If you want to go Car Rallying read on.

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Snap On Tools Rally Sprint held in Kowen Forest Canberra ACT

October 07 - Datsun 1200 Coupe (A12)

We had a top day.

It’s all been said before in previous post, but I will say it again. Thanks to all the officials, they certainly were a friendly smiling bunch. And to all those road closure people, who never get to hear it in person “a big thankyou”, it is greatly appreciated.

Well the car has been ready since BRM, then Sunny Corner, but we never made it to either. It was great to get back in the car again in our first rally at Kowen/Canberra.

Pace note school was a great intro to get our heads back into it. Thanks to all involved, it was very informative with great tips and tricks.

Recce  was heaps of fun. We took the forester and made small additions to the notes such as “slow”, because somehow “R3 OC steep downhill” just wasn’t enough

Stage 1. We had some firm goals, well not really that serious. This is our fourth event (3 previous have been NSW/ACT state rounds) and we have never beaten anyone on a stage before (notwithstanding their mechanical problems). Sad but true. We had no intention of changing that on our first stage as we took it fairly easy. But to our great surprise we managed to put in a faster time then 3 others.

Stage 2. was just too much fun, although we have decided that flat out in 4th at 115km is not nearly enough, so we will be putting in the 5 speed.

Stage 3 was a hoot with more straights, the tunnel and my family who turned up in large numbers to cheer us down the straight past service.

Made it back to service and checked out the results for the first and last time and we had achieved our goal. More importantly we were having a great time.

Stages 4, we took 25 seconds off our first pass, 7seconds off on stage 5 so on.

Stages 6,7,8,9 were all great fun, trying different things on the same corner, 3rd this time then 2nd next etc. Sometime it worked, sometimes it didn’t, but a great way to practice.

Looking back at the results, we were in front of Matthew B by one second at stage 8, who quietly went about winding us back in all day. And full congrats to him and Judith as they succeeded very nicely by cleaning us up on the final stage, beating us both in the RallySprint and Rally results by 18 seconds.

Thanks again to all involved, it proved to be the best practice I have ever had and we will be back hopefully a little quicker next time.

Congrats also to Linda, we thought that prize was ours for sure.

Special thanks to my fantastic Nav Kristy, who’s enthusiasm and sense fun makes for a great day. And of course, the continued ongoing support from my family.