Rallying

43 crews faced the starter for the first round of the Victorian Rally Championship – the East Gippsland Stages – on May 15th 2010. Crews faced 5 stages in daylight, then a further 5 at night.

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The first stage, Harding, at 18.02 km long was indeed the longest of the event and would see which crew would settle down the quickest. The opening kilometres were narrow and a little stony, but the stage opened up later before plunging to a hard causeway before the finish. Nathan Reeves, in his STi Spec C Subaru, certainly announced his intentions for 2010 being the only driver to break 11 minutes [10:53] with first car on the road, Ivan Regester, in an older Legacy next best on 11:08. Warren Lee in his new Evo 9 Lancer was next best a further 8 seconds adrift.

The very fast Mount Alfred stage [16.4 km] was next, with a few crews hanging off the rev-limiter in the open, up hill, central section. Reeves was again quickest on 8:41, with Regester again next best on 8:49, followed by Lee on 9:02.

Crews had a brief break, with time for a refuel, before tackling a pair of mountainous stages. The stages at 12.9 ad 12.0 km long each started and ended at a similar altitude, but climbed over a saddle – the junctions a mere 300m apart at the half way point. Not surprisingly, the shorter stage had the steeper hills. Reeves was once again fastest, from Regester, on stage 3 with a couple of 2WD cars coming through in 3rd and 4th fastest – Alan Friend [Sylvia RS] beating Andrew Taylor [Mazda RX7] by a mere second. Ivan – running first car on the road – unfortunately left the road on Stage 4, possibly delaying Nathan, who would have been first car on the scene, as the latter seemed to drop about 20+ seconds on the stage – though the lack of 5th gear may have been more telling as top speed was reduced by 50 km/h.

Fastest this time was Ross O’Reilly in a Nissan Bluebird on 7:27 from Andrew Taylor and Ben Mackenzie [Datsun 1600] on 7:29. First 4WD was Steve Kenway in his WRX just 2 seconds further back.

The last stage of the afternoon [Mia Mia] was a short 5.2 km blast along an almost shire-looking road. Reeves assumed his usual position, taking 3:35 to beat Lee by 3 seconds with Kenway a further 4 seconds adrift. So with the daylight out of the way, crews returned to Lindenow for service – and in some cases rebuild, during the 90 minutes break.

Standings were:

1	Nathan Reeves/Scott Spedding	Subaru WRX	39:20
2	Warren Lee/David Lethlean	Mitsubishi EVO 9	40:12
3	Ross O’Reilly / Tim McGill	Nissan Bluebird	40:15
4	Andrew Taylor / Robin Smalley	Mazda RX7	40:27
5	Matt Swan / Paul Franklin	Subaru WRX	40:40
6	Brian Semmens / Jason Hague	Nissan 200SX	40:50
7	Steve Kenway / Lauren Palmer	Subaru WRX	40:59
8	Alan Friend / Robin Smalley	Nissan Sylvia RS	41:03
9	Wayne Stewart / Lucas Zinsstag	Subaru WRX	42:41
10	Bernie Miron / Andrew Ormesher	Subaru Impreza RS	43:02

Under the new Heat scoring method used for the VRC in 2010, they had all scored their first points for the year – with Nathan leading.

The night division got underway with an 18 km section – only 20m shorter than the opening day stage. Seven crews broke the 11 minutes barrier this time – indicative of the more open roads used in the evening. Reeves again blitzed the field, despite there being no 5th gear, with a time of 10:22. Being first car on the road would be an advantage in case of dust, though fortunately the rain during the week leading up to the event kept that to a minimum. He was a clear 26 seconds faster than Warren Lee, with Alan Friend just 1 second further back.

 The fast open sections of SS 7 would certainly tax the 4-speed Subaru on the next stage, with Lee breaking through for his first fastest time – 10:05 – just 1 second faster than Reeves, with Steve Kenway just 1 second away third.

After another optional refuel, crews faced a 7km blast up the spectacular Baldhead Road, always steep and very twisty after the first couple of kilometres. Large drops to the left, and the ever present banks on the right reminded crews of the importance of keeping away from the verges. Perhaps it was the lack of 5th gear – or the appearance of stomach churning – but either way Lee was again able to gain a few seconds on Reeves; 4:20 to 4:24. Matt Swan tied with Alan Friend for third on stage, a further 6 seconds behind with a further 5 cars less than 5 seconds behind that.

After the main road blast, it was back into the forest for the penultimate stage – the narrow and twisty Howitt Spur. At least they were descending all the way this time – brake troubles anyone? Fastest this time was Alan Friend taking just 10:31 for the 15.9 km. Lee was only 4 seconds adrift with Ross O’Reilly a further 2 second away. This section of the forest certainly allows the 2WD cars to strut their stuff. Nathan Reeves was beginning to struggle with motion sickness – perhaps having to drive harder to compensate for the lack of 5th gear - and dropped 30 seconds to his main rivals.

The final stage was a repeat of SS 5. Most crews were around 10 seconds slower at night. Perhaps it was the vision, perhaps the road was a little slipperier. The crew to lose out the most here was Nathan Reeves, with the return of car-sickness [and the evening meal] contributing to a time 39 seconds slower than the daylight pass.

 When the Victorian scorer extraordinaire – Gary Hodgskiss – had done his stuff Warren Lee had come through fastest on Heat 2, but Nathan had held on to win the event.

Heat 2 Scores

1	Warren Lee/David Lethlean	Mitsubishi EVO 9	39:41
2	Alan Friend / Robin Smalley	Nissan Sylvia RS	40:09
=3	Nathan Reeves/Scott Spedding	Subaru WRX	40:12
=3	Steve Kenway / Lauren Palmer	Subaru WRX	40:12
5	Andrew Taylor / Robin Smalley	Mazda RX7	40:30
6	Brian Semmens / Jason Hague	Nissan 200SX	40:41
7	Matt Swan / Paul Franklin	Subaru WRX	40:49
8	Dane Berry / Nathan Berry	Mitsubishi EO 4	40:58
9	Ben Mackenzie / Brett Williams	Datsun 1600	41:53
10	Campbell Eastwood / Darren Miller	Datsun Stanza	42:16

Overall

1	Nathan Reeves/Scott Spedding	Subaru WRX	1:19:32
2	Warren Lee/David Lethlean	Mitsubishi EVO 9	1:19:53
3	Andrew Taylor / Robin Smalley	Mazda RX7	1:20:57
4	Steve Kenway / Lauren Palmer	Subaru WRX	1:21:11
5	Alan Friend / Robin Smalley	Nissan Sylvia RS	1:21:12
6	Matt Swan / Paul Franklin	Subaru WRX	1:21:29
7	Brian Semmens / Jason Hague	Nissan 200SX	1:21:31
8	Bernie Miron / Andrew Ormesher	Subaru Impreza RS	1:25:28
9	Campbell Eastwood / Darren Miller	Datsun Stanza	1:25:34
10	Steven Mackenzie / Dan Parry	Hyundai Excel	1:26:00

Points Standings (outright):

Warren Lee / Daid Lethlean	55
Nathan Reeves / Scott Spedding	49.5
Alan Friend / Robin Smalley	35
Andrew Taylor / Michale Stanborough	34
Steve Kenway / Lauren Palmer	31.5
Matt Swan / Paul Franklin	28
Brian Semmens / Jason Hague	28
Ross O’Reilly / Tim McGill	21
Bernie Miron / Andrew Ormesher	11
Campbell Eastwood / Darren Miller	11

Points Standings (2WD):

Andrew Taylor / Michael Stanborough	50
Alan Friend / Robin Smalley	48
Brian Semmens / Jason Hague	42
Campbell Eastwood / Darren Miller	32
Ross O’Reilly / Tim McGill	30
Steven McKenzie / Dan Parry	28
Tony Moore / Nikki Moore	22
Ben Mackenzie / Brett Williams	21
Ross Stapleton / Correne Seabrook	20
Rohan Crouch / Troy Allott	16