Benarkin Rally Sprint

After all the rain in March this event had to be moved to Saturday 15th April, which was the Jimna QRC date. Jimna will now be run on a new date to be announced later in the year. Our Official crew consisted of Curlie as our Stage Commander he was being accessed for his Silver grading by John Conniff, John and Val had made the long trip down from Miriam Vale especially for this event and to do Curlie’s accessing. Darren Woods and Bill Greenwood were our start crew. New Sunshine Coast members Rob Moulton and Narelle Crisp who own a well looked after 92 L Series wagon, were our flying finish crew. They have had good rally experience in Victoria, so they a good idea of how things ran. At the stop point Val was deputy Stage Commander with Joe and Cheryl Reeve doing the running and writing up the scoreboard. With Val’s help I was doing the paper work, and that was an effort, as I can not do my sums very well. Next time I will need a calculator and an anolog clock.


With the usual organised kayos we had to sort out all our paper work and fit the radios to the cars. At least a lot of the road blocks and most of the stage set up had been done. The campers who were staying for Sunday’s trip had a bit of time to set up their tents. John and Val did not have to worry, as they were moteling in nearby Blackbutt. The rally base at the Benarkin school is interesting because it is the school’s main fund raiser of the year, its only a small school with under a 100 kids. They do all the catering for breakfast, lunch and dinner, its good old style home cooked country fair such as sausages, bacon and eggs, burgers, spag boll, curry chicken and rice and allsorts of cakes. The funds raised have helped with many improvements, such as under cover shelters and a new kitchen building. It is a bench mark country school, the main driver is school Principle and her husband, they have the kids looking after a big veggie garden that supplies their lunches, they go on camping trips, and bikes rides on old bikes that they repaired, down the nearby closed old railway line.

This rally sprint format was a bit different to past sprints, which usually have 3 short stages. Crews are allowed to do 3 reece runs for their pace notes and then 3 more runs at full pace, with a service break between each stage. This event had one long 24 km stage, with the usual 3 reece and 3 full pace runs and also service breaks. The start was just near the Emu Creek camp ground and the finish was only a few kms from the Benarkin School. For the start there was a back up radio relay as comms were a bit patchy

The cars were still doing their reece, as we got into position at the controls. Soon after the cars came through at full pace, and did their 3 runs, which took up all the afternoon. We had the usual reports of a few minor offs and there were a couple of cars that got flat tyres. At the stop, Val certainly save me, doing the paper work, Rob and Nacelle did a great job on the flying finish, as it was their time doing one. At the start Curlie as S.C. did what he was supposed to do, and got a good pass from John for his Silver grading. Daz and Bill did their usual top effort on the start line.

Just on dusk the last cars came through, then it was pack up time. The start crew and some of the road blocks did the big job of leaped fogging through the stage picking up all the bunting and signs. We all meet back at the school where we unpacked and sorted the gear out, and then used our meal vouchers for dinner and a drink. With the camp fire going the campers were able to relax after a big day of rallying. On Sunday morning Bill said to remind him not to camp too close to Curlie again, as his snoring is loud, we all agreed. Thank you to everyone for another big team effort in helping run an successful event.