Faber I.T. Rally Team

NicTrans Walky Wandering Wombat Intro Rally

Truro, South Australia 10/06/2006

Saturday night saw Ashley Chabrel behind the wheel to take to the roads of Truro in his first rally. With a big field of assorted cars we were having fun just checking out the new cars and talking to the novices. We passed through scrutineering pretty quickly and it was time for the start. We headed out to the start of SS1 and the roads were looking in top shape. We started out nice and easy with Ashley getting used to the car again after a nine month break and Andrew calling the notes for the first time. We made it through stage 1 cleanly without Ashley putting a wheel out of line.

The transport sections were nearly as fun as the competition stages themselves as most of the roads looked to have just been graded and were dry for once. We had to wait at the start of stage 2 for nearly an hour as a resident needed to be escorted through the stage to their house. By all accounts the stage officials were glad to get her home safe and out of harms way as she had had a big night and it was only 7pm!! Stage 2 was a brilliant mix of difficult junctions and about a dozen great jumps near the end of the stage. Ashley did well as the calls really started to gel and the confidence in the team was growing. Stage 3 was a short 1.8Km burst around Walky Park followed by a 20 minute service and re-fuel.

We were glad to have the help of Robert Burrows during the service break to fix an electrical fault with our low beam head lights and to do all the glory jobs of cleaning the windows etc. Appologies to Karl and Kalon Ruchel in the awesome Mazda RX7 for blinding them for about 5kms of the transport between SS2 and SS3 due to having to run with the high beams on. Thanks heaps to Rob though getting it sorted out quick smart!!

We checked out of service on time and splashed in a bit of fuel and headed for the start of stage 4. On the way we found out why it is called the Wondering Wombats Rally with a couple of sightings along the way. Knowing how tough they are they got our full attention each time we crossed their path.

Stage 4 was an uneventful 10km stage before the longest stage of the rally which was the 55km Observational Test. We had a great time, the road surface for most of it was just brilliant. Nice cambered flowing corners one after the other but were ever watchful for the lettering on the roadside we had to get written into the Observation Test. We then went through to stage 6 which was a repeat of stage 2. We had a brilliant run through the stage not making the same mistake at the tricky right hand T Junction that we had messed up on the first run through. I think I called the corner five times so that we had it all nailed by the time we were into the corner and Ash had did a brilliant job through to the end of the stage. I left the cautions that were in the road book out of the notes just yelling to Ash to jump the Subaru further as I was having a brilliant time. We couldn't get the smiles off our faces when we got to the stage finish control and were just as excited when we finally got a footy score and our Crows had beaten Brisbane away.

We only had the last stage to go which was a 4.5km run at Walky Park. The stages were in brilliant shape and it is a full credit to Matt Monto and crew for their tireless work there. We finished the stage, parked the car in park ferme and headed over to our wonderful support crew for a quiet drink. I think it was the most fun we have had in the rally car and the day was topped off spinning a few yarns around the camp fire till about 4am when we felt we had kept everyone up late enough (including the race directors).

A huge thank you to Phil Haby for his work on installing the new alternator before the event. A number of people mentioned how his fabrication of the new bracket looked like a factory effort. A big thanks to Aaron Haby for his auto electrical work and the equipment we borrowed from him to make the Service Break so much easier. Thanks also to Susan for her organisational work and for getting the rally car home safe on Sunday, Nick Beumer for his support and laughs and to the event organisers Belinda and Dene, the stage officials and everyone who made it a hard act to follow next year, we'll be back for sure and bet most of the field will be as well!!!

Ashley Chabrel in the Subaru RX Turbo.

David Cundy and Steve Zimmermann in the Mazda RX2.

The Peugeot 504 of Justin and Colin Langman

The Stokes boys Datsun 1200.

Gavin Fowlers Datsun 1600 driven by Warren Neitz.

The Ford Laser of Gavin Johnson.

Geoff Ninnes Mitsubishi Galant with Daniel Borkowski navigating.

Alex Grayson driving the Datsun 180B SSS.