Right Everyone.... so... Side B Off Road Navigational Rally has been completed. Not too long reach back home, had a nice underwash and van came home clean!
So here's the abbreviated version of my writeup:
- Competitors and marshalls arrived right on time at 7am, good to see that!
- Scrutineering went well and efficiently, props to the marshalls and thanks to the competitors for making sure everything was in top condition for rally-day.
- First vehicle launched at exactly 8:30am - civic_minded had the privilege of launching first with the vehicle no: "01". As soon as the stage was opened and they launched.... they promptly went the wrong way, LOL!! (this was a minor fault of the launch-planning, luckily they retraced their steps later and were able to take the proper route on second try.
- Last vehicle launched right on time, and the marshalls had already taken their positions. Most of the competitors were new to navigational-style rallying, so they had trouble at first with finding their bearings and figuring out the navigation map, but towards the middle of the rally it was good to see that most of them had either figured out the directions, or probably were just following the one guy who seemed to know what he was doing!!
- Couple of wrong turns and some off-roading later, everyone made it safely and soundly to the finish line. Good job to the Marshalls for making sure everything ran smoothly, and for helping the final lost vehicle to make it to the starting line. No one reported getting stuck in muddy tracks, but everyone had LOADS of fun in navigating the route and getting to go off-road (which in itself was also newbie-friendly, which I'm sure everyone appreciated.
- Weather conditions were almost perfect! For most of the morning we had blazing hot sun (which resulted in me and a couple others getting LEVEL sunburn!!) and later on during the special stage we had rain almost on cue; right when we wanted it and in the right amounts too!
- I'm sure everyone thoroughly enjoyed the special stage. Basically I went with 3stagevtec and Droppa the day before to the special stage area, went scouting and found a nice hill for everyone to climb... then since we couldn't get a brushcutter in time, I decided to just mash down a course for everyone with my Navara, after which 3stage & Droppa followed suit to mash down all the tall grass.
- At first the special stage was dry cuz of all the hot sun, but the rain came for us almost on cue later on in the afternoon, and wet down the stage for us. After that, the hill-climb became a fun, wonderful and fantastic slippery mess!!
When it was dry, everyone went and did the circuit that we set up (making a big "B" around some islands of grass) and then when it rained for a 15 mins, they all went AGAIN and tried their WET LAPS!!
- The Wet Laps were just that: wet, slippery, sliding, muddy and AWESOME!! We had just a few trucks make the slippery hill (mostly the guys with the beefier all terrains and mud tyres, even Tractor tyres! The BFG's on the Navara made it through the muddy/slippery hill with no problem at all, loads of grip and with hi-rpms the All Terrains pelted mud out of their lugs easily. Lots of other guys with street/highway tyres attempted the hill climb.... most made it up halfway before sliding right back down. Of course they were all given a second and sometimes 3rd or 4th try.... and they had an absolute blast doing so!!
- I'm very happy to report that there were almost no incidents or accidents on the rally course, save for a flat tyre on one of the Marshalls' vehicles which was quickly replaced with the spare by a mix of a Ford/Nissan team! So no Injuries or accidents, which is a very good thing.
- We also had a prize-giving ceremony after tallying up the points on the rally. 1st prize was a super-big automotive hamper, sponsored by Ballhead Auto Supplies. 2nd, 3rd & 4th prize, Best Novice and Best Lost vehicle were sponsored by Armor All & STP products, where winners got bottles of armor all spray, car wash and also STP fuel treatments.
Here are the
Results:- 1st Place :
rx80- 2nd Place:
cvt77_RR- 3rd Place:
MarkyMark- 4th Place:
RedD21(dave + Sal)- Best Novice:
RonSin- Best Lost Vehicle:
RottedV (after getting epically lost in the canefields! Making circles over and over between marshalls... must have been EPIC!!)
Congratulations to the winner of our Rally, and thank you to everyone who came out to support and take part.
We really appreciated how well you guys cooperated with the rules/instructions, and we're actually hoping to make this a regular, maybe Annual thing.....
Ok guys, hold on for pictures and videos of the rally..... lots of EPIC, EPIICCC shots of the hillclimb on the special stage and a few on the rally stage.
Also... this rally took a lot of preparation on our part to organize, plot the map and then practice..... so as a reward for such a great day today, we'll post up another thread called "Side B Navigational & OffRoad Rally - the BLOOPER reel" !!!!
- Stay tuned, lighthammer out!
[b]
! ah kno alyuh eh like nothin better!!
