National Capital Rally
Canberra
May 26-28, 2017

Sunday, May 28. Second day of competition.

I woke up to the sound of rain falling on the roof of my tent. This is not always a good sign for a day's rallying but the weather cleared later in the day, so apart from forcing the cancellation of Special Stage 13 because the road conditions were a bit awful the only effects of the rain were to reduce the amount of dust and to cause drivers to be a little more aware of slippery conditions.

Special Stage 9/12 - Hyles Block

I didn't get many photos at the next place because it was raining, cold, my shutter-clicking finger was numb and the only way in and out was to walk about 400 metres along a steep, slippery, badly rutted road.

Sorry about the blurriness, but it was raining and the camera was trying to decide whether to automatically focus on the car or the raindrops on the lens.

Special Stage 10/13 - East West

The plan for the day was to go to the second running of this stage but as that was cancelled after the first pass because of road conditions the plan was thwarted.

Special Stage 11/14 - Cottage 5 Ways

Some spectators were making it difficult for everyone else. I wasn't sure how to politely explain to the lady that you are supposed to hold your iPhone in front of your own face, not someone else's, so I went to another place to take more photos. And yes, she did actually reach across to the left to put her phone in front of my camera just as I was setting up for the next shot. The Datsun 180B in the photos above possibly did the best attempt at the corner I saw but I missed getting the real action because I had to shoot around the iPhone.

I arrived at the last spectator point a bit late in the day, in time to catch only a couple of tail-enders who weren't trying very hard before the official cars arrived to close the course.

The videos below were taken on the Monday after the event and show the condition of the roads. Both were in the Cottage 5 Ways stage. I wasn't trying to drive at anything like a completive speed because a) my 1993 Falcon wagon is not a rally car, b) the roads were still slippery from the previous day's rain (you can see standing water in some places) and c) there was no recovery vehicle handy (see point "b"). You have to imagine driving on these roads at two to three times my speed.

You can see my standard disclaimer about speed here.

Results from the second day's competition can be found here.

Full results for the event can be found here.

Go to the first competition day