Awaba Volunteers Appreciation Rallysprint
June 19, 2021
The Volunteers Appreciation Rallysprint was run on June 19, 2021, organised by the Westlakes Automobile Club.
Click to see the Supplementary Regulations
The venue was Awabawac Park, 408 Wilton Rd, Awaba 2283, NSW. Here is what it looks like from above.
And here is what it looks like from inside a car. Thank you to Rally Director Darren Green for driving me around the course. (I apologise for the size and quality of the video. The camera records at 3840x2160 pixels and I have to reduce the size for here. Unfortunately any reduction to a larger final product than this pixellated badly, most probably because the camera was a bit confused and kept focusing on the UHF aerial or raindrops on the windscreen. The tightness of the course still comes through.)
Before the action started I had a walk around the service area pointing the camera at things.
Click to see some scenes from the service park
Rain was predicted for the day but it mostly held off. There was enough to keep the dust down but not enough to make the course too slippery or boggy. This was the first time I'd seen the Awabawac course and I was very impressed. With the longest straight part of the three kilometre track being about 100 metres it certainly favours braking and handling over top speed. Maybe I'm biased, but that's the way I had my cars set up when I was competing so I had a small attack of nostalgia.
As well as the occasional rain showers the day gave spectators and competitors some strong winds and low temperatures, but it was winter time and I've been to a lot of rallies in much colder conditions (I live in Oberon – say no more!). Nobody really had any actual concern with the weather and the good number of spectators showed that people were prepared to turn out to watch despite the forecast.
Rallysprints are an extremely shortened version of "real" rallies, usually run on a much shorter course with multiple runs and the slowest run dropped from the results. How they are run varies depending on the organisers. The AMSAG rallysprints I've attended were run over two or three stages of a full length gravel rally and used roadbooks and route instructions. The tarmac events run by NSSCC were essentially lap dashes over a marked circuit with no instructions. This event had no competitor instructions but the course was clearly marked and, like the tarmac events, the competitors were taken on a familiarisation tour before the real timed challenges began.
The event was a round of the NSW Hyundai Series and it was good to see a significant number of Excels (and a Getz) running around. The Hyundai Series is an excellent and relatively cheap way for new competitors to get into rallying (and experienced competitors aren't excluded), with rules designed to keep costs down as much as possible while still providing all the fun. (You can see the 2021 Hyundai regulations here.)
The Westlakes Club and officials must be congratulated on running an excellent event, and apart from the few competitors who had some mechanical problems nobody could have gone away unsatisfied. The medical team on site didn't have anything to do all day and none of the cars looked like they had sustained any damage at the end of the day. The only person who needed any assistance with the wet conditions was a certain journalist who had parked his Commodore wagon in a place where as soon as he touched the accelerator to go home the car slid downhill on the wet and slippery grass. A group of volunteers managed to push the thing to where it could get some traction and the problem was solved. Was the driver (who claims some rallying experience) embarrassed? Only a little bit, but I have to thank the people who pushed me out because real embarrassment would have come from needing a tow. That would have ended up on YouTube.
Click to see lots of photos of the competing cars
| Position | Driver/Codriver | Car | |
| 1 | Riley Walters/Adam Walters | Subaru Impreza WRX |  |
| 2 | Adrian Turnbull/Kristy Turnbull | Subaru Impreza WRX |  |
| 3 | Jason Giddins/Kate Giddins | Subaru Impreza WRX STi |  |
| 4 | Daniel Smiles/Brock Jeffery | Subaru Impreza WRX |  |
| 5 | Darryl Hadley/Kristen Hadley | Subaru Impreza WRX |  |
Information about this and other events can be found at https://wac.org.au/
