| Competitors were greeted by a cold and clear
day for the start of this year’s Light Car Club Safari Rally. Hosted in Boddington,
recent temperatures had been so cold that many local residents had suffered burst pipes
with the frozen water. The combined field of
60 competitors had pace noted the stages a week before the rally and conditions had
changed little. Special stages were mostly dry, dusty and loose.
Rob Herridge and Anthony Chudleigh (Spec C WRX) started as
car one for this event and effectively became the gravel sweeper on the first few stages.
Immediately the pair’s times reflected this and a seventh fastest was all that could
be achieved. Chris Anderson and Joel Lithgo took their Spec C WRX to the first stage win
for the day, with Craig Bignell and Joan Percival second in their Lancer Evo 3.
For SS2 Anderson/Lithgo were again quickest with
Bignell/Percival 2nd and Alex Stone/Dianna Madlener on the wrong wheels & tyres in
their WRX made 3rd. Julian Wright and Jeff Huggins had been going quickly in their Datsun
1200 coupe. In SS2 it all came undone when a collision with a tree then a roll saw a
retirement and a trip to hospital for Julian, with a suspected fractured collar bone.
SS3 was the completion of the first group of stages in
Sotico. Anderson/Lithgo taking their third stage win with Bignell/Percival second and Toby
Heyring/Peter Turner (WRX) third. After the end of the stage, Lee McIlroy/Steve Vass were
forced to retire their WRX with a vibration problem in the driveline; the hard charging
pair of Blair Pugh/Glenn Martinovich had troubles on this year’s Safari. Their Escort
suffered unexpected mechanical problems not far into SS2, which lost a lot of time. After
SS3, the pair was outside of the time limit and had to retire.
During recce many were concerned about SS4. The short stage
was good at the start, however the last 2km looked like it would be a problem. Sure enough
each successive car through the stage encountered more ruts, loose dirt and debris to
overcome. Bignell/Percival were quickest through the 5km stage with Anderson/Lithgo second
and Stone/Madlener third. A transmission problem caused Trevor Chudleigh/Tamara Adams to
retire their Corolla and a broken hub ended the rally for Derek Reddie and Jonathon
Statham (Galant VR4).
The famous jumps and water splash of SS5 saw the retirement
of one of the front runners. Bignell/Percival suffered gearbox problems and withdrew part
way through the stage, leaving Anderson/Lithgo to take another stage win. This time,
second went to Tolley Challis/Greg Flood in their Evo 7.
In SS6 the tide turned in the rally. Stone/Madlener started a
charge and won all of the remaining stages. Anderson/Lithgo and Challis/Flood shared
second and third fastest times for the rest of the event. Others competitors seemed to be
struggling. Herridge/Chudleigh dropped a lot of time in SS7 and SS8, Karl Drummond/Karen
Russell (WRX) had problems with grip most of the day and Graeme Miles/Brian D’Arcy
suffered a puncture losing a lot of time. Graham Furness and Peter Lyndsay had been
setting top ten stage times during most of the day. The front diff on their WRX failed on
latter stages, requiring a gearbox change at the last service. Whilst the service crew
worked furiously to get the replacement transmission in the car, they could not manage it
within the time limit and incurred a time penalty.
The now rough and heavily rutted stages were taking their
toll on more cars. Greg Howard/Darren Gardner (WRX) retired with overheating problems, Leo
Iriks/Paul Van Der Mey (Escort) and Ray Robertson/Richard Reeves (Swift) both retired with
electrical problems and Matthew Knox/Elio Della Madalena (Evo 3) retired with mechanical
issues. Perhaps one of the worse disappointments was the retirement of Nigel Anderson/Greg
Weryk (Corolla) with a broken driveshaft on the very last stage.
The results for the Safari were extremely tight.
Stone/Madlener and Anderson/Lithgo were more or less tied on time as the rally finished.
Whilst the last cars completed the rally, post event car inspections were conducted.
Scrutineers discovered a technical irregularity in Anderson/Lithgo’s WRX and the pair
were excluded from the results. It was a controversial end to what had been a
controversial rally.
So the top ten was in for the last state rally to be held in
the Sotico Plantation. Steve Forsberg/Ben Searcy (Lancer Evo 6) were tenth, Doug
Tostevin/Alan Cook brought their Legacy RS to ninth and Steve Maitland/Hanna Drury (Evo 4)
were eighth. Herridge/Chudleigh finished seventh behind the Spec C WRX of James Anderson
and Lee Tierney in sixth. Leigh Hynes/Stuart Percival brought their new left hand drive
WRX to fifth and John “Chucky” Macara and Paul Helm (WRX) made fourth.
Challis/Flood had a good drive to be third and Heyring Turner were elevated to second with
the exclusion of Anderson/Lithgo. Taking a hat trick of rally wins, Alex Stone and Dianna
Madlener won first place and also the 20 valuable points towards the championship.
Special thanks to the Light Car Club and the massive effort
required to stage the event this year as well as the officials who volunteered their time
so that the rally could run. Thanks also to the Foster family, the Boddington Football
Club and the town of Boddington for their help and support.
The final round of the WARC will see teams head to Collie for
the Experts Cup rally on the 29th of July. Details and event regulations may be found on
the WA Car Club website: www.wacarclub.com.au
Karl Drummond |
