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the events > 2007


The Beginning	Unknown to me, the rally actually started the week before at the International Rally Sprint where I slapped the chicane with what I thought was the side of the car. No major visible damage, just the bottom half of the left front door pushed inwards. More of this later... All rally preparations went well, including the pacenotes. These were called by me and penned by my son Dominic. As it turned out, he only made one error (which wasn't really an error - just a different "short-hand" used). Not at all bad for a 12 year old in his first ever pacenoting session.
Day One	The rally started with the Hangman's Hill stage and I could tell after the first few corners that all was not well with the car. It was very nervous in a straight line, a condition not helped by the rough but grippy surface of this stage. I drove with a fair degree of caution and ended a good 5 seconds off last years first run time. The road surface of SS2 was generally better, and the car did feel a bit more composed, but again the confidence was not there to push too hard. Back at service after SS3 we did a rough rear wheel alignment check and discovered substantial toe-out. Now I know how hard I had hit the chicane. We went back out for the next loop of stages with the car as was. Back at second service we re-examined the problem. There is no provision on the Astra for rear toe adjustment, but the stub axle bolts to the rear beam via 4 bolts so we decided to shim it. After a few pieces of hacksaw blade spacers behind each stub axle we were off for the next loop of stages. The car felt better, but still not right. We did a further adjustment (more bits of hacksaw blade) at the lunch halt but still were not 100% happy with the handling. We finished Day 1 second in class about 31 seconds adrift of group leader Greg Cozier. We then took the car to a wheel alignment centre and found there was still a lot of rear toe out. More bits of hacksaw blade later saw a car with much improved geometry.
Day Two	Before we reached the first corner on the first stage of the day I could feel the difference the alignment had made. We took back 4 seconds from Greg on this stage and continued clawing back time. By lunchtime however, another issue was rearing its ugly head, this time overheating. It had gotten progressively worse from morning, and on the third run through Stewart Hill, the ECU went into safe mode, and I finished the last quarter of the stage in second gear unable to go over 3000rpm and loosing us 17 valuable seconds. We unplugged the ECU temperature sensor and continued. We finished the last stage of the day (also the longest) with steam coming out of the bonnet and coolant flying everywhere. We had enough time that we were able to sit and allow the engine to cool sufficiently to open the expansion tank and then top up the water. We limped back to Vaucluse raceway (the finish) and by virtue of running near the back of the pack, allow the engine to cool enough to do a decent time. We finished the rally in 16th place overall and second in class, to Greg Cozier, who had a hard fought and well-deserved class win.