What an event, with a hectic lead up just finishing the car before scrutineering, we headed in for the ceremonial start. Car was looking great although we only had time to get the stickers on one side of the car. The whole team were there for the start, including our newest member Scott.

Started Saturday morning with a conservative run on Mt Slide, being my first run on gravel since ROC. Battled through stages 2 and 3 on crappy tyres, team changed to awesome Silverstones for the next stages. A few moments on Stage 3 caused by a loose rear left hub car wanted to steer where it felt it wanted to go, not nice:( Had an interesting time coming out of stage 5 with the rough roads causing the steering wheel to come loose, Andrew tightening the wheel while I drove.

Lots of carnage during the firts day with cars off everywhere, we ended up with a 19th outright for the day, although well off the pace that we would have liked. Was getting into the groove though with a good run on the Super Special in Yarra Glen.

Sunday started well, until halfway up Ben Cairn and the car went into limp mode due to high temps. Battled through this until the engine expired on the second run up Ben Cairn. New engine needed, but on the plus side we were going to do a rebuild anyway.

Would like to thank Andrew for codriving, the rest of the team, Graeme (Team Manager), Shane (Maverick), Scott, Mum (Head of catering). Was a great event, plenty of Charade fans out there:)

The team would like to thank our loyal sponsors, NSW Bearing Supplies, Bold Hair, Shell and Silverstone for great tyres. Also Russ and Dave at Carco in Belconnen and Greg for the stickers.

Ray

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