Lewana
Stages 2006 - Review
The 2006 Western Australian Rally
Championship (WARC) kicked off in spectacular fashion last weekend.
Many teams decided to get their
championship campaigns off to a good start early, however for many the Lewana Stages Rally
was not to be.
After the cancellation of the rally
last year with too much rain, the 2006 event nearly didn’t run for opposing weather
conditions and the high risk of fire. Luckily everything fell into place on the eve of the
rally and the event started as scheduled on Saturday morning.
Leading away the field was the team of
Matthew Knox and Elio Della Maddalena in their ageing Lancer Evo 3. Sweeping the dry and
very dusty gravel for the other competitors was to be a disadvantage from the start. The
yellow Mitsubishi only able to make sixth fastest for SS1. Husband and wife team Dennis
and Jacquie Dunlop (Lancer Evo 7) set the fastest stage time through SS1 with Alex Stone
and new co-driver Toni Feaver (WRX) second quickest through the stage. Reigning State
Champions Craig Bignell and Joan Percival (Lancer Evo 3) had a bad start with a flat tyre
in SS1 as did Rob Herridge and new co-driver Anthony Chudleigh (WRX) with a flat tyre and
damaged front suspension.
SS2 saw a changing of the guard and a
possible insight of things to come. One of the youngest competitors in the WARC, James
Anderson with Lee Tierney co-driving in their spec C Subaru WRX set the fastest stage
time. Another pair of younger competitors, Toby Heyring and Peter Turner (WRX) were second
quickest through SS2.
Keeping the stage wins in the family,
Chris Anderson and Joel Lithgo (Spec C WRX) won the short SS3, with brother James and Lee
Tierney one second behind in second for the stage. SS3 also saw the list of retirements
start. First to quit was Steve Oxley and Brian D’Arcy, retiring their WRX with a
blown engine. The flat tyre in SS1 of Bignell/Percival was not the last of the pair’s
dramas either, it seemed that the engine had also expired after SS3.
Anderson/Tierney again set the fastest
time in SS4, beating second placed Herridge/Chudleigh by just two seconds. Not having such
a good run in their WRX was John Macara and Alan Cook. By SS4 the car had gone from 4
wheel drive to 2 wheel drive, with a broken diff causing the problem. The driveline
failure meant early retirement for the pair.
SS5 was one of the longest of the day,
Heyring/Turner roared through the stage to be nine seconds clear of Dunlop/Dunlop. Timothy
Abbott and Ivan Tan were on their first event in their WRX. In SS5 the rally came to an
abrupt end when the Subaru had an altercation with a couple of stumps. Unfortunately, the
damage sustained was too severe to continue the rally, forcing retirement.
By the half way mark Heyring/Turner
were leading, Anderson/Tierney was second, Dunlop/Dunlop third, Stone/Feaver fourth and
Anderson/Lithgo were fifth. After the mid point service, the fortunes of some were to
change. Knox/Della Maddalena whilst running sixth in the rally had to retire with a blown
head gasket.
Stone/Feaver began a charge in SS6 and
set the fastest time through the stage ahead of Dunlop/Dunlop. The two teams traded times
for the next two stages up until the final service of the rally. Despite over heating
problems, Graeme Furness and Peter Li
dsay (WRX) were setting
top ten stage times. In SS8, the pair managed a second quickest time against Stone/Feaver
and Dunlop/Dunlop who shared the stage win.
The last two stages were the longest in
the rally and were tackled in the dark. Not far into SS9, things came undone for
Dunlop/Dunlop. The transmission in the Evo 7 gave up and the pair was immediately out of
the rally. The retirement of the Dunlops left Stone/Feaver with a dust free run for the
remainder of the event and gave them two fastest stage times. For those behind the first
cars, the lack of breeze and damp night air made visibility poor and drastically affected
stage times. Most competitors were much slower on their second passes through the repeated
stages.
Bill Hayes and Lisa Dunkerton (WRX) had
been driving well all day. In SS9 the pair put the car off the road and damaged the front
suspension ending their rally. The hard charging Anderson/Lithgo did not make the finish
line either. On SS10 the duo get their WRX stuck after an overshoot and had to retire.
As competitors headed back to Balingup,
Duetime calculated provisional results. Karl Drummond and Karen Russell (WRX) were tenth
until the last stage of the rally. Dust and a gearbox problem dropped the pair to
eleventh, handing tenth to Robert Ash and Shane Cary (WRX). It had not been all plain
sailing for Ash and Cary during the day either. The pair had a huge moment earlier in the
day almost resulting in a roll. Mike Civil and Karin Tatnell had a good day and brought
their Lancer Evo 6 to ninth. Steven Davies and David Abetz drove their Toyota Corolla to
eighth outright and first two wheel drive car home, seventh went to Herridge/Chudleigh,
recovering slightly from their earlier problems and Furness/Lindsay made sixth. Keeping
out of trouble, father and daughter Mike and Melissa Anderson brought their Spec C WRX to
a tidy fifth. Doug Tostevin and Adam Pearson had a great result with fourth outright and
also won the new P6 class in their Subaru Legacy RS. Anderson/Tierney drove superbly to be
third, Heyring/Turner charged hard on the later stages to get home in second, whilst an
advantageous road position helped Stone/Feaver to the outright rally win.
