Trip Report - Cooloola Rally

March 22, 2003

Gaven, Kathy and I arrived late Friday afternoon to find an almost empty Glastonbury Oval – only a few early arrivals suggesting that the mayhem of a rally was about to destroy the peace and quiet of this normally sleepy backwater.

Auto John and Val were already well set up and just starting on their first dust settlers for the evening. Rik was also set up, and had been for a while.

Over the following hours, the rest of the crew arrived. There was Big John with the Tray-on on the back, Dave and Dwayne in the Brumbys, Scott with passenger Mark in the red RX, Bryan in the “Beige Hornet” (newly returned to the Neilsen clan), Shannon and Travis in Shannon’s big Troopy, and Lionel and his brother Glen in Lionel’s newly acquired (the previous day) SWB Troop Carrier.

Whilst a few of us were setting up the tents, others appeared to have relaxed and were enjoying a quiet chat. One of the competitor crews and their service crew arrived from Gladstone and set up next to our group. Their rally car looked very much like a Datsun 240K to everyone except Auto John, who wanted to know why the rally team had stuck Datsun badges on a Mazda. He then inquired about the rego sticker on the rear quarter window, wanting to know why a rally car had street registration. Hopefully, John discovered a few things that night about rallying.

Next morning after a leisurely breakfast, the club team set out into the forest to set up the stage. It was one that we were fairly familiar with, and with Shane (who had arrived that morning) reading the set-up notes for Dave and Gaven reading the set-up notes for me, the bunting was done and the road blocks were in place before we knew it.

Gaven and I then had a few hours to spare waiting for the action to happen. I needed to set up my radio and, as is usually the case, I had problems sending messages back to base. I assumed (in this instance wrongly, due to what was later discovered to be a badly set up repeater tower) that the fault lay with poor positioning of the vehicle in a radio flat spot. So I decided to move the Navara to the other side of the track to see if that helped. There was a slight dip and rise to negotiate, but I got one hell of a shock to see what had been done to the bull bar by a tree root hiding just below the surface of the rise – the alloy had been pushed back a good 6 inches. I’ll remember this moment next time I purchase a bull bar and opt for one made from steel.

Our paperwork finally arrived with the 00 car due to an oversight earlier in the day back at rally HQ, and then we went to work. Travis and Glen were doing the paperwork – first time for each of them – whilst Gaven collected the road books from the navigators and then returned them. I tried to look busy doing as little as possible (it goes with the territory as assistant stage commander). The first stage was run without too many dramas, but as darkness descended on us, the sky became covered in some pretty mean looking storm clouds. So we ensured that the tarp was in place to keep the paperwork and radio dry. We were then treated to an exhibition of lightning that I have rarely been so privileged to see – the storm was moving in from three different directions, and we were soon at its epicentre, with lightning flashes all around us. Through the whole the storm, we only managed to get 15 minutes or so of full-on rain. Others, I heard later, were not so lucky and were almost drowned out there.

For the second run through the stage, Travis and Glen swapped places with Shannon and Lionel, who like their younger siblings had also not assisted at a stop control. Shannon and Lionel also did the paperwork, but I got the feeling that it wasn’t their cup of tea, so I don’t think they’ll be volunteering for stop control duty again in the near future. During the running of the stage, Shannon was visited by a particularly friendly large moth that wouldn’t leave him alone. We were also visited earlier in the day by an inquisitive young brown snake that slithered towards us from underneath the Navara before being removed to a quieter place. With termite and “angry” ant nests also nearby to explore, who said that a day at a rally control is boring. It was all very educational, and made us feel at one with our surroundings.

With the second run finished, we packed up and met up with the others on their way through the stage picking up the bunting, then headed back to the oval for dinner and to wash the dust from our mouths. The oval was very much alive, with service crews packing up for the night and teams heading home. Many of our crew had a quieter, more relaxed evening than the previous night – except Kathy, who comes alive when the rally hits town.

So in the morning with Kathy the only one of our crew still asleep, a few of the boys tried to rouse her with cold water and ice. The boys couldn’t believe how much she could withstand (those who know her well weren’t the least bit surprised however), but persistence finally paid off and she eventually awoke as the rest of the crew were saying their good-byes for their forest trip though the local Gympie forests. Meanwhile, we packed up and had a leisurely trip home.

For those who are interested, George Shepheard in a Lancer won the rally from Matt Van Tuinen, competing in his WRX for the first time, with Paul Andrews coming third in another Lancer.

Greg Bryant SC480