1999 Falken Tyres Rally Queensland

5-6 June 1999

It was another big team effort by the club running this years special stage called Forest Drive in the Falken Tyres Rally Queensland.

It all started on Thursday afternoon when Big John in his Rodeo (pie van) and myself in the Brumby set off to Imbil meeting up along the way with Rik C in his shiny MY 82-83 wagon at the Mobil servo at Forest Glen.

Once we arrived at the start of the stage west of Imbil where we camp for the weekend, we set off in the Brumby and pie van to set up as much of the 15 km stage as possible. We used the leap frog system, putting up the bunting and signs. By about 7 pm we had reached the 10 km mark and called it a day.

The Thursday start was because the crews use Friday to recce the stages from 6am - 5pm. The stages do not have to be set up for the recce, but as we had to check the crews in at the start of Forest Drive and another nearby stage called Branch, there was not a lot of time left to be fully set up by Saturday morning.

We spent a relaxing Thursday night having a big steak at Imbil's Railway Hotel with Dick Owen who is another Stage organiser.

The plan for Friday was Big John and Rik would man Forest Drive start, and I would do Branch. I was expecting Ralph C in his Brumby to arrive later in the day, he would take over from me and Big John and I would continue and finish the setup of Forest Drive.

It was interesting to see the number of Subarus being used for the recce. One crew used a Brumby, Adrian B was using his rare MY82 4WD sedan, 2 RX Turbos, one was driven by Brad H, an ex club member. Possum was in his LHD RS wagon, 3 other crews also used Liberty wagons and a sedan.

The VW team use LHD turbo diesel Golfs. All recce cars are not allowed any sign writing, but can have roll cages and worn rally tyres. We spent Friday night at camp, around 9.30 pm more of our crew rolled in, consisting of Rob P, (Hilux) Royce J and Carl (Rover defector), Sue O and her brother Grant and son Kurt and his friend (Camry), Gavin McG in his Liberty with a newly fitted sump guard, Arnold S in his big 4x4 Dyna, who was running in a reconditioned engine, Shannon C and friend Lionel, in the big SWB Patrol.

We were all up bright and early on Saturday all set for 2 runs through the stage. One, midmorning and another late afternoon.

More crew started arriving, consisting of Rex H from Gympie in his beautifully set up Liberty powered L91 wagon, Wayne M and his two young boys in his MY 80 wagon, all set up for the weekend with bikes on the roof rack, Doug T and friends Shan and John in the RX turbo featuring his new high powered sound system, and Peter B in his Cape York spec L85 wagon. Much later we got a call on the CB, it was Trent B in his Brumby, proudly sporting "She's my ute" signed tailgate. He was at the Forestry road block. He had come the long way via Kilcoy, he thought Imbil is located where Gallgawan is.

The next job was to put everyone into place luckily, Doug, Peter and John were happy to do the start time control for the first time. Rik, Big John and Rob set up the start with all the bunting and flags, they were also manning the start flag control. John P volunteered for the first road block at the first grid. Ralph was the second at his favourite spot on Casey Gully road. Wayne had the big job of being SOS radio point on Casey Gully road. Rik was also helping doing the road block, this spot was Media point. Shannon and Lionel were next at the fight off Casey Gully road. The last spot was the second SOS. point, about 6 km from the finish. It was looked after by a sunshine coast 4WD club member.

The flying finish was manned by Royce, Arnold and Carl, it is in an awkward spot on a steep slope, the big defector was parked on a steep angle in amongst the pine trees. Sue, Grant, Gavin and the boys did the stop control, they were supplied with a radio. This year it was a new radio system supplied by Phil Comm, one of Rallies sponsors, they also supplied the Forester GT, used as 000 car.

The radios had 3 channels, No1 was SOS, No2 Stages and rally headquarters, No3 Course cars, we could all speak direct to each other and to HQ in Caloundra. One of the 0 cars noted that there were cattle gathered at around the 10 km mark. We sent Trent in to try and keep them off the road. We later discovered there is a feed trough just off the road and thats why the cattle gather there.

Now we were all in place ready for action. There were no major problems once the stage was running. John reported at his road block a bank up of-cars changing flat tyres., One Lancer crew were in such a hurry they left their rim behind, that we later returned. Also the flying finish clock was slightly slow, it was reset for the next stage.

The best story of an off and recovery was Adrian B who was caught on TV at the finish explaining his high speed flying rotation into the lantana at about the 10 km mark. Adrian asked us back at the start for the second run through the stage to keep a lookout for 3 special mud flaps that were knocked off. We could not find them, even Rex went back days later looking for them. Adrian did find them himself. What had happened they were hidden under the lantana that had cushioned the landing which minimised the damage to a few small dents and a broken RH tailight.

The weather was not improving, we received more light showers during the afternoon. The stage before ours which was the rallies longest at around 28 km was shortened to just 9 km to avoid the slippery sections.

For the second run through our stage we did not have any problems, by the time the last cars had started, it was nearly dark. We all regrouped back at the start and spent another relaxing night around the camp, recalling the days events. We received more light rain over-night, but the coast had very heavy rain which caused the rallies last stage at Pelican Waters in Caloundra to be cancelled.

Forest Drive seems to stand up to wet conditions well, because of the hard packed roads, one loop through a heavy treed section was a problem, it became very slippery. Rex had great delight in pulling out a Commodore ute course car with his wagon, it had slipped off the road. He also found another discarded alloy rim, this one was damaged and we think it was off one of the Falcons.

We were all in place counting down Possum who was car No 1, when a call came over the radio saying hold all cars because the 0 car had more amendments about the road conditions. All crews had to be renotified and then signed for a new start time was then given. The wet sections went from being slippery to very slippery and most became slippery with that all done we were under way again.

Quite a few cars got wet electrics in the creek crossing near the start, Brent Nliddleton Honda Civic bent his sump guard in the second creek. He did the same thing last year. A group of N WRX lost a rear wheel at the 3 km mark, the suspension was damaged on a previous stage. The rest of the field made it through to the finish without major problems.

After the sweep and recovery cars went through, we set about packing up and then driving through the stage collecting the bunting and signs. One of the hard luck stories of the weekend happened to Rob P who got a flat tyre on his camper trailer, he did not have a spare, it had dropped off the trailer on another trip, it's a long story. He crawled into Imbil hoping to repair it, but it was beyond repair, so he parked it there and travelled to his brother Jim's place at Beerwah to collect his spare, then drove back to Imbil to fit the spare and drove back home.

It was a busy weekend and was a big team effort by all the club members who helped make it all happen.

David Martin SC180