Original story
From Warwick’s notes
The original report has been retained and reformatted for comfortable reading on modern screens.
Hi,
Well I do have to say - not one of our better efforts even though, as always we fulfilled all our obligations !!!
For some reason I had difficulty finding a crew, even though it was just a 'little one day rally' less than an hour away from Auckland.
Poko put her hand up as always - thanks Poko.
I also had my 'right hand man' Lexus who is going to be a well worthwhile member of the team for (hopefully) years to come.
I was the third, and Post Chief.
We had to meet at Te Kauwhata at 8 am which necessitated both Lexus and I getting up at 5AM (yes 5 am) to meet our 'out the gate' time of 5.30 am - this we did, arriving at the appointed place just before 8 am.
It was good to catch up with Rob and Rita, Donald Welsh, Jim Scott and of course Buck.
We were doing two stages SS1 and SS4 (more of that later).
For SS1 Lexus and Poko set up the beam (with supervision from me) - got a green light and we confirmed its placement with base.
There really was nowhere to put a car so Lexus offered to stand and 'babysit the beam' - with one of our own handheld radios this is what he did!!!
Meanwhile while Poko did road, I had to do all the 'in car' work.
Yeah right.
The finish control log supplied was somewhat reminiscent of the old pink slip which we used when we had 4 people in the car with a pink slip runner to take them to a radio vehicle.
This combined with no start orders being written on the cards by the start crew - together with my failing eyesight meant that I really didn't cope all that well.
I have no idea why the organisers simply didn't use the standard 'finish control log' - which I have used for probably 10 years as did Nelson car club a week or so ago.
After being cleared we then had to set up for SS4. This was the same stage but run in the reverse direction.
This meant dismantling the beam, repositioning it and getting it going again. We did confirm a new stage number change and got the necessary beam.
This time we opted not to babysit the beam so Lexus could take over all the in car work.
Once competitors started arriving it became obvious that we (and competitors) were not getting times from the beam. Lexus ran down and confirmed the alignment etc but still no joy.
There was really no way I could actually do any sort of log - oh bugger.
Base had indicated that this was actually a Rallysafe problem, and consultation with Buck later confirmed that with the stage being run twice it had not been realised that the 2nd time through was reverse direction !!!
After returning all the gear Poko headed back to Auckland and Lexus and I headed back to Duckcreek.
So it had been just over 12 hrs when we got home whereupon, with Nga no longer an option I just had a Gin and Tonic.
Our next involvement is Big Targa - next month. Another week long event.
You will get more from me then.
Warwick Sykes - Wazza