Tania Langcake was out for the very first event in her newly purchased GC8 rally car and after some mechanical issues on the first run that cost her at least 20 seconds; she started to become more familiar with the feel of the car and made some strong improvements over the day finishing in 31st outright. Less than a second behind her was Rob Gromball who started the day quite well and had a solid mid field position but a mistake on the 5th test cost him 30 seconds and saw him finish up in 32nd place. Rob shouldn’t feel too bad though the 5th test was clearly the hardest of the day with 8 other drivers also getting wrong direction penalties. Matt Knighton had a great start to the day, getting a top 10 time on the second test but as the temperature soared Matt suffered and after lunch was feeling quite crook. This did not help his concentration and his results in the afternoon reflected this.
At the end of 6 tests four WRXSA members made it into the shootout, me (3rd), Brendan (5th), Damien (7th) & Jason (8th). Unfortunately Brendan and I were knocked out in the first round; and against all odds Jason made it into the top four but was unable to claim an outright podium position. However this was still an outstanding achievement considering he was not driving his usual car and Zoe’s little GC8 WRX “Duck Duck” has considerably less power and handling modifications than Jason’s “Goose”. This result should be enough to prove to everyone that Jason is a driver to watch out for, regardless of the car. Damien Brand was the star of the day however, with extremely fast times in each elimination round he was able to keep Darren Masters at bay and take the outright win! Congratulations again Damien!
After the first round we shouldn’t read too much into it but the OzGymkhana Championship standings are Ben Hersey also started the day very strongly with top Darren Masters leading on 57 points, followed by 10 times on both the first and second tests but a hole Bradley Clements on 55 and Damien Brand and myself in his radiator hose put him out of the competition equal third with 52 points. Despite Damien choosing to after the 3rd test. Despite attempts by the WRXSA represent the SEAC club (he has been a long standing team to patch the hole and find a local replacement member with them so we can’t be too bitter), WRXSA part Ben was forced to limp home early. To everyone’s still managed to accrue enough points to put us in the relief the copious amount of duct tape held and Ben lead for the Interclub Challenge great work guys and made it home without incident. We look forward to girls! seeing him back in action next time. Seth Coultas