br />
in New Zealand. His first event was a<br />
standing and flying quarter mile in a<br />
Mini, but soon after that he sold the<br />
‘brick’ and purchased a Ford Anglia<br />
105E and went circuit racing.<br />
Back in the late 1960s there were<br />
a lot of trials-type events going on in<br />
New Zealand, but when the Silver Fern<br />
Rally was first run in 1969, the idea<br />
of “thrashing around the back roads”<br />
appealed to Richards, and he entered<br />
the event in a Datsun 1600, finishing<br />
second.<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 29
RETROSPECTIVE: JIM RICHARDS<br />
The ‘72 Heatway Rally<br />
was “great fun”, but<br />
suspension problems<br />
hampered the works<br />
Morris Marinas.<br />
Richards was having some<br />
success in 1300cc Escorts, and<br />
then the Twin Cam variety<br />
in cars owned by friend<br />
Jim Carney. With Carney<br />
paying the bills and Richards<br />
doing the driving, he won a<br />
championship along the way,<br />
before eventually moving to<br />
Australia to further his career<br />
in 1975.<br />
“It was great fun, but my focus back<br />
then was on circuit racing because<br />
I really couldn’t afford to have two<br />
competition cars,” he remembers.<br />
However, rallying was still a carrot<br />
dangling in front of his face, and he<br />
entered one of the first Heatway rallies<br />
(the precursor to the current Rally<br />
of New Zealand) in a Triumph 2.5 PI.<br />
Running in the top three, Richards then<br />
dropped out of contention, firstly with<br />
a gearbox problem, and then when he<br />
rolled the car.<br />
“It was on a stage where we caught<br />
a slower car and the roads were pretty<br />
Below: Richards punts the Marina<br />
around the Hopu Hopu rallycross track<br />
during the 1972 Heatway Rally.<br />
30 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong><br />
narrow. The car in front virtually came<br />
to a stop and we were only going about<br />
two miles an hour, but because I had<br />
no first gear I had to pass the car on the<br />
outside, but the two outside wheels fell<br />
down on the side part of the road and<br />
the car went ‘plop’, over on to its roof<br />
and back on to its wheels.<br />
“We were only there about five<br />
minutes and I drove the car back out,<br />
but that was a bit of a disaster because<br />
the car was buggered!”<br />
Meanwhile, circuit racing still played<br />
the major part in his career. Racing<br />
firstly Anglias and then Escorts,<br />
But rallying was still<br />
playing a part, although<br />
only through invitational<br />
drives when someone<br />
offered him a car for a particular<br />
event. One of these was a<br />
works drive for British Leyland<br />
in the 1972 Heatway Rally,<br />
driving a Morris Marina. BL<br />
had entered four cars in the<br />
event – two Marinas and two<br />
Mini Clubmans – with Scotsman<br />
Andrew Cowan driving<br />
one of the Minis.<br />
Cowan had originally been<br />
penciled in to drive one of the Marinas,<br />
but changed his mind and elected to<br />
drive the Mini when it became apparent<br />
that the Clubman would be much<br />
more competitive. It was a decision<br />
that proved important, with the Minis<br />
finishing first (Cowan) and fifth (Angus<br />
Hyslop), and the Marinas a lowly 52 nd<br />
and 63 rd .<br />
The Marinas suffered badly from<br />
suspension woes, which Richards<br />
remembers vividly.<br />
“Basically the suspension was miles<br />
too soft, and every time you hit a<br />
serious pothole it would develop a<br />
couple of inches of toe-out.”<br />
He had the Marina in the top<br />
four early on, but the suspension<br />
problems, and then gearbox<br />
trouble, put paid to his chances.<br />
Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable<br />
experience.<br />
“We had an absolute ball. On<br />
some of the stages we were as<br />
quick as the Twin Cam Escorts,<br />
so the little car wasn’t that bad. I<br />
remember we had a tremendous<br />
battle with Mike Marshall (in an<br />
1600cc Twin Cam Escort) who you<br />
could say was the gun rally driver<br />
in New Zealand at that time.<br />
“The one that springs to<br />
mind,” he chuckles, “was a<br />
reasonably long stage where<br />
we started in front of Mike. We<br />
had an overshoot and as we<br />
were backing up we saw lights<br />
coming and Mike got in front of<br />
us. We could then see where he<br />
was going, so we caught him up<br />
and he obviously didn’t know it<br />
was us – because he wouldn’t
Jim’s Escorts were often airborne,<br />
and were always quick. Rallying’s<br />
loss was circuit racing’s gain!<br />
“To be honest, my car was<br />
probably a bit of a floor<br />
sweeper against the two<br />
other works cars.”<br />
have pulled up for a Morris Marina – but we passed<br />
him, despite getting all our lights broken, and we then<br />
pulled away from him!”<br />
Marshall won 20 stages for the event to Richards’<br />
two, but the Escort driver left the road and eventually<br />
finished 48 th .<br />
The following year’s Heatway Rally, in 1973, was<br />
a real marathon that ran over eight days in the<br />
South and North islands of New Zealand, and<br />
covered over 5000km, 2810km of which was competitive.<br />
Richards drove a Dulux-sponsored BDA Escort<br />
that year, and despite the 1000 Lakes winner Hannu<br />
Mikkola heading the entry list, Ford chose Richards<br />
as one of their three points-scoring drivers for<br />
Manufacturers points, rather than the Finnish star.<br />
Mikkola and Marshall drove 2-litre alloy block BDAs<br />
with five-speed ZF gearboxes, while Richards drove an<br />
1800cc steel block BDA with a four-speed gearbox.<br />
“To Paddon’s be honest, office my has car already was probably a bit of a floor<br />
sweeper proved against a successful the two testing other works-spec cars, so the<br />
ground for WRC success.<br />
focus was really on the other two cars.”<br />
Man-handling the big Triumph 2.5 PI in<br />
the 1971 Heatway Rally. He led after Leg<br />
1, but then the rear suspension failed.<br />
Check out the huge steering wheel!<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 31
RETROSPECTIVE: JIM RICHARDS<br />
Richards in typical<br />
Escort pose in the<br />
Maramarua Forest,<br />
south of Auckland.<br />
in the morning. When the<br />
sun eventually came up and<br />
we looked down, the car was<br />
perched on a little outcrop of<br />
rocks, and when we’d pushed<br />
the car onto its wheels we<br />
damn near pushed it right over<br />
and it would have gone forever<br />
– we couldn’t see the bottom.<br />
So if the car hadn’t stopped<br />
there, we probably wouldn’t be<br />
doing this story!”<br />
But all that soon changed, at least<br />
from the media’s point of view, when he<br />
led the event after stage two. Despite<br />
then going off the road, Richards<br />
stormed back and in the second half of<br />
the event set more fastest stage times<br />
than Mikkola in a performance he still<br />
rates as his best in motorsport. He<br />
takes up the story:<br />
“We put it off the road on, I think, day<br />
one on a stage down in the Southland/<br />
Otago area when we were in second<br />
place behind Mikkola. It was about two<br />
o’clock in the morning on a stage called<br />
Dansey’s Pass and we’d been told there<br />
could be some ice around. I’d never<br />
driven on ice before so I didn’t know<br />
what to expect.<br />
“Coming down the other side of<br />
the pass we hit the ice and I had no<br />
32 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong><br />
steering, no brakes, no nothing, and<br />
we slid to the outside of the road and<br />
nearly went off. But I still didn’t realise<br />
what it was because there was no snow<br />
and no evidence of ice on the road.<br />
“On the next corner we went straight<br />
off and over the bank. It was pitch<br />
black, we were rolling and rolling, and I<br />
wondered when it was all going to stop.<br />
Richard Halls, who was my navigator,<br />
and I leapt out of the car and the first<br />
thing we thought to do was push the<br />
thing back on its wheels, because there<br />
was no thought of not continuing, and<br />
we didn’t want all the oil to run out of<br />
the engine and transmission.<br />
“So we pushed it back onto its wheels<br />
and scrambled up the bank and ended<br />
up sitting on the side of the road in the<br />
snow and the ice until about six o’clock<br />
Getting the car back on<br />
the road involved a<br />
huge four-wheel drive<br />
tractor and a big winch. The<br />
car was badly damaged: one<br />
of the doors was ripped off it,<br />
both the windscreens were out<br />
of it, the wheels were pointing<br />
in pretty much the right<br />
direction, but the steering rack<br />
was bent.<br />
“When we got it up the first<br />
thing I did was turn the key. It went<br />
‘brrp’ and started up. I thought ‘sh—‘<br />
and threw the door and all the broken<br />
bits and pieces in through the back<br />
window and drove it about 200km to<br />
the next service park.”<br />
Richards thought his rally was over,<br />
but sponsors Dulux were keen for them<br />
to continue and with the help of the<br />
local Ford dealer the car was put back<br />
into some semblance of shape and they<br />
rejoined the rally – a day later – at the<br />
back of the field.<br />
“From there on we set more fastest<br />
stage times than Mikkola, but it was<br />
hard work because every day we had to<br />
start last and on some stages we’d pass<br />
20 cars on little narrow roads.”<br />
But despite being rank amateurs,<br />
prior to the event Richards and<br />
co-driver Halls had borrowed an<br />
automatic HR Holden station wagon<br />
and driven over the South Island<br />
stages, making basic notes of the<br />
stages, getting an idea of what each<br />
stage was like.<br />
“Funnily enough,” he says, “we<br />
made the notes using the same<br />
system that Barry (Oliver) and I now<br />
use to pacenote the Targas, using<br />
fast, medium and slow.”<br />
Beating MIkkola on so many<br />
stages still ranks highly. “On a<br />
personal note, I still think now that<br />
it was one of the best things that I<br />
ever did, because we were absolute<br />
nobodies, that was only the third or<br />
fourth rally that I’d ever been in and<br />
I’d never driven the car before. And<br />
here we were setting faster times<br />
than this World Champion.”<br />
Richards also had a great duel<br />
with Australian rallying legend Colin<br />
Bond, who was in a works Holden
Torana XU1. “Bondy had gone off the<br />
road early in the event as well and was<br />
starting stages a couple of places in<br />
front of us, and we had some fantastic<br />
battles and would check each others’<br />
times at the end of each stage.”<br />
At the end of that ’73 event Mikkkola<br />
had won 23 stages, Richards 16 and<br />
Bond 9, but it’s worth remembering<br />
that Richards had missed a day and a<br />
half of the rally!<br />
Unfortuntately, despite that<br />
success, it never really led on to<br />
anything. Although he loved his<br />
rallying, Richards says he was definitely<br />
going down the tar seal path and circuit<br />
racing dominated his motorsport life.<br />
He still did the odd rally, but only when<br />
someone was kind enough to lend him<br />
a car.<br />
So there ended, temporarily at least,<br />
one of the greatest stories in New<br />
Zealand rallying. Richards’ rallying<br />
career came to a premature close,<br />
but many Kiwis believe that had he<br />
achieved those results three or four<br />
years later, when rallying in that<br />
country really started to evolve, the<br />
world could literally have been Jim<br />
Richards’ oyster.<br />
“I’m sure that if I had decided to go<br />
rallying full time, and not circuit racing, I<br />
could have done alright,” he adds. “After<br />
those results a guy by the name of Gus<br />
Staunton, who was the PR manager<br />
for British Leyland in Australia, wrote<br />
to me and asked if I’d go across and go<br />
rallying in Australia. But at that stage<br />
I was pretty well ensconced in the tar<br />
seal circuit racing and I couldn’t do<br />
both, which was unfortunate.”<br />
Apart from a couple of rallies in a<br />
2-litre Mk 1 Escort and a couple in a<br />
Torana XU1, that was all the rallying<br />
he did until he arrived in Australia, and<br />
then his rallying was only in a couple of<br />
invitational rallysprints in the 1980s in<br />
Canberra.<br />
“It got back to the fact that if you<br />
wanted to be good at something you<br />
had to specialise in it, and circuit racing<br />
was where my career had headed, plus<br />
the fact that I didn’t have a car,” he says.<br />
Between then and the much-reported<br />
Targa Tasmania successes, Richards<br />
continued to rack up victories on the<br />
circuit, winning an incredible seven<br />
Bathurst 1000s along the way. His<br />
teaming with Barry Oliver has since<br />
given him the reputation as Australia’s<br />
greatest all-round driver, and rightly so.<br />
His decision, all those years ago, has<br />
certainly been circuit racing’s gain, but<br />
Richards freely admits that, these days,<br />
the tarmac rallies are by far the most<br />
enjoyable events he does. With that in<br />
mind, it appears we haven’t seen the<br />
last of the great man yet!<br />
The Marina was quick, but couldn’t match the team’s Mini Clubmans, in which Andrew Cowan<br />
took victory in 1972. (All photos courtesy of Jim Richards’ personal collection)<br />
Briefly ....<br />
Long before Possum<br />
Bourne, Jim Richards and<br />
Richard Halls were Kiwi<br />
rallying’s quickest team.<br />
The term “Gentleman Jim” is<br />
probably one that Richards<br />
has loved and loathed over<br />
the years, but it’s one that couldn’t be<br />
closer to the truth. Sitting in his office<br />
and chatting about motorsport shows<br />
that Richards has forgotten little of his<br />
past, although some of the finer details<br />
have become a little sketchy, as can be<br />
expected over a career that has so far<br />
lasted over 35 years.<br />
Richards’ office is surprisingly small<br />
for someone with his successful<br />
background, but with the absence of<br />
a computer, you get the feeling he’d<br />
much rather be out in the workshop<br />
tinkering with one of the Porsches than<br />
cooped up in the office.<br />
There’s plenty of pictures and posters<br />
of his racing machines in the factory,<br />
and the walls are lined with dozens of<br />
trophies that represent his many years<br />
in motorsport.<br />
“They were all just sitting in boxes, so<br />
I thought I might as well put them on<br />
display,” he says.<br />
The day after our interview, he was<br />
off to Oran Park for the next round of<br />
the Carrera Cup series. “Will you drive<br />
the truck up or fly to Sydney,” I asked.<br />
“Try to keep him out of the driver’s<br />
seat,” his mechanic calls from a corner<br />
of the office!<br />
Interestingly, Richards had an offer<br />
to compete in the Otago Classic Rally in<br />
New Zealand earlier this year, driving<br />
an Escort RS1800, but declined the<br />
offer, mainly due to a lack of gravel<br />
driving in the past 30 years.<br />
”I’d like to be competitive, and without<br />
plenty of practice beforehand that<br />
wasn’t going to be the case. Perhaps<br />
in a few years I can go over there and<br />
compete when there isn’t as much<br />
expected of me – that’s sounds like it<br />
will be great fun.”<br />
- October 2005<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 33
RALLY OF ITALY - WRC 6<br />
Story:<br />
MARTIN HOLMES<br />
Thierry Neuville made a<br />
welcome return to form for<br />
Hyundai.<br />
34 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong>
THE COMEBACK<br />
Another rally, another winner. Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville was<br />
the fifth different driver to win a WRC event this year, and one of<br />
seven drivers to score a fastest time on this event.<br />
Exactly like when back-runner<br />
Kris Meeke won in Portugal,<br />
Neuville benefitted from his<br />
late running order, showing remarkable<br />
improvement in his personal<br />
career fortunes.<br />
There was also a spectacular<br />
improvement in M-Sport’s speed,<br />
with both the team’s drivers scoring<br />
fastest stage times. Jari-Matti<br />
Latvala upheld Volkswagen honour<br />
by challenging Neuville throughout<br />
the event, finishing second, but was<br />
unable to match Neuville’s pace in<br />
the latter stages.<br />
Volkswagen was again not the<br />
dominant team, with Sebastien Ogier<br />
involuntarily suffering from the<br />
conditions, but also when Andreas<br />
Mikkelsen stopped when he hit a<br />
rock which broke the suspension.<br />
The world champion team has now<br />
not won a WRC rally since Mexico,<br />
and their leading driver Ogier since<br />
Sweden, although its lead in the<br />
series had increased to 70 points.<br />
Latvala lost touch with Neuville<br />
when he went off on stage 13, Monti<br />
di Ala, where he has a history of<br />
misfortunes in previous years. The<br />
attention therefore was on Hyundai,<br />
who came to Sardinia after a<br />
disappointing rally in Portugal.<br />
Once again they were running four<br />
cars, replacing Hayden Paddon’s<br />
new car which was burned out in<br />
Portugal with another brand new car,<br />
with Neuville again relegated to their<br />
second level support team, and test<br />
driver Kevin Abbring in a 2015 car.<br />
Neuville was his usual enigmatic<br />
self. He was in disgrace before the<br />
rally with the organisers, three times<br />
breaking speed limits in recce – but<br />
then honourably proving his speed<br />
on the rally by winning nine special<br />
stages.<br />
Paddon was gradually gaining his<br />
Jari-Matti Latvala was another<br />
driver thankful for a podium<br />
finish after a torrid run.<br />
pace when he strangely went off<br />
the road on the Friday, rolling off<br />
the road and damaging his car too<br />
much to be allowed to carry on. Dani<br />
Sordo, once again, proved his usual<br />
reliable self, finishing fourth overall<br />
for the fourth successive time this<br />
year.<br />
With Citroen absent from this<br />
event, M-Sport fielded their usual<br />
drivers, benefitting from a good<br />
pre-event test session in which<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 35
RALLY OF ITALY - WRC 6<br />
their celebrated downshift problem was<br />
apparently solved.<br />
Finally there were smiles again on the<br />
face of Mads Ostberg, who was now much<br />
faster, notably when he adopted his own<br />
tyre selection strategy and won the<br />
first run over Monte Lerno stage,<br />
the longest stage of the rally.<br />
Teammate Eric Camilli continued to<br />
impress after his misfortunes earlier in the<br />
year, but he lost time with transmission<br />
trouble on the first full day. Ostberg was<br />
lying fourth, at one moment only 0.3<br />
seconds behind Ogier, but on the last<br />
stage on Saturday he hit a rock, which<br />
wrecked a driveshaft and then damaged<br />
the engine.<br />
Disappointment also came to the DMack<br />
team driver Ott Tanak, who suffered tyre<br />
problems on the long, hot, abrasive stages.<br />
Two major topics of debate emerged<br />
during the rally, firstly concerning<br />
the way that tyre management<br />
issues were critical. These were brought<br />
about by the strict availability rules, introduced<br />
when Michelin took over the championship<br />
supply work from Pirelli.<br />
These rules were designed to cater for<br />
unexpected and potentially dangerous<br />
changes in weather, but have led over the<br />
years unexpectedly to the current cross<br />
matching of tyres and other tactics.<br />
And if anyone questions the wisdom<br />
of the FIA’s current running order rules,<br />
they have contributed spectacularly to<br />
the excitement of the championship, with<br />
the unhappy World Champion, Sebastien<br />
Ogier, still struggling in bad stage<br />
conditions (winning only two orthodox<br />
stages all event), but yet enhancing his<br />
championship lead yet again!<br />
Find us at: www.chicane.co.nz<br />
Call us o<br />
36 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong>
Conditions in Sardinia were even<br />
more favourable for the later running<br />
drivers, as the stages were unusually<br />
still in uncleaned state even for the<br />
second passage.<br />
Neuville’s poor form earlier in the<br />
season suited him perfectly<br />
on days 1 and 2, running<br />
eighth and then<br />
seventh on<br />
the<br />
rooted emotions were released,<br />
positively from the Neuville family –<br />
this being the first WRC victory which<br />
Thierry had deservedly won.<br />
Here were two negative reactions,<br />
however. Mikkelsen said he<br />
deliberately did not try for a good time<br />
on the Power Stage because he did<br />
not want extra championship points,<br />
as he did not want to start the next<br />
rally, Poland, in an unnecessarily high<br />
starting position. That was not what<br />
the rule makers had thought of.<br />
Then the highly popular World Rally<br />
Car sportsman Martin Prokop, who had<br />
stoically driven a rally which was always<br />
a favourite event of his, demoralised<br />
by a five minute pre-rally penalty for<br />
a preparation error, of the punitive<br />
level as if he had been a sporting<br />
criminal.<br />
He has long felt that the<br />
sport was not geared up for<br />
privateers. This was proof.<br />
He said he did not want<br />
to take part in the WRC<br />
anymore. Very sad!<br />
Footnote: Prokop’s<br />
penalty was later<br />
overtuned by the FIA.<br />
- Martin Holmes<br />
road. Despite very degraded<br />
conditions on the power stage,<br />
the final stage went ahead, and<br />
despite being thrown off line by the<br />
ruts, the now tenth running Ogier made<br />
best time ahead of Kevin Abbring and<br />
Latvala.<br />
At the end of the stage some deep<br />
HJC MOTORSPORTS<br />
n: AU 1800 CHICANE or NZ 0800 CHICANE<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 37
RALLY OF GISBORNE - NZRC 4<br />
Story:<br />
BLAIR BARTELS<br />
TITLE HOLDER<br />
As crews headed to Rally Gisborne<br />
for round four of the<br />
Brian Green Property Group<br />
New Zealand Rally Championship, 26<br />
teams were still in with a mathematical<br />
chance of taking the NZRC title, with<br />
the championship more open than in<br />
recent memory.<br />
However, Mount Maunganui’s David<br />
Holder put in a masterful drive, not only<br />
taking maximum points and leading<br />
from the very first stage, but with his<br />
rivals faltering, also claimed his maiden<br />
NZRC title with a round to spare.<br />
Despite plenty of heavy rain in the<br />
lead up to the event, a fine but cold<br />
day greeted the 44 starters, with clear<br />
conditions and negative temperatures<br />
making for a couple of tricky stages first<br />
up.<br />
Several cars had made changes prior<br />
to the event in a search for more speed,<br />
most notably Andrew Hawkeswood,<br />
being the first of the AP4 cars to add<br />
a restrictor, which not only gave the<br />
Mazda 2 a more usable power band,<br />
but a healthy increase in torque as well.<br />
Although the team kept the change<br />
quiet in the build up to the event, those<br />
in the know were picking a strong<br />
improvement in overall speed.<br />
First into the stages, Holder and codriver<br />
Jason Farmer set the pace on the<br />
opening test despite struggling with<br />
a faulty intercom. Hawkeswood was<br />
next quickest through, having recorded<br />
a faster split by five seconds midway<br />
through the stage, despite stalling on<br />
the start line, but he was one of many<br />
teams to cook their brakes on a tricky<br />
downhill section towards the end of<br />
the stage and stopped the clocks 8.5<br />
seconds slower.<br />
A return to form saw Graham<br />
Featherstone third fastest a further<br />
two seconds back, while Dylan Turner<br />
returned to the series with a fifth<br />
fastest time, edging out outgoing<br />
It was a miserable event for round<br />
three winner Emma Gilmour.<br />
New champs<br />
David Holder<br />
(right) and Jason<br />
Farmer.<br />
38 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong>
national champion, Ben Hunt, who<br />
completed the top five.<br />
The opening stage results were a<br />
bonus for the top five, with organisers<br />
running the Power Stage on the opener,<br />
giving them potentially crucial bonus<br />
points. Of note was Emma Gilmour,<br />
previous round winner and Holder’s<br />
closest championship rival, only eighth<br />
fastest as she struggled for grip in the<br />
tricky conditions.<br />
The second stage was more of the<br />
same for Holder, who once again had<br />
intercom dramas but set the pace, this<br />
time 20 seconds clear of the chasing<br />
pack.<br />
Hawkeswood was once again lighting<br />
up the split times, 11 seconds up on<br />
Holder at the half way point, before a<br />
missed gear change led to a broken<br />
input shaft, ending his rally and the<br />
chance to really show the potential of<br />
the new and improved Mazda.<br />
That left Turner to go second fastest,<br />
despite an overshoot, also taking that<br />
place overall, while Gilmour upped her<br />
speed for the third fastest time, lifting<br />
her to fifth overall.<br />
A standout drive was coming from<br />
Grant Blackberry, setting the fourth<br />
fastest time in his older Evo 6, ahead of<br />
Lance Williams, running MRF Tyres for<br />
the first time.<br />
As crews headed back to service,<br />
there were plenty of tales of woe and<br />
Lance Williams was a strong third in<br />
his Subaru Impreza WRX.<br />
already talk of big shakeups in the<br />
leaderboard. Holder, however, was<br />
surprised with the lead having been<br />
struck with his intercom issues.<br />
For the likes of Sloan Cox, one who<br />
had been tipped as a contender prior<br />
Photos: Geoff Ridder<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 39
RALLY OF GISBORNE - NZRC 4<br />
Another roll ended<br />
2015 champ Ben Hunt’s<br />
rally prematurely.<br />
to the event, major brake issues left<br />
him with stopping power on just three<br />
wheels and he checked in to service in<br />
seventh, but checked out with a further<br />
three minutes of penalties, dropping<br />
him to 21 st place and out of contention.<br />
Some contenders were having<br />
an even worse time of it, with Clint<br />
Cunningham’s car dying thanks to a<br />
crank angle sensor failure on the tour<br />
to stage one, while Marcus van Klink<br />
hardly got much further when he<br />
beached his Mazda RX-7 on a fence<br />
1.5km into stage one.<br />
Glenn Inkster was another to get<br />
caught out, walloping a rock in stage<br />
two.<br />
The class battles were intense also,<br />
with Lee Robson taking<br />
the lead in the Gull Rally<br />
Challenge on stage one,<br />
but spent the latter part<br />
of the stage stuck in third<br />
gear, a problem that<br />
would eventually end his<br />
rally.<br />
That ailment allowed<br />
Grant Blackberry to claim<br />
the lead with a storming<br />
drive, something he may<br />
have done in stage one if<br />
it weren’t for a spin on a<br />
narrow section of road.<br />
A great start for Jono<br />
Shapley saw him second<br />
ahead of Kingsley Jones,<br />
while Jeff Torkington led<br />
the two-wheel drive Rally<br />
Challenge.<br />
The open twowheel<br />
drive class saw<br />
Dave Strong take the<br />
HIGHLIGHTS 1<br />
HIGHLIGHTS 2<br />
HIGHLIGHTS 3<br />
lead, while Anthony Jones struggled<br />
with gearbox problems that would<br />
eventually lead to retirement on stage<br />
three.<br />
Dylan Thompson was set to inherit<br />
second, only to have an electrical failure<br />
in his Fiesta. That left Andy Martin to<br />
claim second spot, despite spending<br />
five minutes off the road in his Suzuki<br />
Swift after the similar car of Jack<br />
Williamson failed between scrutineering<br />
and the rally start.<br />
John Silcock (Mazda RX7) held an<br />
unchallenged lead in the Historic<br />
category after van Klink’s off.<br />
Stage three would be one of the most<br />
critical in the championship. With two<br />
of the top five already having retired,<br />
Holder was pushing on and took the<br />
stage win, but what happened behind<br />
him would effectively wrap up the<br />
championship for him.<br />
Not only did Hunt stop with a fuel<br />
pump failure, but crucially, an engine<br />
failure for Gilmour left Holder in a<br />
position to claim the title, although with<br />
three gruelling stages remaining.<br />
The first of these was the longest<br />
of the event at 38 kilometres,<br />
Wharekopae, and given the morning’s<br />
drama, no-one was expecting the full<br />
field to come out unscathed.<br />
With a lead of more than a minute,<br />
Holder took less risks but still set the<br />
third fastest time, while Turner created<br />
a stranglehold on the runner-up spot<br />
with the fastest time,<br />
Dylan Turner returned<br />
to the NZRC and<br />
grabbed second place.<br />
just quicker than Cox,<br />
who was charging<br />
back through the field.<br />
Amazingly, only<br />
Ben Hunt, who had<br />
rejoined the event,<br />
<strong>2016</strong> Rally of Gisborne - N<br />
10. Dave Strong/Bruce McKenzie<br />
1. David Holder/Jason Farmer<br />
2. Dylan Turner/Rob Scott<br />
3. Lance Williams/Raymond Be<br />
4. Graham Featherstone/D. Dev<br />
5. Grant Blackberry/Ric Chalme<br />
6. Sloan Cox/Malcolm Read<br />
7. Shannon Chambers/Warwick<br />
8. Kingsley Jones/Waverly Jones<br />
9. Phil Campbell/Venita Fabrro<br />
ADVERTISE IN<br />
For more details ca<br />
or email domini<br />
40 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong>
fell victim to the stage when he rolled his<br />
Subaru, although Phil Campbell fell from<br />
fifth place with a misfire. Fourth fastest<br />
was enough to move Lance Williams into<br />
third, finally having some luck go his way<br />
after a tough start to the season.<br />
While Turner and Cox would take a stage<br />
win apiece in the final two stages, there<br />
was little movement inside the top 10 in<br />
the closing stages, outside of Carl Davies<br />
going off the road.<br />
There was certainly no change at the top,<br />
where a convincing victory of just under<br />
one and a half minutes handed David<br />
Holder and Jason Farmer the NZRC title,<br />
quite incredible considering the series<br />
was described as the most open in years<br />
heading in to the penultimate round.<br />
A superb return to the series netted<br />
Turner a comfortable second place, a<br />
career best result, while Williams’ return to<br />
form came via a third place.<br />
Outside of a big spin, a solid day netted<br />
Featherstone fourth, while Gull Rally<br />
Challenge winner Blackberry came home<br />
fifth outright, a superb result that netted<br />
him both the Gull Rally Scholarship and<br />
Dunlop Drive of the Rally.<br />
A recovering Cox, Shannon Chambers,<br />
Kingsley Jones, Campbell and two-wheel<br />
drive winner Strong rounded out the top<br />
10.<br />
Blackberry took Gull Rally Challenge<br />
honours ahead of Jones and Warwick<br />
Redfern, while Jeff Torkington took the twowheel<br />
drive challenge. Silcock was pleased<br />
to take the Historic class win in his RX-7,<br />
and Strong led home Andy Martin in open<br />
two-wheel drive.<br />
Teams now turn their attention to the<br />
series finale, Mahindra Goldrush Rally<br />
Coromandel on August 20, where eight<br />
cars are separated by 12 points in the fight<br />
for second place.<br />
Grant Blackberry was<br />
fifth and won the Gulf<br />
Rally Challenge event.<br />
ZRC round 4 of 5<br />
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8 1:44:03.6<br />
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 +1:25.5<br />
nnett Subaru Impreza WRX +2:05.3<br />
onport Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 7 +2:13.9<br />
rs Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 5 +2:57.7<br />
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10 +4:01.9<br />
Searle Volkswagen Polo R +5:03.2<br />
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 7 +7:05.9<br />
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 +7:09.5<br />
Honda Civic Type R +8:37.5<br />
Ninth place went to Phil<br />
Campbell in what has been<br />
a challenging season.<br />
ll Dominic on 0499 981 188<br />
c@rallysportmag.com.au<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 41
FEATURE: HYUNDAI IN RALLYING<br />
THE RISE<br />
AND RISE<br />
OF HYUNDAI<br />
Wayne Bell (right) and multiple<br />
Australian Rally Champion, Greg<br />
Carr, at Rally Australia in 1991.<br />
Story: TOM SMITH<br />
Photos:<br />
MARTIN HOLMES,<br />
RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE<br />
The Hyundai i20 World Rally Car is now<br />
respected as a regular outright contender in<br />
the World Rally Championship in the hands<br />
of Haydon Paddon, Thierry Neuville and Dani<br />
Sordo. However, the success of recent years<br />
was not without its humble beginnings.<br />
Tom Smith looks back on the Korean<br />
manufacturer’s rally beginnings.<br />
Hyundai’s decision to enter the<br />
world of rallying can be traced<br />
back to the early 1990s, with the<br />
tough and sturdy (but underpowered)<br />
Lantra, followed by the pretty Hyundai<br />
Coupe which saw the company debut<br />
in the WRC, and the effective Accent<br />
WRCar of the early 2000s.<br />
While the factory took a break for<br />
nearly 10 years from 2003 to 2012, the<br />
current team is proving to be incredibly<br />
successful.<br />
There is no doubt that Australia<br />
played an integral role in Hyundai’s<br />
venture into the world of motorsport,<br />
and in fact local legend, Wayne Bell,<br />
is recognised as having been a major<br />
influence in the early success of the<br />
Korean manufacturer.<br />
As part of the launch of the then-new<br />
model, Hyundai Australia was looking at<br />
running two Lantras in a rally near Alice<br />
Springs.<br />
Bell was put in touch with Hyundai<br />
Marketing’s Kevin Wall, and the story<br />
begins there.<br />
“I built two (standard) Group N Lantra<br />
cars,” says Bell. “One was for Barry<br />
Ferguson and one for me. Everything<br />
was set to go ... and the rally was<br />
cancelled.<br />
“Hyundai was committed to launching<br />
the car in Alice Springs, so we took the<br />
42 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong><br />
Wayne Bell: Hyundai pioneer.<br />
“It wasn’t long before<br />
the parent company in<br />
Korea sat up and<br />
took notice.”<br />
cars out there and did demonstration<br />
runs.”<br />
After that, Hyundai agreed to<br />
run a car in the Australian Rally<br />
Championship under the Formula 2<br />
category, and the Lantra won F2 on<br />
debut in Bell’s hands.<br />
It wasn’t long before the parent<br />
company in Korea sat up and took<br />
notice and an approach was made<br />
for Bell to run cars in the Asia-Pacific<br />
Rally Championship (APRC). The cars<br />
were still relatively standard J1 Lantras,<br />
Alister McRae: WRC star.<br />
however, their incredible success in F2<br />
was attributed to great handling and<br />
the ability to be driven on the limit, all<br />
day.<br />
An F2 class win in the APRC was<br />
complemented by a win in the Hong<br />
Kong-Beijing Rally, and Bell and Greg<br />
Carr finished the Australian round of<br />
the WRC in first and second places in F2<br />
(1600cc).<br />
The order was given to build a Group<br />
A version of the car with a prototype J1,<br />
developed before the J2 was released.<br />
With strength and reliability (only one<br />
DNF in 24 events), the team finished<br />
second in the APRC, behind ‘Monster’<br />
Tajima in a factory Suzuki.<br />
Bell continues the story: “Hyundai<br />
Korea was a company that could<br />
achieve anything if they wanted.<br />
Although they knew very little of
allying, they could see the<br />
potential to be gained in<br />
marketing their product through<br />
motorsport.”<br />
The company then decided<br />
that a Kit Car based on the Coupe<br />
model should be developed,<br />
but Bell unsuccessfully lobbied<br />
for a 2.0 Accent (200 needed for<br />
homologation).<br />
The wheelbase of the J2 and<br />
Coupe were identical - being the<br />
same as a Lancer Evolution of<br />
the day – but potentially too long<br />
for a front-wheel drive car. The<br />
cylinder head only flow-tested at<br />
240bhp, when the competition<br />
was making around 260-280 bhp.<br />
Bell confesses to having a<br />
test car already built (including<br />
sequential FFD 6-speed gearbox)<br />
before the ‘go-ahead’ was given<br />
by HMC Korea. Twenty kits were<br />
required for inspection by CAMS<br />
and the FIA, including throttle<br />
bodies and manifolds, extractors,<br />
spoilers and induction systems.<br />
The Coupe was competitive in the<br />
APRC, proving to be stable under all<br />
conditions and well suited to rough<br />
or fast-flowing roads, although<br />
it only had 240bhp at 8000rpm.<br />
Unfortunately, it proved too big, and<br />
not powerful enough for the European<br />
F2 competition.<br />
While the Aussie-Korean relationship<br />
was sound, Bell was taken off guard<br />
when Korea decided to run a World<br />
Championship program out of the UK.<br />
Motor Sport Developments (MSD)<br />
put Swede Kenneth Eriksson into the<br />
lead car, with Wayne Bell to be joined<br />
by Iain Stewart for five events, while<br />
MSD chased Scotsman Alister McRae to<br />
join the team.<br />
Unfortunately, reliability was a<br />
problem for the high-spec Coupe<br />
while the team developed the Accent<br />
Wayne Bell puts the original<br />
Hyundai Lantra through its paces<br />
at the Rally of Wagga.<br />
WRC car. Bell, in particular, had<br />
recurring gearbox problems that really<br />
constrained the potential of the car.<br />
In September 1999, Hyundai unveiled<br />
the Accent WRC, and a debut<br />
followed at the 2000 Swedish<br />
Rally. Later that year the team achieved<br />
its first top 10 result when Alister<br />
McRae and Kenneth Eriksson finished<br />
seventh and eighth respectively at the<br />
Rally Argentina.<br />
It wasn’t the fastest car, but the<br />
Lantra was strong and reliable,<br />
and could be driven hard.<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 43
FEATURE: HYUNDAI IN RALLYING<br />
The Hyundai Coupe ran in the<br />
Formula 2 category, and is seen<br />
here at the Rally of Queensland.<br />
McRae takes up the story: “Having<br />
competed in a number of WRC events<br />
with VW, the opportunity came up for<br />
me to run an extra two WRC events<br />
alongside with Hyundai in 1998.<br />
“This gave me an insight into the<br />
team and obviously we started<br />
discussing the possibility of joining in<br />
’99 for a year in F2, whilst developing<br />
the Accent WRC for 2000.”<br />
It was David Whitehead, owner of<br />
MSD, who had enjoyed a previous<br />
working relationship with Alister’s<br />
father, the legendary Jimmy McRae.<br />
The two worked together in the<br />
Vauxhall Opel days and with the<br />
company’s experience in rallying,<br />
German touring cars and British<br />
touring cars, the package was right for<br />
Alister.<br />
“The team definitely had the<br />
resources and ability to succeed, but<br />
at the time other manufacturers were<br />
spending massive budgets, so it was<br />
always going to be difficult. Personally,<br />
my job was to drive and help develop<br />
the cars,” McRae told <strong>RallySport</strong><br />
<strong>Magazine</strong>.<br />
The obvious attraction for McRae was<br />
the introduction of a new manufacturer<br />
into the World Rally Championship,<br />
the all-new WRC car and the chance to<br />
compete on a full WRC program, with<br />
he and Kenneth Eriksson carrying out<br />
all the testing of the new vehicle.<br />
“The Accent’s handling and balance<br />
was very good from the start, but<br />
as always there was room for<br />
improvement,” Alister recalls. “The<br />
engine was the weaker part of the car.”<br />
By mid to late 2001, the car was<br />
really starting to work very well, and<br />
a brilliant fourth outright on Rally GB<br />
Then and now. Wayne Bell (above) driving the Lantra to 18th place and fourth in two-wheel<br />
drive in the 1996 Rally of New Zealand, while (below) Tim Dillon still competes in the exfactory<br />
Lantra, and regularly wins his class in QRC and Clubman events. (Photo: Sam Tickell)<br />
44 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong>
in 2001 was the team’s high point. By<br />
that time the car was definitely getting<br />
closer to the front-runners.<br />
For McRae, Rally GB was the last<br />
event with the team after three years,<br />
and it was a great way to finish the<br />
season.<br />
“I had a good relationship with the<br />
team and knew that development for<br />
the next season would bring the car<br />
closer again. But the opportunity to<br />
drive for Mitsubishi - the team that had<br />
taken Tommi Makinen to four world<br />
titles – was something not to miss.”<br />
In September 2003, after a season<br />
hampered by budget constraints,<br />
Hyundai announced their withdrawal<br />
from the WRC and advised their<br />
plans to return in 2006, which unfortunately<br />
did not eventuate.<br />
Then, during the Paris Motor Show in<br />
September 2012, Hyundai announced<br />
an intention to return to the WRC with<br />
a completely new four‐wheel‐drive,<br />
turbocharged car and a completely new<br />
team based at Hyundai Motorsport in<br />
Frankfurt, Germany. It was 21 years<br />
to the week after the remarkable first<br />
appearance on the world championship<br />
scene, back at the 1991 Rally Australia,<br />
using the Lantra two‐wheel drive<br />
normally‐aspirated cars.<br />
As it transpired, the decision to<br />
re-enter the world championship was<br />
made at the last possible moment if<br />
they were to be able to fit into the FIA’s<br />
new time frame system of when they<br />
would be able to homologate new rally<br />
cars.<br />
This was a tricky situation, made<br />
even more complex by the commercial<br />
need to introduce a new rally car at a<br />
time that matched the schedule of the<br />
manufacturer’s production car model<br />
on which the rally car could be based.<br />
In the end, the decision was taken to<br />
undertake a two-phase project.<br />
In this way an initial World Rally Car<br />
would be homologated in time for use<br />
in the 2014 rally season, then a second<br />
model would be introduced, based on a<br />
new production model, during the 2015<br />
Hyundai driver Kenneth Eriksson<br />
and MSD boss David Whitehead,<br />
Rally of Portugal 1998.<br />
season.<br />
The Hyundai WRC project was a<br />
very hurried exercise. It was not<br />
only the time taken to establish<br />
a headquarters and related engineering<br />
and administration facilities, to appoint<br />
and train an effective workforce and to<br />
master completely new technologies<br />
required for developing present-day<br />
rally cars – it was just as vital to select<br />
who should be the drivers to represent<br />
them.<br />
Being present on the start line at<br />
Monte Carlo Rally 2014 was critical<br />
to everything, and finally this was<br />
Alister McRae pushes the Hyundai<br />
Accent World Rally Car hard during<br />
the 2001 Acropolis Rally in Greece.<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 45
FEATURE: HYUNDAI IN RALLYING<br />
Bull Global Rally Cross Series under the<br />
Rhys Millen Racing banner.<br />
Kiwi Emma Gilmour, one of the<br />
fastest woman rally drivers in the world,<br />
was the number two driver in the team<br />
in 2014, achieving excellent results<br />
throughout the challenging series.<br />
achieved.<br />
Their star driver, Thierry Neuville,<br />
crashed on the first stage (nothing<br />
significant there, Monte Carlo has<br />
always proved a special challenge for<br />
the Belgian driver!) but guest second<br />
driver, Dani Sordo, achieved a secondbest<br />
stage time before a very minor<br />
electrical failure caused his retirement.<br />
Sweden saw both cars suffering<br />
suspension damage, but Neuville<br />
achieved two second fastest stage<br />
times, while guest driver, Juho<br />
Hanninen, made times in the top six on<br />
nine occasions.<br />
The inclusion of young New<br />
Zealander, Hayden Paddon, into the<br />
Hyundai World Rally Team, initially<br />
on a limited program, was nothing<br />
short of genius. The Kiwi, with the<br />
support of a whole country behind him,<br />
showed genuine early pace in the i20<br />
Wayne Bell (right) and Hyundai’s Mr Choi.<br />
and brought the team stage wins and<br />
a podium in Rally Italia 2015, before<br />
being elevated to a full time program<br />
and rewarding that trust with his first<br />
WRC win in Argentina in <strong>2016</strong>.<br />
With the support of the parent<br />
company, Paddon and regular codriver,<br />
John Kennard, have also been<br />
seen competing in the New Zealand<br />
Rally Championship in their own<br />
local version of the i20, built to AP4<br />
regulations, with minor variations.<br />
Looking for all intents and purposes<br />
like a full WRC car, the AP4 car sports an<br />
almost-standard 1.8litre turbocharged<br />
Hyundai engine (AP4 rules actually only<br />
allow engines of 1.6 litres in capacity),<br />
and took a stunning nine minute victory<br />
on debut at the Otago Rally in April.<br />
Hyundai’s name in the United States<br />
is also highly recognisable with the<br />
Veloster Coupe competing in the Red<br />
There is little doubt that Hyundai<br />
is a company committed to longterm<br />
rally success, with recent<br />
announcements of the company’s development<br />
of an R5 version of the i20,<br />
and potentially at R2 entry to follow.<br />
It is also abundantly clear that the<br />
Hyundai World Rally Team is the equal<br />
of their WRC opponents in terms of<br />
performance, with promises of further<br />
success in the hands of drivers of the<br />
calibre of Paddon, who is not only<br />
shaping up to the European established<br />
drivers, but is a marketing delight.<br />
Nevertheless, Hyundai’s rally<br />
origins in suburban Australia cannot<br />
be ignored, nor forgotten, and the<br />
‘Godfather’ of Hyundai’s rally effort,<br />
Wayne Bell, is remembered fondly by<br />
the company.<br />
“I was invited to Portugal by Hyundai<br />
Motor Sport to see the new WRC factory<br />
team,” Bell explains.<br />
“Mr Choi wanted my opinion on the<br />
cars and team. I was given full access<br />
to the cars and was impressed with<br />
the standard of workmanship and<br />
engineering that had gone into the<br />
cars, although I thought some of the<br />
suspension was too light and suited<br />
more for racing that a rough rally.<br />
“The current cars are much stronger<br />
and can take a good knock without<br />
breaking things, and will win more<br />
events and, I suspect, eventually the<br />
championship. I just wish I was 30 years<br />
younger,” Bell says.<br />
North Eastern Car Club presents the…<br />
KILLAWARRA RUSH<br />
Saturday, 24 th September <strong>2016</strong><br />
A new event that will challenge the novice competitor, all the<br />
way through to the experienced campaigner.<br />
More details at:<br />
www.northeasterncarclub.com.au<br />
• 4 gravel rally stages, 70km competitive<br />
• Run in 100% daylight hours<br />
• Less than 30km of transport<br />
• Fully route-charted, perfect novice event<br />
46 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong>
1977 RALLY OF NEW ZEALAND<br />
VATANEN SHOWS BLINDING SPEED<br />
Story:<br />
MARTIN HOLMES<br />
Ari Vatanen came from a small<br />
Finnish village close to the<br />
border with Russia. His rallying<br />
took off spectacularly when Ford<br />
offered to help develop his career in<br />
1975, only one year after he had first<br />
appeared on the international scene.<br />
He emerged from Finland at a<br />
sensitive time when the motor industry<br />
in Britain was recovering from a severe<br />
recession. Ford’s apparent willingness<br />
to supply one bodyshell after another<br />
for the young driver was therefore a<br />
shock!<br />
A combination of fearlessness and<br />
self assurance hallmarked his whole<br />
life and gave a glamour which the sport<br />
had not been witnessed before. One<br />
of Vatanen’s greatest fans was always<br />
Colin McRae, and the parallels in career<br />
patterns were striking.<br />
Vatanen stands alone among rally<br />
drivers for the emotion he attracts.<br />
Statistically he was the winner of 10<br />
world championship rallies and the only<br />
world driver champion who gained his<br />
title with a privately funded team. He<br />
was the first rally driver to possess a<br />
devil-may-care approach to the sport.<br />
The New Zealand Rally in 1977 was<br />
his eighth world rally and the first such<br />
event he ever finished - nearly all the<br />
previous events ended off the road. His<br />
championship aspirations ended with<br />
a near-fatal crash in Argentina in 1985<br />
which then led to another successful<br />
aspect to his career - cross country<br />
marathons.<br />
He made sporadic appearances in the<br />
World series after that - his 100th WRC<br />
start was at Network Q Rally of GB in<br />
1998, and made his final appearance in<br />
2003 on Neste Rally Finland at the age<br />
of 51. Initial successes were in Fords,<br />
later he drove for Peugeot, Mitsubishi<br />
and Subaru, with various events also<br />
with Opel and Citroen.<br />
“1977 had been a particularly hard<br />
year. I had been away from home<br />
continuously for two and a half months.<br />
“I remember exactly what we did.<br />
Ari Vatanen and Jim<br />
Scott put in a sensational<br />
performance on the 1977<br />
Rally of New Zealand.<br />
It started off with East African Safari,<br />
which for me had always been a dream,<br />
but demanded a lot of time for recce<br />
beforehand. Then I went to do the<br />
recce for Acropolis, in the middle of<br />
which I went back to Britain to take part<br />
on the Welsh Rally. Then I returned for<br />
the Acropolis, and finally I was off to<br />
New Zealand.<br />
“The only time away from rallying was<br />
a short break in the Seychelles. On the<br />
journey down to New Zealand I was so<br />
tired I think I slept all the way. We went<br />
via Hong Kong and I could not resist the<br />
chance to go for a few hours into town.<br />
I was still so tired I even left a bag in<br />
my taxi with a whole lot of new digital<br />
watches that I had bought for friends<br />
back home.<br />
“My co-driver for New Zealand was<br />
not my then regular partner, Atso Aho,<br />
this time. It seemed to be something<br />
about the Ford system that things had<br />
to be done a special way, which in this<br />
case meant having a local co-driver,<br />
who turned out to be Jim Scott.<br />
“Our Escort BDA was really good,<br />
however, but it was very difficult to<br />
prepare for the rally even though I had<br />
arrived in good time. The rally itself<br />
was about 2000 kilometres long, so you<br />
can imagine that if everything went well<br />
it was going to take a very great amount<br />
of work beforehand!<br />
“Things did not work out well at<br />
all. Despite the fact we had so much<br />
recceing to do, this was the time of year<br />
that Jim Scott could not afford to spend<br />
much time away from home. It was his<br />
peak time for selling lawnmowers!<br />
“I had come all the way from the<br />
other side of the world, I was itching to<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 47
1977 RALLY OF NEW ZEALAND<br />
get going and I found the rally clashed<br />
with peak lawnmower sales time. I was<br />
waiting in my motel for Jim to sell his<br />
stock. With just one week left to go we<br />
started the recce.<br />
“We drove from four o’clock in the<br />
morning till ten in the evening every<br />
day. It wasn’t just driving the stages<br />
- we still had to drive the long road<br />
sections in between. As it was we had<br />
to make our notes for 300-400km a day.<br />
We hardly slept, and of course there<br />
was no way we had a chance to check<br />
the notes.<br />
“In those days I did not have much<br />
pacenote experience, Jim - from a<br />
country where the other rallies were<br />
secret - even less. As for me - being<br />
a young fast impatient driver was a<br />
potential recipe for disaster!<br />
“It wasn’t long before the dramas<br />
started. I will never forget a long right<br />
hand downhill corner on tarmac and<br />
the first pacenote arrived late.<br />
“We went off the road, straight<br />
through some trees, a long way down<br />
the hill. The only way back was to use<br />
a winch, which thankfully we had in the<br />
car, but to get back we had to stretch<br />
the wire across the actual road of the<br />
PROMOTE YOUR<br />
BUSINESS<br />
48 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong><br />
“As for me - being a<br />
young fast impatient<br />
driver was a potential<br />
recipe for disaster!”<br />
stage, so for every passing car we had<br />
to slacken the line.<br />
“We lost something like 25 minutes in<br />
the process. We started off again and<br />
did some great times. For these stages<br />
we had Dunlop A2 tyres that were<br />
splendid on mixed surfaces - when<br />
they did not puncture - and we had a<br />
fantastic engine.<br />
“The dramas, however, continued.<br />
More offs were to come, small and<br />
bigger ones, sometimes (like when a<br />
big boulder had fallen down a hill after<br />
rain) unlucky ones.<br />
“The car was getting progressively<br />
more battered as the rally went on,<br />
although the wheels were still pointing<br />
in the right direction and the engine<br />
never missed a beat. But what a hard<br />
time the car had.<br />
“I remember one time the car was<br />
sliding down a tarmac stretch of road<br />
on its side so that the guttering above<br />
the door was completely flattened.<br />
I drove off after that incident and<br />
discovered the handling was odd. The<br />
right hand front McPherson strut had<br />
popped outside the wing.<br />
“It took me some while to realise<br />
what the strange object was that I saw<br />
through the windscreen. I can still<br />
remember the look on the face of our<br />
chief mechanic, Robin Vokins, when he<br />
saw that.<br />
“The highlight of the rally for me was<br />
a 102km long stage on the east coast of<br />
the North Island, near Gisborne. What<br />
a stage! At this time I was running<br />
fourth car on the road and the notes<br />
had not been checked: the stage was<br />
very fast indeed and it was in the<br />
middle of the night.<br />
“The first three cars on the road were<br />
our main rivals, the three works Fiat<br />
Abarth 131s, driven by Fulvio Bacchelli,<br />
Simo Lampinen and Markku Alen. I<br />
think the first Fiat I caught was Simo’s,<br />
then another 30km or so later I caught<br />
Markku, and after another 20km<br />
Bacchelli.<br />
“Bacchelli thought it was Alen who<br />
was behind him. He didn’t want to be<br />
beaten by his teammate and let me<br />
For more details call<br />
Dominic on 0499 981 188
suffer in his flying stones. It had never<br />
occurred to him that the fourth car on<br />
the road would now be right behind<br />
him!<br />
“Otherwise everything was working<br />
so well - me, engine, co-driver, tyres, it<br />
was truly a beautiful experience. We<br />
had even finished our formalities with<br />
the time keepers at the end of the<br />
stage, and driven away from the control<br />
still without any of the Fiats in sight. I<br />
had made fastest time by nearly three<br />
minutes on that stage!<br />
“At that time the Fiat team manager<br />
was Daniele Audetto. He could not<br />
believe what was happening when we<br />
saw our times.<br />
“He invited me into his motorhome<br />
and he told everyone else to go outside<br />
while we spoke. He asked me to drive<br />
for Fiat next year and offered me<br />
US$100,000.<br />
“I was on my second year with Ford.<br />
My first year (1976) I earned £5000, this<br />
year £16,000, so Audetto’s offer was at<br />
least three times what I had received in<br />
two years. The money he mentioned<br />
seemed like an offer to win a lottery!<br />
“I told him even if Ford did not pay<br />
one penny more next year I could<br />
not accept his offer. I didn’t ever play<br />
cat-and-mouse games with the people<br />
I worked for. Ford had been loyal to<br />
me and I would be loyal to them. Fiat’s<br />
offer, however gratifying, did not feel<br />
right morally.<br />
“Finally we finished the rally in second<br />
place. After all that distance we were<br />
only 94 seconds behind Bacchelli, and<br />
eventually I learned that Bacchelli’s<br />
engine was so badly damaged they<br />
doubted if he could have done another<br />
stage at all.<br />
“It also turned out to be the longest<br />
ever world championship special stage<br />
event, the only time even the winner<br />
took longer than one day on the stages.<br />
What a memory, and how I must have<br />
The three works Fiat<br />
Abarth 131s of Bacchelli,<br />
Alen and Lampinen.<br />
caused poor Jim to age prematurely.<br />
He started the rally looking like my<br />
father, and ended with him looking like<br />
my grandfather.<br />
“But I will also never forget how well<br />
that car went, with its A2 tyres. The old<br />
rear-drive Escorts really suited my style<br />
of driving.<br />
“I will never really know if I would<br />
have been so well known if I had driven<br />
any other type of car in my early days.”<br />
- Martin Holmes<br />
PEDDERS<br />
HEIDELBERG<br />
At Pedders Heidelberg we race, rally and engineer all types of<br />
competition vehicles. For expert advice, contact Steve or Dave<br />
on (03) 9458 2555 or heidelberg@pedders.com.au<br />
• DTG Procomm iii Intercom and Non Intercom Helmets<br />
• Huge range of Intercom equipment<br />
• Rosso Racing Map Lights, Digital Timers.<br />
Standard and Digital amps (all Stilo/DTG plug-in) Crew<br />
Head Sets and all custom Intercom accessories<br />
www.dtgraceproducts.com.au Phone: 0478 282 010<br />
* All Custom Race wear<br />
SFI and Promo<br />
Ben Atkinson’s<br />
Pace Note books<br />
l 80 pace note pages plus cover page<br />
and contents page.<br />
l 250mm high x 200mm wide (easier to<br />
handle in the car than A4)<br />
l 110gsm paper is more durable when<br />
using an eraser and if it is a wet rally.<br />
l Books are bound using plastic spiral<br />
binding which allows the books to fold<br />
back fully with no interference from the<br />
binding or any chance of pages coming<br />
loose.<br />
Ben’s pace note books have been<br />
refined over many years, and have<br />
helped him to successfully call the<br />
notes for Cody Crocker in their<br />
successful APRC campaigns.<br />
$19.00<br />
per book<br />
Exclusive to<br />
<strong>RallySport</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong><br />
Click here to order your copies<br />
Advertise your business<br />
from $100 per issue in our<br />
Retail Directory.<br />
Contact Dominic on<br />
0499 981 188 for more<br />
information.<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 49
FEATURE: SOUTH AFRICAN RALLYING<br />
Peter Baragwanath and<br />
Charles Reeler in their<br />
potent Nissan.<br />
OUT OF AFRICA<br />
Story: TOM SMITH<br />
Most Aussies and Kiwis who<br />
are passionate about rallying<br />
acknowledge obvious links to<br />
the UK and Europe, certainly know that<br />
rallying is alive and well in Japan and<br />
south-east Asia, and might also admit<br />
to having watched some of the Chinese<br />
Rally Championship on YouTube.<br />
Most recently the Argentinean round<br />
of the World Rally Championship<br />
probably also put the spotlight on parts<br />
of South America, particularly because<br />
of the efforts of Hayden Paddon and<br />
John Kennard in their Hyundai i20<br />
WRCar.<br />
And yes, rallying exists in North<br />
America, but most Antipodeans will<br />
probably hone in on Ken Block’s<br />
brilliant series of Gymkhana videos as<br />
typical of the sport in the US of A.<br />
Africa is something of a mystery, but<br />
later generations of rallyists will recall<br />
that the East African Safari was part<br />
of the World Championship for many<br />
years. However, most of us know little<br />
about the sport in South Africa, other<br />
than the fact that over many years, the<br />
best drivers and the rally machinery<br />
Glyn Hall and Martin<br />
Botha, Ford Laser, in the<br />
NGK Rally.<br />
coming out of SA were a match for<br />
anything in the rest of the world.<br />
In recent years, under the G2 ARC<br />
regulations, a number of South Africansourced<br />
2.0-litre VW Polos made their<br />
way to Australia for local competitors.<br />
Neal Bates also sought advice from his<br />
Toyota counterparts when building his<br />
own S2000 Corolla.<br />
Various well-known African rallyists<br />
have made Australia their home over<br />
past decades, including experienced codriver<br />
Lofty Drews, and Marius Swart,<br />
who has been a Brisbane ‘local’ for<br />
some years now in his Polo S2000, to<br />
name just two.<br />
Thanks to the evolution of Facebook,<br />
information from South Africa posted<br />
by fellow enthusiasts is much more<br />
readily available, and regular photos<br />
and memories of past eras of rallying<br />
can be enjoyed by everyone.<br />
<strong>RallySport</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> set out to<br />
reveal some of the glory of South<br />
African rallying and has established<br />
contact with former South African<br />
rallying journalists, Loen Joubert and<br />
Roger Houghton, both of whom have<br />
contributed to this profile, along with<br />
respected rally scribe Martin Holmes.<br />
In past years, the sport of rallying<br />
in South Africa enjoyed tremendously<br />
popular manufacturer and spectator<br />
50 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong>
support. Most Japanese manufacturers<br />
have been involved, including Toyota,<br />
Nissan and Mazda, while European<br />
marques have included Peugeot, Ford,<br />
Fiat, Audi and Volkswagen.<br />
In earlier days when a lot of the cars<br />
on the roads in South Africa did not<br />
match models seen elsewhere in the<br />
world, manufacturers decided amongst<br />
themselves what sort of cars they<br />
wanted to run in rallying. When the<br />
latest European cars became available,<br />
this situation led to a competition<br />
imbalance in the sport, but never<br />
so much as the turbo domination<br />
scenario in which Audi Quattros were<br />
untouchable.<br />
This was a major disincentive for<br />
other manufacturers, but Nissan<br />
built a “monster” Skyline and<br />
Toyota fabricated a four-wheel drive<br />
Conquest (Corolla hatch) powered by a<br />
2.2-litre, twin-spark Toyota turbo engine<br />
from Toyota Team Europe.<br />
The Nissan had a solitary win and the<br />
Toyota won five times, but it remained<br />
an era when the Audi Quattro was king.<br />
Monster cars were spectacular, but<br />
not helping the sport. Locals had either<br />
to buy such cars from Europe or build<br />
their own, but in either case, it was<br />
costly.<br />
Having clearly defined rules<br />
applicable to everyone was essential.<br />
The first serious formula aimed at<br />
making a fair challenge for everyone<br />
came when the 2-litre, normally<br />
aspirated four-wheel drive formula was<br />
introduced in 1989. Immediately this<br />
attracted entries from Ford, Nissan,<br />
Toyota and VW. The formula selected<br />
involved the use of production cars<br />
into which normally-aspirated two-litre<br />
engines were installed, together with<br />
four-wheel drive transmission.<br />
Visitors to South Africa had always<br />
noticed the curious mixture of cars on<br />
the roads of South Africa and which<br />
abounded in the sport. Some were<br />
familiar makes under different names<br />
(Opels and Vauxhalls were run as<br />
Chevrolets, the official Nissan rally team<br />
ran Fiats, Ford, for a while, rallied a car<br />
that began life as a Mazda 323, Datsun<br />
ran cars called 160Js or Stanzas, and so<br />
on), while manufacturers who were not<br />
regular competitors in Europe, such as<br />
Alfa Romeo, took rallying seriously in<br />
this country.<br />
The entry lists were always<br />
an amalgam of locally built and<br />
internationally homologated cars.<br />
The Ford Escort RS1800s were the<br />
first FIA homologated cars that were<br />
used regularly on South African events,<br />
and were run by the Ford importers’<br />
team. The arrival of the Audi Quattro<br />
with its four-wheel drive brought a<br />
further trend towards FIA homologated<br />
Hannes Grobbelaar’s<br />
Nissan ‘Monster’ Skyline.<br />
The Nissan Sentra of<br />
Winston Sentra and<br />
Lyle Marais.<br />
More recently, the top<br />
cars in South Africa<br />
have looked more like<br />
those from Europe.<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 51
FEATURE: SOUTH AFRICAN RALLYING<br />
“Cars which were<br />
never used as<br />
competition cars in<br />
Europe, such as the<br />
Ford Escort RS1700T<br />
and the Opel Kadett<br />
400, found their way to<br />
South Africa!”<br />
cars, though the variety still existed.<br />
Cars which were never used as<br />
competition cars in Europe, such as<br />
the Ford Escort RS1700T and the Opel<br />
Kadett 400, found their way to South<br />
Africa and were used in competition<br />
there. Toyota never ran anything<br />
close to FIA rules, and Nissan built the<br />
four-wheel drive, turbocharged Skyline<br />
monster car. Ford also developed local<br />
six-cylinder Cortinas.<br />
Gradually the manufacturers’<br />
involvement dwindled away so that,<br />
towards the end of the ‘90s, when only<br />
Toyota and VW were left, the national<br />
federation decided that the FIA’s 2-litre<br />
front-drive, normally aspirated “Kit<br />
Cars” should become the top national<br />
formula instead.<br />
After a final season in 1997, this<br />
formula took effect in 1998 and meant<br />
that even more of the top cars on<br />
national events were now full FIA cars<br />
and internationally available, though<br />
all of them had to be nationally, rather<br />
than internationally, homologated.<br />
In relation to the regulations and local<br />
rules regarding rallies, in past years<br />
there were not the “nanny restrictions”<br />
of the current era, and the country was<br />
still functioning well under a regime<br />
when roads were well maintained. It<br />
meant that there was a huge selection<br />
52 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong><br />
Jan Hettema’s home-built car<br />
“Autokami”, which had a midengined<br />
Mazda Rotary engine<br />
with Audi transmission.<br />
of enticing public<br />
gravel roads (mainly<br />
mountain passes) in<br />
the outback that could<br />
be used as disguised<br />
special stages (mainly<br />
at night).<br />
In later years when<br />
special stage rallying<br />
became the norm,<br />
South Africa had huge<br />
forest reserves (also in<br />
adjoining Swaziland).<br />
One entire National<br />
Championship rally<br />
was run just in the<br />
Louw’s Creek forest reserve. That<br />
same reserve also had one infamous<br />
80km special stage (in a forest) and it’s<br />
central service area became known as<br />
“Piccadilly Circus”.<br />
For the most part it appears that<br />
rallies are now generally all short<br />
distance “cloverleaf” events, mainly<br />
based around a single, central location.<br />
Professional rally drivers in the early<br />
years included Jan Hettema and Sarel<br />
van der Merwe, but even some parttimers<br />
were often paid a small salary,<br />
were allocated a free company car,<br />
supplied with kit, and of course had all<br />
travel expenses paid for.<br />
“Supervan” Sarel van der Merwe was<br />
the dominant force in local rallying<br />
from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s,<br />
with 11 drivers titles won in the 14<br />
years between 1975 and 1988. During<br />
this period he only missed out in 1976<br />
(Jan Hettema won the title), 1986<br />
(Hannes Grobler) and 1987 (Geoff<br />
Mortimer). Van der Merwe won 66<br />
rallies during his amazing career.<br />
Serge Damseaux, who retired at the<br />
end of 2007, was the dominant driver<br />
following van der Merwe’s retirement.<br />
He won 10 driver’s titles and a record<br />
74 national championship rallies<br />
between 1985 and 2007.<br />
The third most successful rally driver<br />
is double Springbok Jan Hettema, who<br />
was a champion cyclist before turning<br />
to motor sport. Hettema collected<br />
five national titles and won 36 rallies.<br />
He also set a record for the number<br />
of different co-drivers he used when<br />
he won those rallies – 11 co-drivers<br />
in all: Mike Hooper (7 wins), Raggy<br />
Schjolberg (6), Willem van Heerden<br />
(6), Tom Oerder (4), Franz Boshoff (4),<br />
Robbie Broekmeyer (2), Stuart Pegg
(2), Leon Joubert (2) and Hennie<br />
Steenkamp, Gus Menzies, Dave<br />
Higson-Smith (all one win each).<br />
Sadly, it has only been in recent<br />
weeks that 82 year Hettema<br />
died cruelly after being shot<br />
by robbers at his smallholding<br />
home near Pretoria (see separate<br />
story).<br />
Most recently, Mark Cronje<br />
has taken three national<br />
championships since 2012,<br />
driving a Ford Fiesta S2000, and<br />
in 2015 in a Toyota Yaris S2000.<br />
In 2014 and ’15 he was partnered<br />
by Elvene Coetze.<br />
The sport is alive and well<br />
in South Africa, and Rallysport<br />
<strong>Magazine</strong> will continue to inform<br />
readers on the state of play in<br />
future editions.<br />
Right: Hergen Fekken’s<br />
Toyota looks the goods during a<br />
2014 round of the South African<br />
Rally Championship.<br />
SOUTH AFRICA MOURNS THE TRAGIC DEATH OF JAN HETTEMA<br />
82 year old South African rally driver,<br />
Jan Hettema, died cruelly after being<br />
shot by robbers at his smallholding<br />
home near Pretoria.<br />
Dutch born, he had escaped wth his<br />
family one week before the outbreak<br />
of WW2 and took up competitive<br />
cycling, gaining a Springbok title in that<br />
sport by representing his new country<br />
at the 1960 Olympics.<br />
His cycling activities were then<br />
limited after being branded a<br />
professional, having won £10 at a<br />
race earlier in his career!<br />
He then turned to motorsport,<br />
rallied for 40 years, was five times<br />
national champion and won more than<br />
100 events, including being the first<br />
winner of the celebrated Roof of Africa<br />
event.<br />
His record of national championship<br />
rally wins was only surpassed by Sarel<br />
van der Merwe and Serge Damsaux.<br />
He competed a half dozen times on<br />
Rallye Monte Carlo, becoming the first<br />
works rally driver for Toyota in 1968.<br />
- Martin Holmes<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 53
Ross Dunkerton, 1977 South<br />
RETROSPECTIVE - DATSUN 710<br />
George Fury, 1976 Castrol International Rally.<br />
Rauno Aaltonen, 1977 Southern Cross Rally.<br />
Harry Kallstrom, 1977 Southern Cross Rally.<br />
54 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong>
ern Cross Rally.<br />
RALLYING HISTORY<br />
The 710 SSS is perhaps the most beloved of<br />
all Datsun rally cars, and made an indelible<br />
mark on spectators at the Southern Cross<br />
Rally in the 1970s. These photos from Bruce<br />
Keys, Ken Cusack and Mike Harding show the<br />
factory cars in full flight.<br />
Join the Australian Rally<br />
History group on Facebook<br />
Harry Kallstrom, 1977 Southern Cross Rally.<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 55
RALLY POLAND - WRC 7<br />
HEARTBREAK<br />
FOR TANAK<br />
Story:<br />
MARTIN HOLMES<br />
Heartbreak came to Poland<br />
when the stifling hot summer<br />
weather conditions changed<br />
dramatically on the final day of Rally<br />
Poland and a puncture on the penultimate<br />
stage deprived Ott Tanak and<br />
the DMack tyre suppliers of a maiden<br />
WRC victory.<br />
It was the Fiesta driver Tanak’s<br />
second successive disappointment on<br />
this event.<br />
Andreas Mikkelsen gained a last<br />
minute victory for Volkswagen, which<br />
made him the sixth different WRC<br />
winner in six events, on the weekend<br />
that marked his 10th anniversary in<br />
the sport.<br />
WRC’s running order rules cost<br />
world champion Sebastien Ogier<br />
dearly, the championship leader<br />
gaining his worst result for nine<br />
months.<br />
Competitors were faced with<br />
atrocious stage conditions on the final<br />
day and Tanak, with countless other<br />
drivers, had their rally hearts broken.<br />
In the WRC2 category there was a<br />
similar story when the leader, Skoda<br />
driver Esapekka Lappi, dropped to<br />
third on the penultimate stage, while<br />
in the Drive DMack Fiesta series the<br />
leader, Osian Pryce, dropped behind<br />
Jon Armstrong three stages from the<br />
56<br />
Photos: | RALLYSPORT<br />
Red<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
Bull Content<br />
- JULY <strong>2016</strong><br />
Pool<br />
end – also because of punctures.<br />
THE EVENT<br />
No fewer than seven drivers<br />
scored stage scratch times on the<br />
first two days over the fast, sandy<br />
gravel tracks in northern Poland, and<br />
competition was close. The battle<br />
was immediately drawn between<br />
Mikkelsen, Hyundai driver Hayden<br />
Paddon and Tanak.<br />
After pushing hard during the<br />
morning Mikkelsen’s lead on Friday<br />
midday was 2.6 seconds, but as the<br />
stage conditions deteriorated on the<br />
second pass both he and Paddon had<br />
handling difficulties.<br />
Disadvantaged first runner Ogier,<br />
meanwhile, kept in touch impressively<br />
well and by Friday evening was only<br />
16.3 seconds behind the leader,<br />
Tanak. Ogier’s hopes dwindled on<br />
the Saturday, however, when his<br />
disadvantage became very significant<br />
and after only three stages he was<br />
lying sixth overall.<br />
While Tanak was predictably<br />
enjoying the fruits of his eighth<br />
running position, third runner<br />
Mikkelsen was gradually slipping<br />
back, but Ogier was now almost a<br />
minute behind the leader. Fourth<br />
running Mads Ostberg (Fiesta) was<br />
just in the top 10, and second running<br />
Dani Sordo (Hyundai) was not even in<br />
the top 10.<br />
By the Saturday evening Thierry<br />
Neuville’s Hyundai was fourth<br />
and Jari-Matti Latvala’s VW fifth. Then<br />
the rains arrived!<br />
There were only four stages on<br />
the Sunday, but everything was now<br />
very different. Tanak started the<br />
last morning 21.3 seconds ahead of<br />
Mikkelsen. A cool head should bring<br />
victory, but deep mud and dislodged<br />
rocks on the penultimate stage<br />
brought punctures galore.<br />
Survival was the name of the game,<br />
and it was here, cruelly, that Tanak<br />
had the puncture that cost him the<br />
win. Mikkelsen won the rally by 26<br />
seconds.<br />
It had been a long time since the<br />
M-Sport cars had been considered<br />
challengers for an overall victory, but<br />
on DMack’s latest generation gravel<br />
tyres Tanak was suddenly in the<br />
frame.<br />
The official M-Sport team cars<br />
were not so impressive, though.<br />
Eric Camilli was impressively leading<br />
teammate Ostberg before he had an<br />
extraordinary incident on the final<br />
morning. He spun off the road at the<br />
end of a stage, through inadvertently<br />
selecting engine road mode. This
Ott Tanak was<br />
devastated after a<br />
puncture cost him his<br />
first victory, but was<br />
later consoled by World<br />
Champion Sebastien<br />
Ogier.<br />
dropped him behind Mads, who<br />
finished eighth.<br />
Hyundai had a mixed story. Neuville<br />
led the rally overall on the opening<br />
super special, but was troubled by poor<br />
pacenotes on Day 1, and both he and<br />
Paddon had set-up problems.<br />
As the rally progressed with none of<br />
the top runners suffering delays, Sordo<br />
was unable to challenge at all and at<br />
the finish their top driver was Paddon<br />
who finished third, 0.8 of a second in<br />
front of Neuville, but almost half minute<br />
behind Mikkelsen! Sordo retired on the<br />
final day with suspension damage.<br />
Volkswagen could only stand by and<br />
watch Ogier struggling, but Latvala was<br />
running inconsistently so everything<br />
rested on Mikkelsen, who did not<br />
disappoint.<br />
What never really became evident<br />
was the superb efforts once again<br />
by Ogier, who hoped for a show<br />
of splendour on the final day, but<br />
his only happy moment was a<br />
traditional win in the Power Stage.<br />
One of the delights of the rally was<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 57
RALLY OF POLAND - WRC 7<br />
the battle between the two Citroen<br />
cadet drivers Sebastien Lefebvre<br />
and Craig Breen, each sensing their<br />
prospects with the team could be<br />
judged by their performance here.<br />
They both put up an incredible fight<br />
for a long time, leading both M-Sport<br />
official team cars, but Lefebvre touched<br />
a tree two stages from the end and<br />
suspension damage dropped him to<br />
ninth. Breen finished a happy seventh.<br />
Volkswagen’s lead in the<br />
Manufacturers series’ slipped to<br />
61 points ahead of Hyundai, while<br />
Volkswagen 2 (the one car team) had<br />
closed to within a point of (the two car)<br />
M-Sport WRT. Mikkelsen had retaken<br />
second place in the Drivers’ series,<br />
behind Ogier, with Paddon third and<br />
Sordo and Latvala equal fourth.<br />
This was truly a rally of two parts,<br />
but the first two days has whetted<br />
the appetite for the next world<br />
championship event, the Neste Rally<br />
Finland, where the speeds are the<br />
highest in the championship and where<br />
DMack declared the stages also suited<br />
their new generation gravel tyres.<br />
Mikkelsen rounded off his 10<br />
years in the sport in fine style and<br />
was effusive in his respect and<br />
sympathy for Tanak.<br />
“We needed a fast pace to<br />
keep the pressure on Ott. What<br />
happened to Ott had happened<br />
(last year) to me in Sweden…” Ott<br />
was ebullient: “It was hard to take,<br />
but there will be a pay-back time!”<br />
There was a remarkable 25-<br />
car entry for WRC2 where four<br />
different drivers held the lead,<br />
Karl Kruuda (Ford) and the Skodas<br />
of Teemu Suninen and the two<br />
official team drivers Pontus<br />
Tidemand and Esapekka Lappi.<br />
The private Oreca team driver<br />
Suninen won, but chasing hard<br />
through the event was the Fiesta<br />
Evo of series leader Elfyn Evans<br />
who finished second.<br />
Evans retained his lead in the<br />
series ahead of Suninen, Fuchs<br />
and Tidemand.<br />
In WRC3, the Junior<br />
championship drivers were<br />
unchallenged with Simone Tempestini<br />
finishing over three minutes ahead of<br />
Sebastien Loeb’s protégé Terry Folb,<br />
after Ole Christian Veiby dropped<br />
back late on Saturday with a broken<br />
driveshaft.<br />
In the Drive DMack Fiesta Trophy<br />
category, the little cars suffered from<br />
running at the rear of the field and<br />
most of the drivers suffered punctures.<br />
In the end the win went to the Ulster<br />
driver, Jon Armstrong, who beat Osian<br />
Pryce, with Bernardo Sousa third.<br />
Above: Andreas Mikkelsen (right) and Anders Jaeger<br />
celebrate their win, while Hayden Paddon returned<br />
to form with a strong third place (below).<br />
58 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong>
Scott Pedder’s excellent adventure<br />
continued at Rally Poland<br />
in June, based in Mikolajki,<br />
several hours north of Warsaw.<br />
He and co-driver Dale Moscatt<br />
faced a weekend of bad luck and<br />
misadventure in their Skoda Fabia R5,<br />
but after several high speed spins,<br />
a flat tyre, and even a light rollover<br />
– it was a broken control arm that<br />
stopped the Australian Pedders team<br />
within sight of the finish.<br />
Much had been written about the<br />
high speed nature of the Polish event,<br />
but the ill-handling Fabia on this event<br />
did not deliver the precision needed<br />
to attack the roads flat out. Pedder’s<br />
diagnosis was that the car had a<br />
diff-related issue, causing uncertainty<br />
under brakes and turning.<br />
Outside the WRC2 top 10 on<br />
Thursday night’s opening Super<br />
Special Stage, Pedder immediately<br />
began to claw back time against his<br />
red hot rivals on the first leg.<br />
Three spins and a stall frustrated<br />
the quick Aussie, but his confidence<br />
remained high, predicting a<br />
good result and even a possible<br />
podium due to the closeness of the<br />
competition.<br />
A brilliant effort in treacherous<br />
conditions on day two saw the team<br />
climb to fifth WRC2 by late in the<br />
afternoon, before a simple ‘off’ caused<br />
a 30 second time loss when the car<br />
went into a field and the team had<br />
troubles finding their way back to<br />
the road! A flat tyre followed, which<br />
relegated the Pedders crew to eighth,<br />
with a short final day in front of the<br />
field.<br />
Forecast rain hit overnight and on<br />
the second stage Pedder hit a massive<br />
PEDDER IN POLAND<br />
Pedder and Moscatt had another challenging<br />
event, but showed good speed.<br />
(Photos: Red Bull, Martin Holmes)<br />
puddle, missing a chicane completely<br />
and on the next corner a concentration<br />
loss saw him run wide and lightly roll.<br />
Enthusiastically returned to its wheels<br />
by the Polish crowd, an unrelated broken<br />
control arm caused an early rally finish,<br />
and left them stranded in the next stage.<br />
While disappointing, the team<br />
continues to make progress in their<br />
Fabia R5 and looks forward to Rally<br />
Finland, where they finished fourth in<br />
WRC 2 last year.<br />
- Tom Smith<br />
$<br />
99<br />
inc Postage<br />
OWN A SLICE OF<br />
MOTOR SPORT HISTORY<br />
CAMS: The Official History, celebrates 60 years of CAMS, 1953-2013,<br />
a complete history of its formation and development.<br />
The 512 page hard cover book contains more than 1000 photographs<br />
– and just as importantly – an accurate and detailed documentation of<br />
our sport’s foundation.<br />
Written by some of Australia’s most proficient motorsport historians<br />
and journalists, CAMS: The Official History is a must have for every<br />
motor sport enthusiast.<br />
Be armed with more knowledge than has ever been documented before;<br />
purchase your numbered and signed copy of CAMS: The Official History.<br />
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE<br />
CAMSSHOP<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 59
CLASSIC OUTBACK TRIAL<br />
Andrew and David Travis won<br />
the event for the third time.<br />
(Photo: Ian Smith)<br />
OUTBACK TAKES ITS TOLL<br />
Story: CRAIG O’BRIEN<br />
Bathurst son and father combination,<br />
Andrew and David Travis,<br />
added an extraordinary third<br />
Classic Outback Trial (COT) win in four<br />
attempts when they took honours in<br />
the Classic category of the biennial<br />
endurance event in a Nissan Gazelle on<br />
June 24.<br />
The defending classic champions took<br />
a sensational victory by 26 minutes and<br />
54 seconds, ahead of the Peugeot 504<br />
of Andy Crane and Dave Anderson, with<br />
local driver Phil Kerr, paired with the<br />
experienced Jenny Cole, rounding out<br />
the podium in a Datsun 1600.<br />
Based out of Alice Springs, the rally<br />
was to compromised of six days of<br />
special stages covering more than 1000<br />
competitive kilometres across some of<br />
the most varied terrain in the Northern<br />
Territory.<br />
A total of 52 crews, including two<br />
from the UK and one each from<br />
Argentina and Switzerland, and across<br />
four classes consisting of classic rally<br />
cars, modern rally cars, cross country<br />
and regularity, would tackle the outback<br />
challenge.<br />
DAY ONE<br />
A freak storm which lashed the area<br />
just 36 hours before the scheduled<br />
start caused the first day of competition<br />
to be cancelled on June 18, due to<br />
localised flooding and road damage to<br />
the stages down south.<br />
60 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong><br />
Nevertheless, the ceremonial start<br />
took place as planned outside the<br />
Convention Centre in a more relaxed<br />
atmosphere, with crews knowing it was<br />
another 24 hours until competition got<br />
underway.<br />
DAY TWO<br />
Under clear blue skies on a chilly<br />
morning at the foot of the sun-kissed<br />
MacDonnell Ranges, the COT finally got<br />
underway, but it was very much short<br />
lived for the Sawyer brothers’ Datsun<br />
1600 of Michael and Andrew, which<br />
terminated an engine en route to the<br />
opening stage and their adventure was<br />
over before it started.<br />
The great unknown of the event<br />
would be how the internationals would<br />
fair against strong local competition,<br />
but Argentine pair Jorge Perez Companc<br />
and Jose Volta in the Viking Motorsports<br />
Escort RS1800 were blistering on the<br />
opening 52 kilometre stage, with a 29<br />
second advantage over the Datsun<br />
200B of Neil Cuthbert and Sue Evans,<br />
with Andrew and David Travis a further<br />
minute and a half behind.<br />
Meanwhile, there were dramas for<br />
the UK entered Corolla of John Midgley<br />
and John Pullan, with a head gasket<br />
being replaced at the first major service<br />
at Gem Tree after blowing a hose and<br />
losing all their water.<br />
The news wasn’t good for the<br />
Victorian crew of Joel Wald and Tracey<br />
Dewhurst (Datsun Stanza) either, when<br />
they stopped on the second stage of<br />
the morning, rolling the car after hitting<br />
a waterway. Tony Jordan (Triumph) and<br />
Ted Perkins (Ford Cortina) also came<br />
unstuck in the morning, but managed<br />
to return to service, albeit with some<br />
panel damage to show for their efforts.<br />
By day’s end the challenge for classic<br />
competition honours would be between<br />
Cuthbert/Evans and Travis/Travis, with<br />
the Argentines keeping them within<br />
striking distance<br />
DAY THREE<br />
Day three was two time Australian<br />
navigator champion, Kate Officer’s<br />
birthday, but it was anything but<br />
a celebration if you were driving a<br />
Porsche 911 or a Datsun 200B.<br />
Gearbox dramas hit both the Swiss<br />
entered Porsche of Josef and Yves<br />
Huber, with the crew electing to change<br />
it at the first service, while James<br />
Calvert-Jones somehow managed<br />
competitive times throughout the day,<br />
despite only having first, second and<br />
fourth gear, but after the last stage the<br />
gearbox completely failed, and without<br />
a spare their event was over.<br />
The afternoon stages saw Cuthbert/<br />
Evans lose 10 minutes and the lead<br />
due to navigational errors, while Andy<br />
Crane made his move with a string of<br />
consistently quick times to move up the<br />
order from 12 th .
Kerr/Cole maintained their<br />
consistency to stay in the hunt in a car<br />
that had previously won in the hands of<br />
Travis.<br />
Despite a scare and a trip through the<br />
scenery after a big moment through<br />
a water splash, the Travis’ survived, to<br />
lead the classic competition heading<br />
into day four.<br />
DAY FOUR<br />
The rally was thrown into turmoil<br />
when up to 15 cars got bogged on a<br />
sandy section approximately 30km<br />
into the day’s third stage, with some<br />
crews losing in excess of two hours.<br />
Amongst the chaos of the sandy section<br />
that beached so many, stories of<br />
camaraderie and sportsmanship shone.<br />
Stephen Riley, in his outrageous<br />
Holden Ute, was just one example of<br />
someone who elected to stop to help<br />
recover many of the stranded Classic<br />
and Modern competitors.<br />
A stage was later cancelled to avoid<br />
crews running into the darkness due to<br />
the excessive late running as a result.<br />
Cuthbert/Evans faced another<br />
setback when a fuel pressure problem<br />
cost them more valuable time and their<br />
chances of victory faded further.<br />
DAY FIVE<br />
The penultimate day of the rally<br />
opened with the longest of the event,<br />
with a 121km test along some of the<br />
best roads the Northern Territory has<br />
to offer. Described by Andrew Travis as<br />
“one of the best stages I’ve done in my<br />
life”, and Michael Ward as “Rally Finland<br />
in the desert”, the stage consisted of<br />
a series of crests and cambers to test<br />
even the bravest of crews.<br />
Former Australian Rally Champions,<br />
David and Kate Officer, showed they<br />
had lost none of their speed over the<br />
years with an impressive third fastest<br />
time behind Crane and Travis.<br />
Third placed Phil Kerr and<br />
Jenny Cole, Datsun 1600.<br />
(Photo: Craig O’Brien)<br />
Day five would also be a game<br />
changer, with the Cuthbert/Evans<br />
challenge coming to an end with<br />
mechanical failure, and the strong run<br />
of Ian Reddiex/Mike Mitchell in a Celica<br />
halted.<br />
Prior to the beginning of the final<br />
stage there were ominous signs for the<br />
second placed Argentine Escort, with<br />
coolant leaking from the front end. A<br />
few kilometres later their outstanding<br />
debut run ended with engine failure.<br />
DAY SIX<br />
The COT that had produced so much<br />
drama had one more twist on the final<br />
day when the Officers, who started<br />
the day with a relatively comfortable<br />
fourth place, were stuck in a hole on<br />
stage, damaging the front end and<br />
breaking the exhaust. They eventually<br />
resumed, but dropped 32 minutes.<br />
Their downfall was Penny Swan<br />
and Tony Robinson’s gain as they<br />
would finish the event in a brilliant<br />
fourth place in their Volvo, despite a<br />
spectacular roll on the final stage.<br />
When the fat lady sang on the final<br />
stage, it was fitting the Travis’ were<br />
fastest as they cemented back-to-back<br />
victories.<br />
In the Modern competition, for<br />
much of the event it looked like local<br />
Ben Kittle would be hard to beat<br />
in his VR Commodore, but a blown<br />
differential on day five dropped him<br />
out of contention, elevating Peter<br />
Neal and Craig Whyburn (Subaru) to<br />
first, almost 14 minutes clear of Bill<br />
Monkhouse and Andrew Booker (Suzuki<br />
Vitara), with Evan and Caroline Vale<br />
taking the final step of the podium in<br />
the ex-MRT Subaru Forester.<br />
In Cross Country, Stephen Riley and<br />
John Doble (Holden VF Utility) took the<br />
honours by almost an hour from Reg<br />
Owen and Russell Cairns (Isuzu MU-<br />
Above: Andy Crane’s Peugeot 504 and<br />
(below) Steve Riley’s Commodore Ute.<br />
(Photos: Ian Smith, Craig O’Brien)<br />
X), and Murray Young/Paul McBean<br />
(Mitsubishi Pajero).<br />
The only all-female entry of locals<br />
Debra McCormack and Leonie<br />
Kerr, in a Mitsubishi Magna, won in<br />
regularity, ahead of the well-travelled<br />
Phil and Laurette Macwhirter in the<br />
most unlikely of vehicles to tackle the<br />
outback challenge, a British Morgan<br />
Plus 8 sports car.<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 61
RALLY OF QUEENSLAND - QRC 3<br />
SMART LEADS<br />
THE WAY IN QRC<br />
Story & Photos:<br />
SAM TICKELL<br />
The third round of the MRF Tyres<br />
Queensland Rally Championship<br />
(QRC) took place as part of the<br />
International Rally of Queensland on<br />
the Sunshine Coast in June.<br />
Competing on the same stages as the<br />
Australian Rally Championship (ARC),<br />
the QRC competitors were taking part<br />
in an endurance round - the first that<br />
had been held in the championship for<br />
many years.<br />
The endurance element resulted in a<br />
short service at the end of day one, with<br />
both days counting towards the round<br />
and the championship, rather than two<br />
single day rounds that had taken place<br />
in the past.<br />
This contributed to a lower than usual<br />
entry list for the QRC, with 23 starters<br />
lining up on the start line.<br />
As with previous years, this round<br />
does bring in a number of one-off<br />
drives, including Ryan Smart/John Allen<br />
in their Lancer Evo IX, Tim and Debbie<br />
Dillon in their Hyundai Lantra, and rally<br />
legend Ross Dunkerton/Lisa Dunkerton<br />
in a Nissan Silvia.<br />
The rally would run over 12 stages -<br />
eight on day one and four on day two.<br />
Saturday saw dry conditions, but<br />
rain that had fallen previously ensured<br />
that there would be slippery patches<br />
through the stages.<br />
Come the end of the first stage, the<br />
14.48km Kandanga, it was immediately<br />
clear that the Smart/Allen duo would<br />
take some beating. The pair was cross<br />
entered in the ARC and it was also clear<br />
that they would be challenging at the<br />
front of that field.<br />
Smart and Allen arrived in 9 minutes<br />
27 seconds, almost one minute faster<br />
than anybody else. This continued<br />
throughout the day and at the end of<br />
the day, they would be more than five<br />
minutes ahead of Ian Menzies and<br />
Robert McGowen.<br />
Fortunately for the QRC competitors,<br />
Smart isn’t registered for points,<br />
meaning Menzies, Kent Lawrence/<br />
James Wilson, Robert Bishop/Neill<br />
Woolley and Marius Swart/Peta Davies<br />
would be fighting for the overall QRC<br />
prize.<br />
62 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong><br />
Menzeis/McGowen would be the best<br />
of the rest in the QRC field and the P5<br />
field. Bishop/Woolley would be next<br />
and lead the P5 field.<br />
In the other categories, Jay Davison/<br />
Timmy Bryant (Ford Escort) led Classic;<br />
Clay Weston/Brendon Wigley (Ford<br />
Fiesta) led P2; Matthew Linning/Craig<br />
Morrison (Ford Escort) P3; and Ross and<br />
Lisa Dunkerton P3.<br />
The only retirement during the<br />
day would be the Escort of Thomas<br />
Dermody and Eoin Moynihan after they<br />
rolled on SS5.<br />
However, there would be more<br />
retirements overnight with Swart/<br />
Davies’ Volkswagen retiring with a<br />
problem that wasn’t diagnosed in the<br />
service park. Ross Dunkerton would<br />
also pull out overnight.<br />
Come day two, there was no doubt<br />
that it was wet. Heavy overnight rain<br />
had drenched the stages, with driving<br />
rain throughout the day ensuring that<br />
many crews backed off to make sure<br />
they made the end of the rally. It also<br />
resulted in some of the stages being<br />
shortened.<br />
But the order of the day was the<br />
same as Saturday - Smart/Allen would<br />
dominate from Bishop/Woolley and<br />
Menzies/McGowen.<br />
After the morning refuel, Mike Bailey/<br />
Stephen Andrews in their Nissan Pulsar<br />
withdrew, as did Rod Reid/Belinda<br />
Reid’s Mitsubishi Mirage, and Melinda<br />
Bergman/Larisa Biggar’s Subaru.<br />
The final two stages were<br />
waterlogged and the competitors<br />
were in ‘get it home’ mode, driving to<br />
the conditions, mercifully with no one<br />
throwing it off the road.<br />
Sixteen of the 23 that started made<br />
the finish, with Smart/Allen taking the<br />
win by a massive 6m33s over Bishop/<br />
Wolley - the winning championship QRC<br />
team. Davidson/Bryant won the Classic<br />
division, Weston/Wriggley took P2; and<br />
Linning/Morrison P3.<br />
In a side note, the Far Keen Rally<br />
crew had a difficult rally. Their Subaru<br />
Impreza was the ‘0’ car and on the<br />
Saturday stages came into contact with<br />
livestock and was sidelined. As such,<br />
one of their road cars was used for the<br />
rest of the rally. To add insult to injury,<br />
in the Sunday night storms, some of<br />
their equipment was damaged, proving<br />
the toughness of this event.<br />
The next round of the championship<br />
takes place at the Border Ranges Rally<br />
on August 27.<br />
Full results are available HERE.
YPRES RALLY<br />
11 WINS FOR<br />
FAST FREDDY<br />
Forty-five year old Belgian Skoda<br />
driver, Freddy Loix, won the<br />
European Rally Championship<br />
Ypres Rally for the 11th time, an event<br />
in which Belgian drivers took five of the<br />
six top places.<br />
Leader through day 1 was French<br />
Citroen driver, Brian Bouffier, but he<br />
retired when lying second with gear<br />
selection problems with six stages to<br />
go.<br />
Star of the rally was French Citroen<br />
driver, Stephane Lefebvre, who had a<br />
disadvantageous running position after<br />
missing the Qualifying stage because of<br />
an engine change, then losing time with<br />
overheating gearbox trouble on Day 1,<br />
falling to 16th place overall.<br />
He recovered until he was only 5.3<br />
seconds behind the leader Loix with<br />
four stages to run, when he had to<br />
retire with more gearbox trouble.<br />
Loix finally won with a margin of<br />
just under a minute from Peugeot<br />
driver, Kris Princen, with Fiesta driver<br />
Bernd Casier third. The only other top<br />
retirement was for Alexey Lukyanuk<br />
who crashed his Fiesta R5 on the<br />
opening stage.<br />
A surprise non-starter was DMack<br />
driver Ott Tanak.<br />
Opel Adam R2 cars took the top<br />
three places in the Junior category with<br />
Marijan Griebel finishing a half minute<br />
in front of teammates Chris Ingram and<br />
Julius Tannert. Another Adam driver,<br />
Lukasz Pieniazek, was lying fourth until<br />
he retired two stages from the end.<br />
A special feature of the event was<br />
the appearance of Kevin Abbring in a<br />
prototype Hyundai i20 R5, who ran the<br />
stages ahead of the field as a special<br />
zero car, but whose special stage times<br />
were not announced.<br />
The next ERC event is Rally Estonia in<br />
mid <strong>July</strong>. This rally had no effect on the<br />
race for the ERC title. None of the top<br />
14 drivers in the standings before the<br />
event started, and Kajetan Kajetanowicz<br />
still leads the series.<br />
- Martin Holmes<br />
Bryan Bouffier<br />
Marijan Griebel<br />
Alexey Lukyanuk<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 63
LATEST BOOK REVIEWS - BY JEFF WHITTEN<br />
CAMS - The Official History<br />
You could be excused for thinking<br />
that a book on the first<br />
60 years of CAMS would be a<br />
pretty boring read, full of “CAMS is<br />
great” and “CAMS can do no wrong”<br />
chapters.<br />
Strangely, nothing could be further<br />
from the truth and this huge 512<br />
page history is surprisingly readable<br />
and one that has been extremely well<br />
researched.<br />
Over the years, many of us (yes, this<br />
reviewer too) have been very critical<br />
of the direction that our national body<br />
has taken. But it has learnt a lot during<br />
its first 60 years, corrected many bad<br />
policy decisions and sometimes charted<br />
an unpopular path.<br />
Yet by going public with this huge<br />
permanent record, commencing with<br />
CAMS’ inception, the publishers have<br />
taken the bold step of exposing the<br />
good, the bad and the ugly.<br />
Formed in 1953, CAMS’ charter to<br />
control motorsport in Australia has<br />
been a rocky one and, in fact, has<br />
led to litigation, death threats, office<br />
bugging, and even the determination<br />
of the outcome of the World Touring<br />
Car Championship on the evidence<br />
of a CAMS official. These topics and<br />
incidents are covered in chapters<br />
entitled CAMS Wars 1, 2 and 3, just<br />
three of the 20 chapters in<br />
the book.<br />
Whoever was<br />
responsible for<br />
researching and recording<br />
these and many other<br />
“warts and all” chapters<br />
has encapsulated all that<br />
the national body stands<br />
for and has aimed to<br />
achieve. Fortunately, much<br />
of this history has been<br />
gathered from many of<br />
the sport’s leading figures,<br />
while the facts were able<br />
to be recorded, ie: while<br />
these pioneers were still<br />
alive.<br />
But the book is not just all about<br />
facts and figures, for it covers a much<br />
broader base – the early beginnings,<br />
the leading figures, the presidents,<br />
the administrators, the Australian<br />
Grand Prix, the events, circuits and<br />
rally stages, our champions past and<br />
present, the varying categories, and lots<br />
more.<br />
Lavishly illustrated with a plethora<br />
of contemporary photos, “CAMS – The<br />
official history” is a treasure trove of<br />
motorsport history and CAMS are to<br />
be congratulated for instigating what<br />
must have been a mammoth task to<br />
put it together. A brief review of the<br />
book doesn’t do justice to this new<br />
publication, however, it fills a muchneeded<br />
void in the history of Australia’s<br />
motorsport governing body. It will sit<br />
proudly on our bookshelf.<br />
Proceeds from the book’s sales in<br />
their entirety are going to the CAMS<br />
Foundation to help young motorsport<br />
participants pursue their international<br />
careers.<br />
Limited to 1100 copies, the book can<br />
be ordered from CAMS on page 59 of<br />
this issue of <strong>RallySport</strong> Mag. It sells for<br />
$99 per copy, money well spent.<br />
1968 London to Sydney Marathon<br />
It’s now 48 years since the first<br />
London – Sydney Marathon took<br />
place in November 1968, so you’d<br />
assume that everything that could be<br />
written about that original (and some<br />
say best) cross-continent event, has<br />
been written.<br />
Nevertheless, an American by the<br />
name of Robert Connor has gone all out<br />
with a 280 page soft-cover offering that<br />
concentrates not so much on the dozen<br />
or so leading crews, but the “also-rans”<br />
who made up the balance of the field.<br />
Connor has managed to track down<br />
60 or so of the competitors in that<br />
first iconic event and drawn on their<br />
personal recollections, despite many of<br />
them being well into their senior years.<br />
Unfortunately many of the stories<br />
are of similar content where the<br />
experiences from competitor to<br />
competitor are similar in their detail.<br />
That’s not to say that they’re not<br />
interesting, as much of the material<br />
emphasises the difficulty and the<br />
individual dramas that many of them<br />
had.<br />
Other books on the subject have been<br />
written by competitors and participants<br />
over the years, including Nick Brittan,<br />
John Smailes, Paddy Hopkirk, Andrew<br />
Cowan and others, but Connor’s<br />
version “The 1968 London to Sydney<br />
Marathon” will appeal to many readers<br />
who were there at the time and can<br />
remember the excitement that the<br />
event generated.<br />
Well written and supported by lots<br />
of period black and white photos, the<br />
fact that Connor is an American and<br />
uses a range of “Americanisms” tends<br />
to suggest that the book was written<br />
for Americans. A “for instance”? –<br />
bonnet becomes “trunk”, fuel or petrol<br />
becomes “gas”, mudguard becomes<br />
“fender”, and so on.<br />
Despite these little idiosyncrasies,<br />
the book is an interesting read that this<br />
reviewer had trouble putting down. As<br />
well as the comprehensive text, there<br />
are the usual list of entrants, finishers<br />
and so on, a bibliography and more.<br />
Recommended reading if you were<br />
around in ’68 or simply want to soak up<br />
some LSM magic.<br />
Our copy from the Eurospan group.<br />
- Jeff Whitten<br />
64 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong>
GET OUT THERE AND DO IT<br />
GOOD TIMES ARE NOW!<br />
Story:<br />
DALLAS DOGGER<br />
They were iconic times – the late<br />
70s early 80s. We had the Castrol,<br />
the Southern Cross, Alpine,<br />
and later, the 2GO and the Esanda.<br />
All epic events, and many of us were<br />
lucky enough to compete in them. For<br />
those who did, there are plenty of tales<br />
of adventure, perseverance, challenge<br />
and even fun.<br />
Importantly, there was sacrifice. Many<br />
of us forgave relationships, put work<br />
and family on hold and scrimped, but<br />
found the money to compete.<br />
Plenty will argue that it costs more<br />
now to compete than in those years.<br />
I paid $6000 for my Escort (JHV-260<br />
featured in the May issue). I spent a<br />
whole lot more than that on it, that’s for<br />
sure.<br />
The late Mike Bell paid $15,000 for his<br />
ex-works BDA from Colin Bond. I was<br />
there the day he picked it up. He, along<br />
with a few others, were the privileged<br />
who could afford a top national level<br />
car.<br />
I was earning $14,000 at the time. My<br />
car was close to six months of wages to<br />
buy. Mike’s BDA, over a year’s wages,<br />
and out of the question for anyone<br />
“I<br />
other<br />
can’t<br />
than a<br />
believe<br />
fairly well off business<br />
it, I<br />
owner.<br />
really didn’t think I<br />
Commonly, most good rally cars of<br />
stood a chance before<br />
the time were in the $5000 to $8000<br />
range. An SP52 Dunlop rally tyre was<br />
the $54. last stage after<br />
I asked Justin Dowel at the start of<br />
losing Rally Queensland time a few to weeks Ogier back<br />
how much you could build a Proto car<br />
this morning.”<br />
for, and he indicated around $150,000.<br />
It sounds expensive, but in today’s cash,<br />
is it?<br />
In times past, to win an ARC or<br />
international local rally you needed<br />
three things. Money, the car and the<br />
backup.<br />
In the early 80s you needed a top<br />
Stanza or Escort BDA. Nothing else<br />
could match them for sheer speed and<br />
handling, and you needed plenty of<br />
spares and tyres – hundreds of them.<br />
The comparison is clear to now. Only<br />
those with the financial resources to<br />
support a top flight Stanza or BDA<br />
could win then, and in <strong>2016</strong> Justin’s car,<br />
Molly’s Subaru (at circa 100k) are the<br />
equivalent of our yesteryear cars. Times<br />
are comparative.<br />
Alarmingly, our youth do not share<br />
our enthusiasm for all things sideways.<br />
I believe it’s<br />
because they<br />
have not seen<br />
the spectacle<br />
our sport can be,<br />
nor have many<br />
of their parents.<br />
Our youth are<br />
the ones who will<br />
replace us in car<br />
clubs and in the<br />
forests watching<br />
rallies, but only if<br />
we show them the<br />
way.<br />
Rallying is one<br />
of the most family<br />
friendly activities,<br />
with something<br />
for everyone,<br />
from helping out<br />
to competing and servicing. You just<br />
have to be there.<br />
Moreover, it’s an adventure. Driving<br />
back from a meeting at Coffs Harbour<br />
for Rally Australia recently, I drove from<br />
Coramba to Dorrigo – 56km of the best<br />
road you will ever drive on. Part tarmac,<br />
part gravel.<br />
Then I remembered it. It was used<br />
in the 1980 Southern Cross Rally. Part<br />
of my rallying history. There are so<br />
many roads you drive past and just<br />
remember back.<br />
It’s up to all of us to share our memories,<br />
our good times at events,<br />
our fun times competing, servicing<br />
and spectating. For us elders, we have<br />
vivid memories of heroes in classic cars<br />
- Vatanen, Waldegaard, Aaltonen, Carr,<br />
Dunkerton, Fury and many, many more.<br />
I really hope that the next generation<br />
are adding to their memories the<br />
likes of Bates, Bourne, Pedder, Dowel,<br />
Smart, Monkhouse and the others that<br />
compete at the top level locally, and<br />
equally, our new crop of WRC stars.<br />
Our older heroes were great. These<br />
new WRC guys are the best our sport<br />
will ever be. Period.<br />
Some will argue that rallying is not<br />
the same. They are right to some<br />
extent, but I contend that rallying has<br />
evolved. We lived in a simpler world<br />
back then with less regulation and less<br />
to contend with.<br />
We saved, worked two jobs, and<br />
wrangled money off sponsors so we<br />
could go rallying. We never questioned<br />
Bjorn Waldegaard and a young fan at<br />
the start of the 1979 Southern Cross<br />
Rally. Photo: Dallas Dogger.<br />
the event, nor the costs to go.<br />
The event was everything to us. We<br />
had to be there. To compete in the<br />
same event with your heroes was<br />
something to be treasured.<br />
Very few get to compete in sports<br />
with the best, and rallying affords<br />
us that luxury. And if you were not<br />
competing you were helping out, and<br />
even spectating.<br />
So the question is, are you going to<br />
scrimp and save and work two jobs to<br />
go to Rally Australia?<br />
How could you not want to be there if<br />
you love rallying?<br />
Can’t get time off, costs too much<br />
to enter, car’s not ready, tyres are too<br />
dear, engine needs a rebuild, it could<br />
be hot, it could be cold, it could be<br />
rough…..<br />
When the big events are on, forget<br />
trying to line up ducks to compete. You<br />
just have to be there. Regardless.<br />
Find a way to be there, because in<br />
40 years’ time you are going to need to<br />
find stories to tell your grandkids of the<br />
time you competed in Australia’s (and<br />
one of the world’s) best rallies and got<br />
your backside handed well and truly on<br />
a plate by Ogier, Latvala and co.<br />
If you can’t compete, then be there<br />
anyway to witness a true spectacle. The<br />
pace of WRC cars today make Group B<br />
look like Group A.<br />
In our day it was a privilege to be in<br />
the same rally as the world’s best, and<br />
nothing has changed. Start today on<br />
your memories for the future.<br />
Thank me later at the bar at Coffs.<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 65
COMING EVENTS<br />
AYSON, JACK FOR BORDER RANGES<br />
The Brakes Direct Border Ranges<br />
Rally is set to sweep through<br />
shire roads among the ranges<br />
bordering Queensland and New South<br />
Wales again this August.<br />
The event, based in the northern<br />
New South Wales town of Kyogle, is<br />
focussing on the best drivers in the best<br />
cars on the best roads which will form<br />
Round 4 of the MRF Tyres Queensland<br />
Rally Championship and Clubman<br />
Series.<br />
After three rounds, the MRF Tyres<br />
Queensland Rally Championship has<br />
become a tight contest with Rob Bishop<br />
leading the way only 8 points ahead of<br />
nearest rival Kent Lawrence with Ian<br />
Menzies a further 17 points behind<br />
in third. Shaun Dragona leads the<br />
Clubman Series comfortably but like<br />
those in the State Championship, he is<br />
not able to relax and cruise.<br />
The big story at this year’s Brakes<br />
Direct Border Ranges Rally is the<br />
confirmation of two of the hottest and<br />
most exciting drivers from Australia<br />
and New Zealand. First to confirm is<br />
the spectacular crowd favourite and<br />
Alpine Rally winner Jack Monkhouse. He<br />
will be driving an Opel Manta powered<br />
by a 3.5L V8. Built in England, the car<br />
is a great example of the historic rear<br />
drive format and Jack is no stranger<br />
to hanging it all out while winning at<br />
the same time. Recently re-built, the<br />
bellowing Manta is expected to be at<br />
the head of the time sheets and the car<br />
to watch.<br />
Pitted against him will be New<br />
Zealand’s Derek Ayson piloting the<br />
Ed Mulligan Group 4 Ford Escort.<br />
No stranger to Escorts, Derek is a<br />
champion driver and sure to push<br />
Monkhouse and the rest of the field all<br />
the way to the finish the only way he<br />
knows how.<br />
Within the normal CAMS classes at<br />
this year’s Brakes Direct Border Ranges<br />
Rally, there are events within the event.<br />
Monkhouse and Ayson will both be<br />
entered in the Zupp Property Group<br />
Classic Rally Challenge for Classic Rally<br />
Cars which will run at the head of the<br />
field.<br />
The FORZA Rally Challenge is also<br />
new for this year’s event. Entrants fitted<br />
with FORZA brake pads will compete for<br />
prizes of $250 for first, $100 for second<br />
and $50 for third.<br />
Additionally, each of these receives<br />
a new set of Forza brake pads. Other<br />
special categories are the Border<br />
Ranges Escort Rally Challenge and<br />
an invitational class for any rally<br />
car meeting the CAMS Schedule R<br />
regulations.<br />
The rally will comprise eleven world<br />
class stages, nine of which have been<br />
used by the WRC in previous years.<br />
Starting at 9:45am, they promise to<br />
be smooth and challenging with the<br />
tight schedule finishing with a couple<br />
of fast blasts in and around the Kyogle<br />
Showgrounds under lights in the early<br />
evening.<br />
Continuing the growing trend to<br />
cater for all types, the rally is allowing<br />
entrants to run as a blind event with full<br />
road book or use pace notes with the<br />
stages open to recce on the Friday.<br />
Spectators have not been left out with<br />
the popular Hillyards position returning<br />
featuring commentary, catering<br />
and amenities. Other spectating<br />
opportunities will be available at the<br />
Toonumbar stage and the Kyogle<br />
Showgrounds.<br />
The Brakes Direct Border Ranges<br />
Rally has a limited entry of only 55<br />
and places are expected to fill fast.<br />
Supplementary Regulations are<br />
available from <strong>July</strong> 18.<br />
For further information, updates<br />
and entry forms for the Brakes Direct<br />
Border Ranges Rally, visit their website.<br />
- Dominic Corkeron<br />
New Zealand star, Derek<br />
Ayson, will contest the<br />
Border Ranges Rally in a<br />
Ford Escort.<br />
PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS<br />
66 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong>
BACK TO THE FUTURE FOR IRONBARK TOUR<br />
The Historic Rally Association will<br />
conduct the Magical Ironbark Tour, a<br />
classic Touring Road Event on August<br />
6, that will remind competitors of the<br />
simple events of more than 20 years<br />
ago<br />
It’s an event that will need minimal<br />
car preparation and is truly suitable<br />
for sensible road cars. Based around<br />
Heathcote, it will feature daytime<br />
and evening closed road sections, a<br />
motorkhana and touring sections.<br />
Crews will enjoy nearly 300km of<br />
competition for an entry fee of $230.<br />
Crews will need just a CAMS 2S licence.<br />
The organisers expect to attract<br />
a huge variety of cars and crew<br />
experience levels. They are opening<br />
up the classes to road cars on road<br />
tyres, cars from the club’s Standard<br />
Car Series (which allows minor<br />
modifications for point penalties), right<br />
up to Historic and PRC rally cars that<br />
have more performance freedoms.<br />
The closed road stages will require<br />
crews to wear helmets, but the touring<br />
sections, which are not a test of speed,<br />
will be driven without helmets. Indeed,<br />
on the touring sections, all road rules<br />
and speed limits will be observed and<br />
crews that work best as a team will be<br />
first home.<br />
Details are on the club’s website at<br />
www.hra.org.au<br />
RALLYSAFE INTRODUCTORY RALLY<br />
The forests will be alive to the<br />
sound of newcomers to rallying<br />
this September, when the RallySafe<br />
Introductory Rally takes to the<br />
stages of Lightforce Rally SA.<br />
The RallySafe Introductory Rally<br />
provides newcomers to the sport<br />
a unique opportunity to compete<br />
on the same stages as the Kumho<br />
Tyre Australian Rally Championship<br />
competitors. People with an interest<br />
in rallying can ‘come and try’ in a<br />
controlled environment away from<br />
public roads.<br />
Run on Sunday, September 11<br />
during the final leg of the <strong>2016</strong><br />
Lightforce Rally SA, competitors will<br />
get four hours of competition, and as<br />
part of the RallySafe partnership get<br />
access to the same advanced safety<br />
equipment as leading competitors.<br />
New competitors can try rallying<br />
for minimum cost, with entry open<br />
to road cars without roll cages, and<br />
competitors timed to the minute in a<br />
relatively relaxed introduction to the<br />
sport.<br />
<strong>2016</strong> marks the second year of the<br />
Introductory Rally, continuing under<br />
the naming rights sponsorship of<br />
Australian motorsport safety company<br />
RallySafe.<br />
RallySafe Managing Director,<br />
Stephen Sims, was enthusiastic about<br />
the partnership. “RallySafe is all about<br />
making the sport of rallying safer with<br />
our innovative technology. We are<br />
pleased to support Lightforce Rally SA<br />
competitors trying the sport out as<br />
newcomers, or returnees, by providing<br />
our proven tracking units free of<br />
charge.”<br />
Lightforce Rally SA Clerk of Course,<br />
Ivar Stanelis, was encouraged by the<br />
2015 event.<br />
“We had a great turnout for the first<br />
RallySafe Introductory Rally last year,<br />
and we’re excited that RallySafe have<br />
chosen to support this concept again.<br />
We look forward to welcoming a range<br />
of competitors, new and old, back to<br />
the RallySafe Introductory Rally this<br />
September.”<br />
The 2015 event was warmly<br />
welcomed by the South Australian<br />
rallying community. It saw a range of<br />
competitors new to the sport, as well<br />
as those returning after several years.<br />
KILLAWARRA<br />
RUSH - SEPT. 24<br />
An all-new multi-club special<br />
stage rally will be conducted<br />
by the North Eastern Car Club<br />
in Victoria on Saturday, September 24.<br />
The <strong>2016</strong> Killawarra Rush will be an<br />
all-daylight rally run in the Killawarra<br />
Forest, near Wangaratta, and will offer<br />
competitors a compact four-stage<br />
event.<br />
Two stages will be run in the morning,<br />
with a further two stages in the<br />
afternoon, with a competitive distance<br />
of 70km.<br />
Planning for the event is well<br />
underway, and Supp Regs will be<br />
available in the coming weeks.<br />
The event was previously calendared<br />
for November, but the NECC has moved<br />
the date forward to a September slot to<br />
ensure cooler weather for competitors.<br />
Further details on the Killawarra<br />
Rush will be made available in the<br />
coming weeks, and those interested in<br />
competing should keep an eye on the<br />
NECC website.<br />
For more details call Dominic on 0499 981 188<br />
or email dominic@rallysportmag.com.au<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 67
HYUNDAI NG I20 R5<br />
Story:<br />
MARTIN HOLMES<br />
NEW R5<br />
CHALLENGER<br />
Scheduled for FIA homologation<br />
in September, Hyundai’s new NG<br />
i20 R5 car is the second prototype<br />
to make its first public appearance in<br />
pre-homologation form as zero car on<br />
the ERC Ypres Rally.<br />
The model is the figurehead of<br />
Hyundai’s new Customer Racing<br />
division, a major secondary activity for<br />
the German-based WRC team. Details<br />
of the project were officially released<br />
at a pre-event test session in Belgium<br />
in the hands of team test driver Kevin<br />
Abbring.<br />
Customer Racing chief, Andrea<br />
Adamo, was cleared to give a run down<br />
on the latest plans for this car, which is<br />
based on the “New Generation” four-<br />
68 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong>
door model used on the <strong>2016</strong> version<br />
World Rally Car.<br />
“The plan is for the car to be<br />
inspected by FIA people after Rally<br />
Poland in <strong>July</strong>. We will still have a gravel<br />
test beforehand and then we will start<br />
to deliver cars that have already been<br />
ordered,” Adamo said.<br />
“For now the development process<br />
continues to carry out some fine<br />
refinement work, but the most<br />
important milestone has already been<br />
done.<br />
“The basic road car chassis is the<br />
same, so we have used experience<br />
taken from WRC design to make the<br />
chassis, with just slight modification,<br />
such as changing materials because we<br />
also have to face the R5 target cost.<br />
The engine is based on a 2-litre<br />
turbo engine that is already in the<br />
Hyundai production car range, used<br />
a lot in Korea and in the USA for a<br />
Genesis model. It is already a<br />
well advanced engine with<br />
good power, with good<br />
reliability already<br />
in the road car,<br />
and is an<br />
engine<br />
already used to manage high power.<br />
“We reduced its capacity to adapt<br />
to FIA rules, reducing the bore and<br />
stroke down to 1600cc (not the class<br />
maximum limit of 1620cc), with special<br />
things such as the turbo. It is a very<br />
robust engine with lots of torque and<br />
we have never had a problem till now!<br />
In final specification the i20 R5 has the<br />
widest bore and shortest stroke of all<br />
the R5s.”<br />
As for suppliers, the transmission is<br />
by Ricardo, suspension has been very<br />
well developed with close links to the<br />
WRC, but adapted to R5. The dampers<br />
are made in-house at Hyundai.<br />
With the suspension the R5 team<br />
engineers started with a very good<br />
base, as much has been done by the<br />
WRC teams, and then adapted to the<br />
R5 car. Brembo brakes are used.<br />
As predicted by Hyundai Motorsport<br />
Director, Michel Nandan, when the<br />
R5 project was first announced in<br />
December the main challenge to be<br />
overcome is cost limitation.<br />
Adamo: “That has been a huge<br />
challenge. Then the cooling is the<br />
biggest technical headache, in my<br />
opinion.”<br />
Coupled with the design of the car<br />
is working out the best form of the<br />
technical support for the teams running<br />
the cars.<br />
“We are planning to support them<br />
as long as we have customer<br />
requests. The cars will<br />
be used in various<br />
championships,<br />
European or WRC2, national<br />
championships for sure, and we will<br />
find some way to support them some<br />
how, providing engineering support<br />
as well as on the electronic, engine or<br />
chassis side.<br />
“It is something we are discussing<br />
with many customers in order to let<br />
them be as competitive as possible<br />
in their own targets. I think that in<br />
their market the most important thing<br />
is not the car itself, but the way they<br />
can have a proper relationship with<br />
the customers department of every<br />
manufacturer.<br />
“I think that if you have the nicest<br />
car, but you not be able to manage it<br />
properly, you are putting money into<br />
something from which you cannot get<br />
your value back. So speaking about a<br />
car like the R5 is not giving you a proper<br />
picture of the situation, you have to see<br />
the whole picture.”<br />
The whole project started off nine<br />
months ago, and already 12-14 cars<br />
have been ordered and are in course of<br />
basic construction.<br />
“If you look at the amount of money<br />
we have spent building up stocks of<br />
parts to both building cars and also to<br />
sell as spares, it’s an amazingly high<br />
amount of money. We have to acquire<br />
everything first, because we cannot sell<br />
cars without spare bumpers and things<br />
like that.<br />
“We need to have available spares for<br />
customers. If we don’t, for example,<br />
have spare bumpers, people will start<br />
to copy them and I don’t want to be in<br />
that position.”<br />
Physically this is the biggest R5 car<br />
so far. It has the longest overall length<br />
and the longest wheelbase.<br />
“I am not worried about that. You<br />
must know that this is a customer car,<br />
which will not be driven by professional,<br />
but by semi pro-drivers, or some who<br />
are still very young or, let me say,<br />
pro-am drivers that would run it in the<br />
Sunday or Saturday rallies.<br />
“The longer a car in terms of<br />
wheelbase the more stable it will be,<br />
and as long as you can manage the<br />
weight distribution it will not affect the<br />
handling of the car. We have made<br />
many miles in narrow mountain roads,<br />
and we found a good compromise.<br />
“In my opinion the car is very stable.<br />
Also, with the WRC car you can see that<br />
our longer dimension is not affecting it<br />
at all.”<br />
And finally, is there any particular<br />
part of the project that makes this car<br />
really special?<br />
“Yes, the enthusiasm that we are<br />
bringing to it,” Adamo concluded.<br />
Photos: Martin Holmes, Hyundai<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 69
INTERVIEW: HARRY BATES<br />
HEIR APPARENT<br />
Harry Bates’ rise from nowhere<br />
to be one of Australia’s fastest<br />
rally drivers has been as fast as<br />
it has been unexpected.<br />
Although the son of four-time<br />
Australian Rally Champion, Neal Bates,<br />
had the genes to become a fast rally<br />
driver, his interest in competing came<br />
very late.<br />
Now, he leads the national<br />
championship after three of <strong>2016</strong>’s five<br />
rounds, and Luke Whitten asked Harry<br />
how he’s seen his season so far, and<br />
what he expects for the remainder of<br />
the year, and into the future.<br />
RSM: You’ve risen to the top of the sport<br />
in this country quite quickly. Have you been<br />
surprised at how fast things have moved?<br />
HB: Yes and no. When you sit back<br />
and look at where I was less than two<br />
years ago, competing in my first rally in<br />
a standard front-wheel drive Corolla,<br />
and where I am now, competing in<br />
the ARC in an S2000 car, it is probably<br />
surprising to most people that things<br />
have moved this quickly.<br />
For me, each step up, be it in<br />
machinery or event status, has been<br />
something I have wanted, so it has just<br />
been a case of trying to make decisions<br />
along the way that will be best for my<br />
learning and improvement.<br />
The one thing that does surprise me<br />
is that when I was a 16-17 year old, I<br />
only had an interest in motorsport as<br />
a spectator, and I had no real desire<br />
to compete in rallying myself. Now,<br />
motorsport has pretty much become<br />
my life and I spend every spare second I<br />
have thinking about the next time I’ll be<br />
driving a rally car!<br />
Three rounds into the season, you are<br />
leading the championship. What would your<br />
reaction have been if someone had old you<br />
that at the start of the season?<br />
I probably would have suggested that<br />
they lower their expectations a little!<br />
I was being very realistic at the start<br />
of the year - I knew I was up against<br />
former Australian champions and<br />
plenty of others who have done all of<br />
the rallies lots of times.<br />
It was hard for us to have any real<br />
idea where we were going to fit in to<br />
70 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong><br />
the championship on pace.<br />
What do you think has been the key to your<br />
successes so far this season?<br />
I actually don’t know. I’m very critical<br />
of my own performances, so after<br />
each event, John (McCarthy) and I try<br />
to analyse onboard videos and have<br />
a chat about where my driving can<br />
improve, or what didn’t work so well in<br />
the pacenotes. That has definitely been<br />
helpful, particularly given how much I<br />
still have to learn.<br />
Having said that, if I nail a corner or<br />
do a really cool jump, I’m pretty quick<br />
to point them out to John at the end<br />
of the stage, or sometimes during the<br />
stage!<br />
The S2000 Corolla is obviously a very<br />
strong and quick car. What are its<br />
biggest strengths?<br />
It’s an amazing car. To<br />
think that it was built in<br />
2007 and it is still competitive against<br />
cars that were built this year is a<br />
testament to the guys at Neal Bates<br />
Motorsport and what they created.<br />
Any S2000 car is definitely better<br />
suited to flowing roads, thanks mainly<br />
to its weight of 1200kg, so I think our<br />
strength this year has been in the<br />
fourth and fifth gear corners.<br />
It’s also very strong in the rough stuff<br />
and I keep having to remind<br />
myself to not worry about the<br />
car when it is rough, because<br />
nothing seems to affect it!<br />
The biggest struggle this year has<br />
been top speed, as we are 30km/h<br />
down on other competitors, and that<br />
is not ideal heading in to Rally<br />
South Australia. We are<br />
just going to have to<br />
do the best we<br />
can where<br />
it suits the car, and take a beating on<br />
some of the silly stages with multiple<br />
1-2km straights between junctions!<br />
What are your plans in the time between<br />
now, and the next round in South Australia in<br />
September?<br />
I’m competing in the Narooma<br />
Forest Rally on <strong>July</strong> 23. I’ve done this<br />
rally twice before and enjoyed some
Story: LUKE WHITTEN<br />
I guess I still want to take that<br />
approach regardless, because I<br />
want to keep pushing as we have<br />
been. I don’t think I would gain much<br />
by driving around at 80 per cent, and<br />
the aim for this year was always to<br />
learn as much as possible.<br />
Moving into the future, do you plan on<br />
taking your rallying abroad and competing<br />
overseas in the future?<br />
I definitely want to compete overseas<br />
sometime soon. Before this season,<br />
I would have said that I wasn’t<br />
ready, but I think with another<br />
year of rallying under my<br />
belt, I’ll be better equipped<br />
for rallies overseas.<br />
success there, but this time I’m actually<br />
co-driving, so it’s a bit different. My<br />
younger brother, Lewis, is doing his first<br />
ever rally, so I’ve agreed to co-drive for<br />
him.<br />
I don’t ever really get nervous before<br />
a rally, but I’ve been dealing with nerves<br />
for weeks now for this one! Hopefully I<br />
can keep my cool, because I want to try<br />
my best to do a good job on the notes!<br />
Other than that, no seat time planned<br />
at this point. I’ll use this break in the<br />
season to start to work on our 2017<br />
plans as well.<br />
You’ve said before that this year is as<br />
much about gaining experience than anything<br />
else. Has the success you’ve had this season<br />
changed the way you’ve approached things?<br />
Surely it must be all about the championship<br />
now?<br />
For sure that is one way of looking at<br />
it. But I think if I was sitting in seventh<br />
in the championship, I would be looking<br />
at an all out attack for the remaining<br />
rallies, the same way we started the<br />
year.<br />
It would obviously be a huge step up<br />
and a bit of an uphill battle, but this is<br />
what I want to do. My goals are centred<br />
around the WRC, so being over there<br />
and competing against other young<br />
drivers is the only way to know where I<br />
have to improve.<br />
I’m lucky that we have had lots of<br />
Australians show the way in recent<br />
times (Chris Atkinson, Molly Taylor,<br />
Brendan Reeves and currently, Scott<br />
Pedder), so I can’t sit here and say it’s<br />
impossible.<br />
Continuted page72<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 71
INTERVIEW: HARRY BATES<br />
You’ve done some laps<br />
and had some involvement in<br />
the new Toyota 86 series. Is<br />
tarmac rallying or circuit racing<br />
something that interests you into<br />
the future?<br />
I was able to take part<br />
in some of the early<br />
development and testing of<br />
the Toyota 86 Racing Series<br />
car, which was lots of fun<br />
and really interesting. Circuit<br />
racing is definitely something<br />
that interests me. Dad and<br />
Rick (Uncle) have always<br />
been incredibly versatile in<br />
motorsport, arguably the most versatile<br />
drivers in the country, and I certainly<br />
don’t want to fail at living up to that!<br />
Every kilometre in a car is a good<br />
thing, and I enjoy it when I can get out<br />
on to a racetrack. Tarmac rallying is<br />
moving up my list of priorities, because<br />
you can’t compete overseas without<br />
tarmac experience.<br />
A lot of the European guys started<br />
on tarmac and actually have limited<br />
experience on gravel by comparison!<br />
Like gravel rallying, tarmac rallying<br />
is incredibly technical, so I need to<br />
practice writing pacenotes and learn<br />
how to set up a car well for that surface.<br />
I competed in Targa Tasmania as a<br />
co-driver this year, which was lots of<br />
fun. Now all I can think about is what<br />
car to do that event in next year!<br />
What impact has your friendship with Molly<br />
Taylor had on your rallying? What kind of<br />
things have you been able to gain from her<br />
vast experience from rallying overseas?<br />
Where do I even start? I did my first<br />
ever recce with Molly co-driving, and I<br />
also did my first ever rally with Molly<br />
co-driving. Molly is very good at writing<br />
pacenotes and describing the road, so<br />
she was able to help me out a lot in that<br />
area, and I have adapted (or stolen) her<br />
pacenote system almost word for word.<br />
We still have many<br />
conversations about<br />
pacenotes during rallies,<br />
which is easy because we<br />
use the same system and<br />
all of the same words to<br />
describe the same things!<br />
She is also incredibly hard<br />
working and disciplined,<br />
probably more than anyone<br />
I know, so it has been really<br />
helpful to see what sort<br />
of work goes in to making<br />
things happen in this sport.<br />
Molly is very<br />
knowledgeable and<br />
experienced in the<br />
commercial/sponsorship arena too, so<br />
when I’ve had meetings with potential<br />
sponsors, I’ve picked her brain about<br />
that as well! It has definitely been<br />
helpful being friends with someone<br />
who has competed in the WRC and<br />
has so much experience dealing with<br />
everything our sport can throw at you.<br />
For sure, if I had to pick someone<br />
other than Dad who has had a big<br />
influence on how I do things, Molly<br />
would be that person.<br />
What is your ultimate rally goal?<br />
To reach the WRC and become World<br />
Champion.<br />
- Luke Whitten<br />
SELL YOUR RALLY CAR<br />
✸ Rally Cars<br />
✸ Road Cars<br />
✸ Trailers<br />
✸ Tyres<br />
✸ Memorabilia<br />
✸ Wanted To<br />
Buy<br />
✸ Books<br />
✸ Rally Services<br />
✸ Parts<br />
WHY ADVERTISE?<br />
✔ You have a worldwide market - it’s limitless<br />
✔ Your ad is always available to customers, unlike a<br />
magazine on a newsstand<br />
✔ You are directly targeting potential buyers in the<br />
industry - rather than on generic pages that aren’t<br />
your core market<br />
✔ Your advert appears in the magazine AND on the<br />
<strong>RallySport</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> website<br />
72 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong><br />
$9.90<br />
per month<br />
CLICK HERE<br />
to place your ad
RALLY CLASSIFIEDS<br />
RALLY CLASSIFIEDS<br />
JA STARION TURBO (REG & RWC) with<br />
brand new engine, water cooled turbo.<br />
• Adjustable Suspension on all corners<br />
• 90 Litre Tank Fully Protected<br />
• Alloy Sump Guard 3.9 LSD<br />
• Hydraulic Handbrake;<br />
• Oil and Temp Gauges<br />
• Full Strut Braces Front and Rear<br />
• 15” Alloy Rally Rims,<br />
• RW Road Rubber Sports Wheel;<br />
• Power Windows,<br />
• Seat belts brand new webbing etc,<br />
etc.<br />
Has been a Wagga car mostly, and<br />
genuinely rust free<br />
Graham Wise (Dromana) has rebuilt full<br />
suspension bushes, new drive shafts,<br />
brake pads, hoses and discs and other<br />
bring-up-to-spec work.<br />
New motor rebuilt and fitted-<br />
4G63AW8155. VIN JA7X24NF02000536;<br />
Was road reg’d as WBY319 in 2009, now<br />
back on the road after major rebuild<br />
Many updates incl. new heater core,<br />
radiator, rear window gas struts, speedo<br />
cable etc. This car owes me a few<br />
thousand more than the ask.<br />
I’d call it a bargain for its restoration to<br />
original in every department except the<br />
paint, which has held its colour due to<br />
being garaged for a lot of its life.<br />
Price: $9500<br />
Phone Tony Ahearne 0419 190 542 or<br />
email tonyahearne@hotmail.com<br />
1971 Datsun 1600<br />
99% complete Datsun 1600 club rally car,<br />
very near ready to log book. Basically I<br />
want to get into a 4WD, so want to move<br />
the 1600 on to make this happen. Shell<br />
- 1971 Datsun 1600, yellow - full welded<br />
in Bond roll cage (registered/stickered<br />
with CAMS) - No rust as far as I can see.<br />
Driveline – - Nissan CA18DE (twin cam<br />
1809cc naturally aspirated) - Xtreme<br />
clutch - Silvia 5speed - Locked 4.6 R180<br />
Suspension – Front, 180B struts (larger<br />
stubs), Koni adjustable inserts, 175lb<br />
65mm i.d King Springs, height adjustment,<br />
camber adjustment, Stewart Wilkins<br />
adjustable caster rods. Rear, 700lb King<br />
Springs, brand new Bilstein shocks from<br />
Quadrant, Datsport reconditioned arms.<br />
Brakes – Front, 276mm vented and slotted<br />
rotors, Commodore calipers. - Rear,<br />
260mm solid disc, R31 calipers (Datsport<br />
conversion). Stewart Wilkins hydraulic<br />
handbrake. Wilwood proportioning<br />
valve - ALL lines front to back, left to<br />
right replaced with braided lines and run<br />
through the cabin (over $1500 in that<br />
alone). Other – Braided fuel lines through<br />
cabin, all others replaced with new rubber<br />
ones - new surge tank - tie rod ends, ball<br />
joints, track rod and steering idler replaced<br />
with new 555 parts - a lot of rewiring done<br />
with old wires, relays etc, replaced - New<br />
clutch master and slave cylinder with<br />
braided line.Contact Jay anytime, Phone<br />
0409 010 763, Email: jayquirk83@gmail.<br />
com - or check out more details on the car<br />
on the <strong>RallySport</strong> Mag website HERE.<br />
Lancer Evolution 4 - new<br />
My genuine Evolution 4 Lancer, one of<br />
only a handful in Australia is now ready for<br />
sale. It’s been sitting patiently in my sheds<br />
for nearly 20 years, with much (nearly all)<br />
of the build and development work carried<br />
out by Colin Hill Motorsport.<br />
Full Bond cage, Racetech seat,<br />
harnesses, big exhaust sounds absolutely<br />
beautiful, 12 Compomotive wheels. Pretty<br />
much Group N spec.<br />
Make a great rally car, circuit club car,<br />
hillclimb car or just put it up on blocks<br />
as an investment. There are very few of<br />
these in the world now so should return<br />
a big dollar one day, and they were the<br />
last of the Evos to win a World Rally<br />
Championship.<br />
This car has never been driven and has<br />
an original Ralliart shell, fitted out from a<br />
Japanese car that had just 1200km. Some<br />
minor work required to finalise the build,<br />
but it now has to go.<br />
Contact: wayne.parker58@gmail.com<br />
Ben Atkinson pacenote books<br />
exclusive to <strong>RallySport</strong> Mag.<br />
Ben’s pacenote books have been refined<br />
over many years, and have helped him to<br />
successfully call the notes for Cody Crocker<br />
in their successful APRC campaigns. Books<br />
are $19 each, postage of $15 (Express<br />
Post) applies to orders up to 3 books.<br />
To order CLICK HERE.<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 73
HOLMES COLUMN<br />
HOLMES<br />
INSIDE<br />
LINE<br />
POLAND PONDERED<br />
Forget about Ott Tanak and his<br />
sad last morning puncture in<br />
Poland, what about the poor<br />
journos and their almost-finished and<br />
now-wasted stories?<br />
Ott was not the only highly frustrated<br />
person on the final morning of Rally<br />
Poland - think about the last minute<br />
re-writing panics for the occupants of<br />
the Media Centre who were also about<br />
to congratulate DMack on their most<br />
important debut victory at the event.<br />
Tanak’s victory at Rally Poland using<br />
DMack tyres would have marked the<br />
end of a remarkable duopoly of tyre<br />
manufacturers for Michelin/BFG and<br />
Pirelli in the World Rally Championship.<br />
Every world championship rally since<br />
Ivory Coast in 1992 had been won by<br />
either of these tyre suppliers, since<br />
Kenjiro Shinozuka’s winning Mitsubishi<br />
ran on Yokohama tyres. That event was<br />
a round of the subsidiary Drivers’ world<br />
championship.<br />
The last time a full Manufacturers’<br />
world championship rally was won<br />
exclusively using tyres from another<br />
supplier was when Michele Mouton’s<br />
Audi Quattro won Brazil Rally in 1982,<br />
using Kleber tyres.<br />
This was not Kleber’s final win,<br />
because in the course of Hannu<br />
Mikkola’s win in Finland that year, his<br />
Quattro used Kleber, Michelin and<br />
Pirelli on the same event!<br />
Note that during 2006 and 2007,<br />
Michelin rebranded their rally tyres<br />
under the name of their associated<br />
company BF Goodrich, for marketing<br />
reasons.<br />
Sorry, Ott, no disrespect intended, we<br />
won’t ever forget that Sunday morning.<br />
Story:<br />
MARTIN HOLMES<br />
with a win. The last time a Ford driver<br />
had been standing on the top step<br />
of the podium was Rally GB in 2012,<br />
with Jari-Matti Latvala, a few months<br />
after Mads Ostberg had won Rally of<br />
Portugal.<br />
Another last minute disappointment<br />
in Poland befell the Fiesta R5 of the<br />
Brazilian driver Ilo Diehl dos Santos.<br />
He prepared himself in his hotel for<br />
the final day of action ready to drive<br />
to the Service Park, but found that his<br />
hotel was completely landlocked by the<br />
closed roads. He was imprisoned for<br />
doing nothing wrong.<br />
One cannot fail to be impressed<br />
by the tireless diligence of the<br />
FIA officials in checking the<br />
honesty of WRC competitors, from<br />
issues like controlling that the seals on<br />
components are maintained (that was<br />
at the centre of the row over Martin<br />
Prokop’s car before Sardinia), the correctness<br />
of the quality of fuel, the tracking<br />
of the cars (as much a safety activity<br />
as anti-cheating), and their elaborate<br />
process of continual weight controls.<br />
There has been no serious case of<br />
cars running under-weight since Tommi<br />
Makinen’s Subaru was excluded in<br />
Australia in 2002. One of the curiosities<br />
of the rules is that there is not only a<br />
minimum weight limit for the car alone,<br />
but another for the combined weight of<br />
car with crew inside.<br />
The FIA allow a crew to account for<br />
150kg. If the crew check in at less, it<br />
is possible that their car will have to<br />
run at greater than their permitted<br />
minimum, to balance.<br />
Interesting details emerge from these<br />
controls. The heaviest crew in Poland<br />
were the Hungarian Fiesta R5 crew,<br />
Frigyes Turan and Gabor Zsiros, who<br />
weighed in at 215kg (note: their car<br />
still has to comply with the minimum<br />
weight for the car on its own), and the<br />
lightest were Citroen DS3 R3T crew<br />
Vincent Dubert and Alexandre Coria,<br />
who weighed 133kg.<br />
The FIA’s June World Motor Sport<br />
Council (WMSC) came and went<br />
without issuing directions on<br />
several of the most pressing current<br />
discussions.<br />
The only statement of consequence<br />
concerned who could compete in 2017<br />
World Rally Cars. The answer was only<br />
crews entered by official Manfacturer<br />
teams.<br />
This means that the drivers entered<br />
by second-level WRC teams could<br />
not. Within minutes, rally watchers<br />
worked out that it seemed that one<br />
of the three regular VW drivers would<br />
be banned from driving 2017 cars,<br />
but moments later it became evident<br />
that this statement could not be the<br />
final story, because nothing had been<br />
decided about the proposal that there<br />
should be not two, but three drivers in<br />
Manufacturers’ teams.<br />
We were assured that everything<br />
would be revealed at the September<br />
WMSC meeting.<br />
This was all very well, but now is<br />
the time when contracts are being<br />
Last minute disappointments can<br />
always happen in rallying, and<br />
the Ford team twice had broken<br />
hearts in a major way. There is often a<br />
happy ending, however.<br />
Francois Delecour was leading Monte<br />
Carlo on the last stage in 1991 before<br />
his Sierra had transmission trouble and<br />
he finished third. Three years later he<br />
won Monte in an Escort.<br />
Bjorn Waldegard was leading Monte<br />
in 1979 in an Escort, before he was<br />
beaten on the final stage by Bernard<br />
Darniche. Bjorn ended up World<br />
Champion that year.<br />
It is all part of the sport and for the<br />
drivers concerned, one of the toughest<br />
parts. M-Sport could really have done<br />
Then and now: Denis Giraudet with Juha Kankkunen in 1993, and at Rally Poland in <strong>2016</strong>.<br />
74 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong>
considered for the future, and these<br />
cannot be handled while this issue is in<br />
abeyance.<br />
Remember 2004 when drivers<br />
suddenly found their promised<br />
contracts nullified when the September<br />
2003 WMSC meeting said that<br />
Manufacturers’ teams should only be<br />
for two drivers?<br />
Meanwhile, team managers have<br />
been heard suggesting they cannot<br />
wait for the FIA to make up their<br />
minds. Citroen has suggested they<br />
will only run two cars, Hyundai three,<br />
M-Sport have not even started running<br />
a 2017 specification car, and VW are<br />
still looking for someone to direct their<br />
team after Jost Capito finally moves<br />
over to Formula 1.<br />
The drivers stand and wait to know<br />
where their future will be.<br />
Denis’ current total of WRC events is<br />
182, making him the most experienced<br />
of current competitors, and not far<br />
short of the 196 events of drivers Carlos<br />
Sainz and the 188 of Petter Solberg.<br />
Denis is popular with everyone<br />
who knows him, and most of all with<br />
drivers. He proved himself inordinately<br />
brave, refusing to give in after suffering<br />
a serious back injury in Finland in 2012<br />
that later kept him out of the sport for<br />
six months.<br />
He has won five WRC events, and his<br />
two first wins (Finland ‘93 and Corsica<br />
‘96) proved him to be not only a highly<br />
RAUNO RETURNS<br />
Michele Mouton and Fabrizia Pons won the<br />
Brazil Rally in 1982 using Kleber tyres on their<br />
Audi Quattro. (Photo: Martin Holmes)<br />
skilled co-driver, but with an attribute<br />
which drivers highly value. Being lucky,<br />
being in the right place at the right<br />
time.<br />
My favourite memory of Denis was<br />
at breakfast in the official rally hotel<br />
in New Zealand in 1993. I asked Juha<br />
Kankkunen to stand next to Denis and<br />
took their picture. Denis asked me why.<br />
I told him that he was going to be<br />
Toyota driver Kankkunen’s co-driver on<br />
the forthcoming rally in Finland. His<br />
face was a treat. Ove Andersson hadn’t<br />
at that time gotten around to asking<br />
him …<br />
Now a moment to talk about<br />
someone who is never far away<br />
when a rally is going on. French<br />
co-driver, Denis Giraudet, always seems<br />
to spend a weekend in some rally car or<br />
another.<br />
Records suggest he has competed in<br />
330 rallies, but it is believed the actual<br />
number is probably a lot more.<br />
In the first half of <strong>2016</strong> he has been<br />
active in world championship, French<br />
asphalt championship, French classic<br />
and French club events. This year he<br />
has been on three WRC events, always<br />
with Yoann Bonato.<br />
O<br />
ne of the original “Flying Finns”, Rauno<br />
Aaltonen, will be in Australia later this<br />
year to take part in the Southern Cross Rally<br />
Festival.<br />
Director, Dan White, has confirmed that<br />
Aaltonen will be guest driving a number of<br />
cars during the event. Aaltonen competed<br />
in the original Southern Cross Rallies in the<br />
1970s, driving for the factory Datsun team.<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 75
NEWS@RALLYSPORTMAG.COM.AU<br />
The passion<br />
for rallying –<br />
once you start,<br />
you can’t stop<br />
As a 14-year old rally fan, a lot<br />
of my friends ask me: “What is<br />
so exciting about watching cars<br />
drive past you at 100km/h”. I tell them<br />
there is nothing like it.<br />
The thing that gets me going is the<br />
sound, the smell of the dust and burnt<br />
fuel.<br />
Sometimes they try to relate my<br />
interests to their own. Then they<br />
start talking about Lamborghinis and<br />
Ferraris, but their comments are far<br />
from relevant. Rallying isn’t just about<br />
fast cars, it is about fast drivers like<br />
Sebastien Ogier, Hayden Paddon, and<br />
whoever else you want to add to that<br />
list.<br />
I also find that if I mention rallying,<br />
most of them haven’t heard of<br />
Sebastien Loeb or Colin McRae (or<br />
any rally driver for that matter). Most<br />
of them wouldn’t know the difference<br />
between a roll cage and a pace note.<br />
I guarantee that if I (and probably<br />
most of you) took one of your friends,<br />
one that didn’t have any interest in<br />
motor sport, out to spectate at a rally,<br />
they would be very surprised at the<br />
excitement of rallying.<br />
Their excitement would be taken to<br />
another level if they were to sit beside a<br />
good driver, blasting through the forest.<br />
I am still trying to figure out why they<br />
haven’t heard much about rallying.<br />
Obviously, it is because their parents<br />
and friends don’t have an interest in the<br />
sport, but why? Is it because of the lack<br />
of rallying around? The lack of publicity<br />
it gets on radio and TV? Maybe they<br />
have heard of it, but the cost of running<br />
a car and competing is too expensive?<br />
I don’t know, but imagine if it was well<br />
publicised? Imagine if there were more<br />
events around for people to go and<br />
see? We could see lots more people<br />
spectating, volunteering and even<br />
competing.<br />
Either way, the promotion of rallying<br />
has seen some significant changes<br />
this year that have turbo boosted the<br />
popularity of the sport back up to<br />
somewhere near where we would like<br />
it.<br />
There’s still a long way to go, but at<br />
least that’s a step in the right direction.<br />
- Matthew Whitten<br />
The Quit Experts Cup in Collie<br />
turned out to be a dream run<br />
for all the Western Australian<br />
Rally Championship competitors, and a<br />
positive turning point in the season for<br />
many.<br />
Even the conditions were close to<br />
perfect, with the rain holding off on<br />
the Saturday to give competitors a dry<br />
event.<br />
The round was dominated by Dylan<br />
King and co-driver Abbey Hayes,<br />
navigating their Subaru WRX through<br />
the forest terrain to win all six stages.<br />
“It was a better weekend for us, that’s<br />
for sure!” said King. “We’re pretty happy<br />
with winning all six stages.”<br />
Competitors will now have an eight<br />
week break before the next round. King<br />
says he is looking forward to the time<br />
off.<br />
In second place, with less than a<br />
minute to the leaders, was Maximum<br />
Motorsport duo Brad Markovic and<br />
co-driver Glenn Macneall. The team<br />
took a break from the Australian Rally<br />
Championship to re-join their home<br />
HAVE YOU HEARD?<br />
World Champion, Sebastien Ogier,<br />
has thrown his support behind<br />
both Australia and New Zealand as<br />
rounds of the WRC, according to NZ<br />
website velocitynews.co.nz<br />
“Both are very beautiful rallies that’s<br />
for sure,” Ogier said.<br />
“But I guess all the drivers have the<br />
wish to come back to New Zealand<br />
one day. For me I would love to go to<br />
New Zealand, but also I don’t want to<br />
quit Australia as this is also a really<br />
nice rally.<br />
“So maybe something like an<br />
alternating event like we had few<br />
years ago would be a good idea.”<br />
Did you<br />
know?<br />
Young<br />
factory<br />
Skoda<br />
driver,<br />
Pontus<br />
Tidemand,<br />
is the<br />
step-son of<br />
long-time<br />
WRC driver<br />
Henning<br />
Solberg?<br />
Mitchel Clarke won the<br />
Clubman Cup component in<br />
his Datsun 1600.<br />
DREAM RUN FOR EXPERTS<br />
series for this round. It hasn’t been<br />
an ideal start to the rally season for<br />
Markovic, who has had difficulty with<br />
his confidence after his Subaru WRX<br />
caught fire at the Forest Rally.<br />
Markovic’s Maximum Motorsport<br />
stablemates John O’Dowd and Ben<br />
Searcy rounded out the top three with<br />
just under a minute and a half to the<br />
leaders.<br />
2WD<br />
Razvan Vlad and co-driver Daymon<br />
Nicoli continue to be seemingly<br />
untouchable in the 2WD category this<br />
year. Kody Reynolds and co-driver<br />
Anthony Staltari came in 2 minutes and<br />
10 seconds behind the category leaders<br />
in their Subaru Impreza, with David<br />
Farnworth and co-driver Nick Clements<br />
third.<br />
Clubman Cup<br />
Mitchel Clarke and Stuart Clarke<br />
finished top of the podium in the<br />
Clubman Cup. Dene Courtis and Carl<br />
Rattenbury were second and third.<br />
Photo: CMR Photographic<br />
76 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong>
NICKY GRIST STAGES<br />
THREE FOR ELFYN<br />
Final results:<br />
1. Elfyn Evans/Craig Parry, Ford Fiesta R5<br />
2. Tom Cave/James Morgan, Ford Fiesta R5, +1m11.4s<br />
3. Desi Henry /Liam Moynihan, Skoda Fabia R5, +2m01.8s<br />
4. David Bogie/James O‘Reilly, Skoda Fabia R5, +2m48.5s<br />
5. Josh Moffett/John Rowan, Ford Fiesta R5, +3m05.9ss<br />
Ford Fiesta R5 Evo driver,<br />
Elfyn Evans, scored his third<br />
win out of five MSA British<br />
Rally Championship rounds at the<br />
two-day mixed surfaced Nicky Grist<br />
Stages Rally in Central Wales.<br />
Evans beat fellow Welsh Fiesta R5<br />
driver, Tom Cave, and Ulster Skoda<br />
driver Desi Henry.<br />
His main challenger for victory<br />
was Fredrik Ahlin, but he slid off<br />
the road early on Day 1 while in<br />
third place behind Cave and David<br />
Bogie.<br />
Evans had spun on the opening<br />
stage and then had a problem with<br />
the pop-off valve, allowing Cave to<br />
take an early lead. By stage three,<br />
Evans was ahead and uncatchable.<br />
Bogie was slowed by turbo<br />
problems and finished fourth.<br />
Robert Duggan led the BRC Junior<br />
category from start to finish ahead<br />
of fellow Opel Adam driver, Mattias<br />
Adielsson, while Sindre Furuseth<br />
was third in his Renault Twingo.<br />
The only finisher in the BRC 2<br />
category for Group N based cars<br />
was the Lancer Evo 9 of Matt<br />
Edwards.<br />
Bad weather made for tricky<br />
conditions on the first day, then<br />
there were long delays on Day<br />
2 due to the need to re-erect<br />
chicanes on the fast military<br />
asphalt roads on the Epynt Ranges.<br />
Finally the organisation was<br />
disrupted on the afternoon of Day<br />
2 due to an accident, and the last<br />
three stages were not run.<br />
Fredrik Ahlin crashed his<br />
Ford Fiesta on Day 1.<br />
Matt Edwards slides his Lancer Evo<br />
9 to victory in the BRC 2 category.<br />
Chris Mellors’ Proton<br />
Satria Neo was 9th.<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 77
PHOTO OF THE MONTH<br />
78 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong>
Luke Sytema and Blaise McNamara on their<br />
way to winning the <strong>2016</strong> Nissan Nightmoves<br />
Rally in Victoria on June 18.<br />
Photo: John Doutch<br />
JULY <strong>2016</strong> - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 79
15 YEARS AGO .... JULY 2001<br />
$5.50 including GST rallysportnews.com.au<br />
HOT SCOT WINS<br />
TWO ON THE TROT!<br />
WRC aspirations rise and fall in the Cyprus heat ....<br />
JULY 2001 Vol. 12 No. 10<br />
SAINZ: another podium SOLBERG: fiery end MACNEALL: Aussie joy<br />
● Lowndes lands<br />
second Ralliart drive<br />
for Rally Queensland<br />
● Top OS results<br />
for Dunk, Murphy,<br />
Cremen & Parker<br />
Come with us on a fully escorted<br />
Rally NZ tour - details inside!<br />
ARN Front Page 1<br />
6/6/01, 2:32 PM<br />
● Titles hot up in<br />
Tassie, Victoria and<br />
Western Australia<br />
JULY 2001<br />
WORKS DRIVE FOR LOWNDES<br />
27-year old Melbourne driver Spencer<br />
Lowndes has landed the plum drive of a<br />
second Mitsubishi Ralliart Lancer Evo 6 in the<br />
Falken Tyres Rally Queensland.<br />
After months of uncertainty, Lowndes was<br />
awarded the drive ahead of 9 other hopefuls.<br />
PROTONS EXCLUDED IN ARC<br />
The three 1.3 litre Proton Satrias entered for<br />
the recent Subaru Rally of Canberra were<br />
unceremoniously dumped from the results<br />
at post-event scrutineering.<br />
The three cars, crewed by Dave King/Mark<br />
Blume, Peter Lockhart/Trevor King and Tod<br />
Reed/Brian Reed, were excluded from the<br />
results after irregularities were found in all<br />
three cars.<br />
BIG FIELD FOR RALLY QUEENSLAND<br />
Almost 70 crews have entered for this weekend’s Falken Tyres Rally Queensland.<br />
Heading the list will be the two World Rally Cars of Neal Bates and Possum<br />
Bourne, who are certain to be the pacesetters in this popular Caloundra-based<br />
event.<br />
MCRAE WINS BATTLE OF THE BRITS<br />
Colin McRae and Richard Burns once again fought a fierce battle to the<br />
chequered flag in the World Rally Championship. But, like in Argentina, it was<br />
McRae who won the battle of the Brits in Cyprus.<br />
QLD BOUND<br />
Recent reports indicate that<br />
Queensland driver Wayne Morton has<br />
taken delivery of a Toyota Corolla S2000<br />
from Africa.<br />
The car is a full FIA homologation spec,<br />
and will be a change from the Daihatsu<br />
Charade, usually pedalled by Morton.<br />
He intends to run the car in the<br />
Queensland Rally Championship.<br />
The deal was brokered by African ex-pat<br />
- Brisbane driver Marius Swart.<br />
- Tom Smith<br />
THE<br />
MIGHTY<br />
MOTU<br />
NEXT<br />
MONTH<br />
New Zealand’s<br />
most famous<br />
rally stage<br />
AVAILABLE AUGUST 11<br />
at www.rallysportmag.com.au or www.issuu.com<br />
80 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JULY <strong>2016</strong><br />
David Holder interview<br />
Rally Finland<br />
Coromandel Rally<br />
Build a Hyundai Excel rally car