As many of you know already, this year well be competing in a Subaru Impreza WRX! Not a well kept secret. Were going from a car that was never meant to be rallied, to a car with rallying in its DNA. Its a hugely exciting time for me, because Ive been a fan of Subaru for a long time. Its a dream come true to drive a WRX rally car! But before moving on, Id like to pay tribute to the car and the series which got me started in rallying... Three years ago, I had never driven a rally car. I had played countless hours of Richard Burns Rally and watched countless hours of incar footage. But I didnt know whether I was any good or whether Id even enjoy driving fast in real life. I needed an affordable way to find out. Enter the Victorian Excel Rally Series. CCRMIT president James Elliott suggested I come along to the annual Excel training day at Bagshot. At the day, Excel Series champ Tony Moore took me for a few hot laps in his Excel rally car. I was buzzing! Then I met John Carney who offered me a drive of his rally car! It took all of 3 corners for me to be hooked! I had a newfound respect for what a standard road car with rally suspension and safety mods could actually do. Less then two months later, I was driving my own Hyundai Excel rally car at 150kph at Rally Akademos 2011 and loving it!! In my 2nd event, we lasted just 2 stages. A downhill corner tightened and was looser than I expected. We got too narrow, I over-corrected and we speared off the road into a tree. After flying high, it was a harsh crash back to earth but an important lesson: Drive hard but respect the dangerous corners. Since then, we havent had another rally-ending accident. Excels being Excels, our team Gunnawyn Motorsport repaired it using a $X00 spares car and we were ready for a full series assault in 2012. Gradually building up the speed rally after rally, we found ourselves winning rallies and in a battle for the series lead with Andrew Thompson & Simon Barton-Ancliffe. I had experienced campaigner Doug Fernie sitting in with me as a co-driver and mentor. That year the series taught me a lot about driving fast and driving for a title. We finished the year at Rally Vic with 9th in VRC and 1st Excel, winning the Vic Excel Rally Series by a handful of points. In 2013, Grant Walker Parts threw their support behind the Excel Series and there was even more competition. With several young drivers graduating from VCAS, along with Leigh Garrioch and Dan Anderson, it was going to be a hard-fought battle. The title fight turned out to be a duel with Ged Blum, with the Andersons and Andrew Murdoch ready to swoop in should we both falter. All season we traded heat wins with Ged & Richard and after a rare mechanical retirement at Akademos, our first in 12 rallies, we trailed on points coming into the last rally. Driving fast and safely at Rally Vic, we sealed a 2nd consecutive GWP Excel Series title. The GWP Excel Rally Series introduced me to driving an entry-level rally car, but also taught me so much about the competition of rallying. In this series, rallies are won by such small margins. Every lift, every touch of the brake, every big slide costs time and a spin can lose you a rally. Its a great way to learn and the perfect car to do it in... cheap, reliable and fun. Without the series, I probably wouldnt be rallying and definitely wouldnt be in a position to step up to compete in one of my favourite rally cars of all time! I owe a lot to the guys behind the scenes whove made the GWP Excel Rally Series the best one-make rally series in Australia... John Carney, Col Hardinge & Tony Moore. As well as the sponsors who support it: RaceRecall, 99R and Grant Walker Parts. From looking at the entry list for round 1 of the VRC, with 8 Excels signed up already, itll be another highly competitive season for the series. Who will take it out this year? If anyone wants info on the series or rallying Excels, get in touch. Im happy to chat about the costs, driving, etc. And if youre thinking about giving it a go, do it! Grab an Excel and go rallying! :D
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 09:32:04 +0000
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