2022 John Giddings Memorial Rally of Orange
May 7, 2022
Stages 4 and 8 - Paruara
Just because I was a withdrawal from the competition didn't mean my day's work was done. I put my journalisting and photographing hat back on instead of my helmet and headed out to get some photos of cars in action. I went to the control at the end of the last competitive stage and walked into the forest for a couple of hundred metres. The stage was 31.21 kilometres and by the time the cars got to where I was sensible drivers were backing off a little because the final timing marker was in sight. It was cold, dusty and the light was fading, but all these things are to be expected and tolerated.
Our rally finished after the first pass through the stage (Stage 4) with a badly slipping clutch. The officials at the end control told me that the green EVO made the most spectacular exit from the right-hander before the timing marker of all the cars in the event. This sort of thing happens when you take a corner quickly and you hit the accelerator to correct the slide but the clutch decides that it won't pass power from the engine to the wheels. Luckily the car failed very close to a main road so it easy for the service crew to get to us. Things would have been a lot worse if the failure had happened out in the forest somewhere.
No incar video of the stage because the camera decided that 40 minutes was the life of a (supposedly fully charged) battery. It was that sort of day (the intercom kept muting what I said to the driver so I had to shout).
It was fun while it lasted. Car 17 sets off for home from the end of Stage 4.
 Click to see the C4/8 instructions |  |
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