What a disappointment
Who could have guessed that bad luck could strike again so
early!!!!
Well not much one can really do about it, but while it did
last, it was awesome! I had been setting myself up for this
rally for the whole month preceding and was really ready to
take on the challenge - everything on the car (with the exception
of the engine of course) was changed to make sure no problems,
or gremlins as better understood by all rally folks, would
come to pay a visit.
We
arrived at Simpson Motors very early and I had just kept my
focus of attention on relaxing and getting ready for what
could possibly be my 2nd very hard challenge at winning this
humongous event. As I was discussing the idea in my head however,
the problem of the rain clouds towards SS1 wasn't extremely
reassuring - however no probs, slapped on the wets and headed
out to the stages.
SS1
wasn't as good as we both expected it to be - it was too wet
and nasty and frankly Max definitely didn't enjoy it other
than it of course being the very 1st stage of a very long
rally, and unfortunately not our stage win. But, hehehe, the
fun was about to start!
As we headed onto SS2, we chatted a bit in the car got more
relaxed after the 1st stage and I think we were ready to take
on the challenge, albeit the stage being one of my favorites
if you can recall my Apr
4th 04 Report. And so said so done, sailed through the
stage and picked up the fastest time! And so forth through
most stages of the whole day with the exclusion of one SS9
where Skeetie had us by 0.2 of a sec or so.
Must
say, the best fun we had on the rally was definitely the 1st
run through Canefield in the afternoon SS12, we came flying
through the stage and onto the very long straight by Vaulcluse
Raceway, were two small cresses where waiting for us as we
were approaching the 90 left at the bottom of the straight.
I remember asking Max which cress was our braking point, the
1st or the 2nd, and he quickly replied, the 2nd. As we kept
the foot nailed in the tank above the 1st cress, when we reached
the 2nd cress, the "10-ton anchor" as Max calls
it when through the window and the Focus came from FLAT OUT
to FLAT STOP in a matter of seconds - it all happened so quickly
that Max barely had any time to look down on the notes to
realized that we had already changed direction and were heading
towards the lower hairpin of the stage.
Well, it was soon after that, at the end of the very last
stage for the evening, as Max was handing out our Time Card
to receive the finish time for that stage that the low oil
pressure sign came on, and this very rough noise overcame
the engine. We left the TC and slowly cruised to our pre-determined
Service Area where I shut down the car to try to make a quick
diagnose of the problem but nothing apparent could be found.
We no longer had any time to ponder on that as we had to get
back to Simpson Motors to check-in for the end of Day 1. We
nursed the car back and eventually trailed it back home for
a full check over. Both Max and I retired to our beds, exhausted
but mostly disappointed not knowing if we would be joining
back the next morning or not.
Over the night our boys worked endlessly pulling off the
Sump and Front Axles to diagnose the problems. In the end,
a small piece of metal no bigger than a small piece of dust
had SOMEHOW managed to get into the Oil Pump, bypassing the
Oil Pump Filter, and seize up the oil pump - hence no Oil
= no Engine
Well the level of disappointment we all felt, both the team
and our competitors from what we understand, was enormous.
However, once we received OFFICIAL results on Sunday the overall
results stated a 40 secs lead on Skeetie and 1.20 mins lead
on Bourne at the end of Day 1.
If you must go out - make sure you do it in STYLE!
Well here we are again, hoping to next year - they say things
happen in 3s, so I'm hoping next year will be the Mayers/Maximus
year.
Still though, I want to really thank everyone involved in
the rally - the organization, planning and running of the
event was phenomenal this year; everyone spent exhausting
times trying to pull everything together and I'm sure everyone
involved was pleased. I want to thank all the marshals for
their effortless work, the organizers and all Rally Control
staff on their sleepless nights. I also want to thank Rally
Timing for a flawless rally and wish them the best of luck
going forward. Also cannot ever forget my sponsors, McEnearney
Quality Motors Inc, M&M Racing and our latest addition
for RB2004 Trivial Pursuit ®. Lastly I want to congratulate
my brother on his efforts and his success, and my father for
being as helpful as always.
Here's to RB2005 boys
..
Roger Mayers
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