Well
Sunday morning did not start out too good as 5 minutes before
the start of the rally, I found out that my Uncle had passed
away. May he rest in peace. We went to the first stage not knowing
how the car would handle after we lost nearly 100 lbs off the
car using fiber glass doors, tail gate and bonnet.
SS#1 The car took off like a bat out of hell up the short
hill sprint. After finding out Barry Mayers' time be we on
par with him beating us by 0.34 of a second. SS#2 On this
stage as we approached the finish I saw Barry limping out
of the stage. He had a broken Left Axel. This now put us 21
seconds in front of him. Barry quickly got it fixed and lost
little time. During the next couple of stages Barry and Cliff
exchanged times. He
would beat us in one then we would beat him in one. Started
Wilson Hill - Malvern with a 15-16 second lead on Barry, as
we approached Malvern Wall Cliff set up the car for the right
hander, picked up a nice slide and with too much over steer
because of the dust and gravel on the road we spun. After
spinning the car back around we stormed though the rest of
the stage. At the end of the stage approaching finish finish
the vocabulary coming from Cliff's mouth is definitely not
found in the English dictionary. At this point we thought
that because of the spin, Barry would know we about 5-7 seconds
behind us, really not what we wanted (a Mayers so close behind,
not good). After arriving at SS# 9 we soon learnt that Barry
had clutch failure and was out of the rally. Talk about a
sign of relief, we continued the rest of the rally with not
to much pressure from anyone else and finished a comfortable
5th over all and 1st in group.
Special thanks to the marshalls,organisers and rally timing
and our sponsors Michelin, Lucky Horse Shoe,Nassco,Roett's
Garage.
Cliff Roett / Rhett Watson
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