Rally Canberra 2001

Official Car Zero

Ordynski (Australia)

Bourne (Australia)

Crocker (Australia)

Taguchi (Malaysia)

The Crowd at EPIC

(Courtesy Official Rally of Canberra Website)

I must be mad ... but anyway, on Friday afternoon, after work, I tore out the door and off to see `Rally of Canberra'. I had a great drive down, stopping in Newcastle for a couple of hours sleep and arriving in Canberra 9ish Saturday morning. The action had already started on the Friday but there was still enough of the weekend left to see heaps! I knew I was on the right road out of Sydney when I was constantly being passed by packs of WRXs. The WRX festival was part of the rally and they were out in full force. The largest group was of about 20 and at 6.30am on a crystal clear winter morning, heading down the Hume Highway, it was a pretty awesome sight to see this low flying convoy. I don't know what they thought of my little suba - I felt like the ugly duckling! Canberra was really pretty with all the Autumn leaves out.

I met up with David M, Ferris, Nancy and Phil at the Uriarra Service Point. They were one of three Infield Media teams, which involves going to the end of stages and asking the top 10-15 drivers what they thought of the stage. The responses are phoned thru to headquarters and are used on the Internet, TV and on printouts. It was really interesting to hear what they had to say coming straight off the stage. While we were at the finish, Martin Lintott appeared with a fairly impressive lump of timber sticking out of where his WRX's headlight used to be. Dean Herridge came thru with a flat tyre which had been flapping about and done a bit of damage.

We spectated for a while at Telstra Sinclair Circuit 2 stage. This was a great spectator point with a jump and a corner together. Being with the Infield Media has it's advantages - we got to stand on the inside of the corner for the best view - and the sunshine! (it was freezing!). David and I headed off to Epic Park for the WRX Festival where Cody Crocker, Possum Bourne and Subaru Australia management gave a short talk. We watched the Epic Park Super Stage from the festival. The atmosphere was great. Whenever Possum, Cody or any other Subaru driver was on the stage, everyone just went berserk! Apparently the temperature was only 1 degree and Subaru was doing extra well in jacket sales!

Sunday morning and David and I went to do Infield Media at the end of stages 16 and 19. This was the same stage run twice so we got to see the whole field come through, including the rather bizarre looking Subaru Vivio's (600cc Supercharged 4WD Pocket Rockets!) and club member, Adrian Bukmanis. Adrian had some gear box trouble on the first day but was back out again today thanks to the Future Rallysport Service Crew, comprising workmates and everyone from The Subaru Shop. Possum told us he was "taking it easy", with his 7 minute lead, Cody commented that he 'couldn't get it together' on the first run but was much happier with how things were going second time through and Dean Herridge was "still cruising".

Sunday afternoon we headed back to Epic Park to spectate again. We had a good look through the service area and Dave spoke to some of the Team Subaru mechanics. They carry an enormous stockpile of gear, including 4 pallets of tyres. The final Epic Park Super Stage was "full noise" with everyone having a go at the $50000 prize money for breaking :1 minute 40 around the stage. No one scored it in the end but the $10000 prize for 1 minute 45 was shared equally between Bourne, Bates and Taguchi.

The final result was Possum Bourne and Mark Stacey first, Katsu Taguchi and Derek Ringer (Colin McRae's old navigator) second and Cody Crocker and Greg Foletta third. Neal Bates and Coral Taylor had a rough weekend with a flat tyre, bogged because of bad visibility, fire because of a short out in a fuel pump, no hydraulics and a huge off which took their crew until 4am to recover the car! Amongst all that they still managed to win 3 stages! Ed Ordinski was out with a blown head gasket and Simon Evans had a broken cross member in his new VW.

As for me, I clocked up 2300km and only 8 1/2 hours sleep in 4 days, but it was truly worth it! It was a real blast to spectate for a change and doing the Infield Media stuff with David was excellent (Thank You David!). I drove back to Lennox on Monday and the only down side of the whole thing was work on Tuesday, which was seriously not a good look. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Now I can't wait for Rally Queensland!

Lintott - Ouch !

Adrian Bukmanis