It's been a couple of weeks now since the hype of Rally Australia has died down.

Recce went ok, plenty of time allowed to do the stages, even had time for meal breaks in Bowraville. Stages looked awesome, especially the Saturday stages with Welshes and Grace stages the highlights for me. A bit like NZ but with the cambers.

Derek and I had a bit of a shocker of a run, first night doing the Super Special in Coffs and we broke a front driveshaft, being an older model Evo it meant we had no drive at all, we had to be towed out of the stage. Luckily enough within the rules we only got a time penalty and were still in the event. Had to borrow a driveshaft of Gerald Schofields EVO which was in the service park. Big thanks to Gerald for his generosity.

The Friday of the event, it was so wet, the first stage Shipmans(the BMSC stage) was diabolical, Block was off only a few km in, there was just no grip even though we were one of the few crews on the R800's it still didn't help much. We weren't super quick but we stayed on the road, had a spin at a speccy point. Passed lot's of cars that were off, yes there was a Mentos car off in the stage:)

The second forest stage of the day was Brooklana, we were on the start line doing the countdown when it was canned, apparently Boaden was blocking the stage. We sat there for 40 mins until they canned the stage. Transport through and then wait at the next stage as it had to be regreened. This put us back over an hour behind the front ARC cars. Back to regoup and service and funny thing they didn't regroup us up at the regroup, I thought this was the whole idea of a regroup. So we left service still an hour behind the front 6 cars of the ARC field. This had ramifications later.

Into the second run of Shipmans and more cars off and still very slippy, there was the Rallyschool.com.au corner with Ray Day doing the witches hat at the apex. No way we were going to make that, let alone make it around the corner. Did enjoy the humps leading down to that corner though, Derek really comitted to them and the car handled it well. By the time we got to Brooklana 2, we had a check in time of 5.22pm and the road had to open at 5.30pm. Dave Baker the stage commander made the call to can the stage. Was the right decision as there were locals waiting to get into their houses. So a long transport back to Coffs, only 3 forest stages for the day.

Back to Coffs for the Super Special, was wet and miserable but we put through some reasonable times to be 17th outright at the end of the day after starting in 39th. Still got some points for Premier League but a fair bit behind Charlie Drake.

Saturday dawned dry, this was a good thing as we had some R900 tyres for the day, was the right choice. Many of of our opposition went out on R800's expecting it to be wet. We were going ok until our power steering failed on the 2nd stage of the day, hard work from then on. Reasonable times through the stages and holding our position in 17th.

At the midday service, tried to fix the problem, but no luck. Event the guys from ACTIV Rallysport tried to help, but needed EVO 5 connectors, different to EVO 4 and 6 so went into the afternoon stages armed with about 3 litres of power steering fluid. Before the start of each stage I filled up the power steering and we had power steering for about half a stage before it was all gone. Derek was exhausted by the heavy steering and the kickback in it. Was a great effort just to get the car home in one piece. One thing we should have done at the service was put our lights on, by the time we got to the last forest stage the sun was setting, both of us could hardly see. We got passed by Mick Patton who had put his lights on.

Now back to regroup, put the lights on then the Super Special. Drama's when the lights were fitted, we lost all electrics, we didn't know it at the time but it was a loose battery terminal clamp. I touched the battery and we had power, so we thought all was good. Did the first run through the Super Special, no dramas, big crwod so we put on a display:) Then the second and last run, on the startline doing the 5,4,3 oh shit no nothing. The clock has started, we push the car past the beige board adn try to sort it out, Derek is under the bonnet, I'm in the drivers seat cranking it, but still nothing. Then Derek tries the battery and we have power, get back into nav's seat and Derek gets in and off we go, did about 7 mins for the stage but we finished.

Even with the drama's we finished 20th and this was good to come back from 39th of Thursday night. The only mark on the car was a streak on the Ralliart sticker, easily fixed. There were some seriously bent cars out there including the 7 times World Champion Sebastien Loeb's.

Was great to see so many familiar faces out there running stages and in senior positions, including Phil Thornburn who turned up at the last minute to help out and he did a great job, most of the competitors will remember his drawing of a cow, to let competitors know that there was a cow about 2km from the end of the stage. I think some of the internationals may have been looking for a raccoon or bear or something:)

Well done to Steve Shepheard and John McArthy for their first ever ARC round win, a top effort after all their hard work.

Not many people would know but there was a competition between Justin Dowell and Guy Tyler to see who could smash up their car the most and still finish, I think Justin won as he dented every panel including the roof, Guy dented every panel except for the roof.

Sunday was spent spectating, what a day it was. First speccy point was the general point at Plum Pudding, not very exciting and some over zealous officials. Next one we went to the enthusiasts point for the second running of Plum Pudding, this was much better and got some good photos there. Then off to the Ray Day road closure, aka speccy point for those informed. Was the water splash on the power stage. All our team running down the stage to get to the splash before the cars arrived, to realise that half the Victorian and ACT rally community was at this point. Even Barry the Gnome was there, he had a great speccy point near the splash.

Went to the after party at the Planto,had a good chat with Ogier, also talked the usual rally stuff with everyone. Was glad to see that my cousin Brent fitted into the rally crowd, including pimping out Jenna's boobs to be signed by all the drivers, yes the first signature was Brents:)

Apart from our few drama's during the event, it was a good event. Something that the Australian rally community can be proud of. I know we'll be back next year as the main game, the WRC guys will be back in 2013.

Would like to thank our service crew of Kelly, Joel and Brent, also Matt Boorman and Carl Stewart for helping out when needed, All our supporters, Rallyschool.com.au, Dash Sport, Lake Mountain Ski Hire, Neumann's without who we wouldn;t have been there. Great drive by Derek under the conditions, now to go for it at Rally Victoria, our home event. Bring it on!!!

Ray