By Rhys Ellison Sunday the 4th of December saw a return to the Bufton’s farm for the last event of the 2005 season. The course was much the same as last time but in reverse. The weather turned on a cracker of a day and we found ourselves battling dust storms rather than mud, which made for a nice change and a fast track.
The overall winner of the day was Hamish Gallatly in his WRX and once again an Autosport event win for the RATEC boys. I hear he was in for an earful once he got home as he blocked his wife’s car in and opted to finish his last two runs rather than go home to let her out. Very close behind in 2nd overall (and first in 1300 – 1600 class) was Pete Abernethy in his Starlet – his motocross car tyres not having as much an advantage in the dry as they do in the wet. In 3rd place was Dave Fletcher in the Suzuki and he continued his seasons consistency by taking out the 0 – 1300 class. In 4th place was Andrew Allen in the crinkly Lancer putting in a good drive to take out the over 1600 class. Richard Towse was 5th overall in his Datsun and 2nd in the over 1600 class.
In 6th place overall was Rhys Ellison in the WRC Chevette with a 2nd in the 0-1300 class. 7th overall (and 2nd in the 1300-1600 class) was taken by Stacey Taylor in the CRX, successfully shrugging off the women driver stereotype. Placed 8th and 9th were Michael and Greg McIntosh with a bit of a family battle evolving in the Starlet. In 10th place overall (and first road car) was Chris Hughes and swapping teams in his dads WRX – a fair trade after the Mt Alexander incident. In 11th place was Steve Carr in the RX7 who takes out the award for the most dust slinging and his attempts at re-creating the Holden ad in real life. In 12th place was Drew Jeffrey, the 2nd CRX driver with consistent times throughout the day. In 13th place was Mark Gerard in his Corolla improving his times greatly once settled in after the first run where he suffered a slowest time penalty for missing a cone. In 14th place was Jonathan Bradshaw in the Starlet also ironing out some first run bugs to drive some good times. In 15th place was Matt Jansen in the squidgey Bluebird (auto) which made for some tricky driving after a tyre popped off the rim on the last run (lucky he brought it on a trailer). Bringing up the rears in 16th was Chris Herdman in his Starlet, still coming to terms in his first autocross with the new car.
With a lot of the club overall points positions being already decided, the numbers were a bit low. However, a great day was had by all with the only complaint being the lack of air-con in rally cars. Thanks to the Bufton’s for letting us use their paddock (sorry about the inch of dust on the house, hope you didn’t have washing out) and to Josh Marston, Dave Fletcher, Stacey Taylor, Les Summerfield and Richard Towse for running the show. Over and out.
Editor’s note: also thanks to Nick Marston for towing the dunny and Andrew Allan for helping get into the paddock and setting up,.. and to everyone who helped set up and pack up in record time!
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