On Saturday morning the team took the car to Simpson Motors without Barry as his flight was delayed and time was getting tight. Luckily, however, he ended up making it with a little time to spare so we were able to get on the road on time with no problems.

The first stage was cancelled, allowing Barry to get a feel for the car and also to note a few changes that had been made to the stage, such as the erection of a wall at Vaucluse and the removal of some cut-rock over the jump a little further up the stage.

The first few stages went smoothly; Barry was taking his time and getting into a rhythm. However, by the second run of Dark Hole the rain was setting up to come down, and roughly 1/3 of the way through the stage it was soaked. Driving on wet road with the slicks was a bit of a handful but obviously very enjoyable for the spectators. In this particular stage, Cliff, who was our main competition at the time, had the luxury of racing on dry roads, having started the stage just before the rain came down. Due to the difference in conditions, and some very good driving, he was almost twenty seconds faster than us.

For the rest of the day and into the night the weather was unpredictable, causing frantic communication with our service vehicle and spectators in the stages to find out the conditions in various areas. Changing tires from wets to slicks frequently after stages made checking-in a little hectic but the tire changes usually worked to our advantage.

Throughout the rest of the rally things went well, though there were a few close calls in the Kendal and Canefield stages. In the bumpy, gravel area after the infamous S's in Canefield, the back of the car seemed somewhat attracted to the bushes on the roadside, and on several occasions we slid through the corner with at least one rear wheel in the bush. The main highlight for Barry and I was getting the overall fastest time through Dark Hole - even though the stage was cancelled we still consider it a great accomplishment.

During the rally we were engaged in some fairly stiff competition, though we generally managed to edge out the competition on the tighter stages. However, stages such as Kendal with long straights and flowing corners were more suited to the longer gear ratios of Cliff and Jason's cars and they got back some time on these stages. In addition to this, we jump-started one run of Kendal, giving us a 10 second penalty before we even began.

Overall, it was a great rally for us; things went smoothly from start to finish and despite the challenging conditions, Barry and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Finishing 6th overall was an added bonus and we would like to congratulate all finishers of the rally. A special congratulation to all group winners and runners up, particularly the teams of Cliff Roett / Rhett Watson and Jason /Chris Parkinson. Our thanks also goes out to all of the organisers, route setters, rally timing, marshals and all other parties involved in making this such a successful event.

And of course, a big Thank You to our sponsors Shell Helix and Automotive Art - without you none of this would have been possible!

-- Adam Hart (for the team of Barry Mayers / Adam Hart) --