Rally Calder – The Good And The Not-So-Good
Benji and I were pretty excited when we found out that March 2 – 4 would see the inaugural ‘stadium’ round for the Bosch Australian Rally Championship come to Calder Park.
A few pluses off the bat were rally cars; always cool to watch live, drifting; still sensational to see (and smell) up close, and Calder Park; not a three-hour drive away.
When we got there and established that the tickets I had pulled some strings to obtain (thank you so very, very much again Jorge) were in fact corporate, we were both giggling like drunk Norwegians knee deep in snow at Rally Norway.
It was awesome to see so many different vehicles all involved in the one umbrella event. You had the ARC 2WD and 4WD folks, the Classic Rally Challenge old-school beasts, Tarmac Modern and Tarmac Classic rides and the Side X Side Rally Challenge which basically looked like blokes covering themselves, and their Polaris RZR 900 XPs and Can-Am Commander SSVs, in as much mud as possible – too much fun I’m sure.
One unlucky customer was Ivan Thompson. Driving the Aston Martin V8 Vantage, he ended up losing the rear coming through the chicanes laid out on the old Thunder Dome and instead of just speedily shifting some giant plastic Lego blocks out of the way, he went butt-first into a solid concrete barrier. Take a look at the 30G impact here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86AKZ8O7zeY
Due to our own tardiness and work constraints we could only go on the last day of the event so unfortunately we missed out on seeing the drifting. Benji reminded me the whole day that it would have been better had we seen some drifting. And yes, he was right, it would have.
I did however get to check out and snap a lot of competition cars, my first ever Ford RS200 and a couple of super sweet rides left over from the Forum Battle that was also run over the weekend.
The final results looked like this:
2012 Rally Calder ‐ ARC 4WD Championship
Tom WILDE and Lee TIERNEY – Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10
Michael BOADEN and Helen CHEERS – Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9
Nicholas BOX and Ash RIDDEN – Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9
2012 Rally Calder ‐ ARC 2WD Championship
Eli EVANS and Glen WESTON – Honda Jazz
Jack MONKHOUSE and Dale MOSCATT – Nissan Silvia S15
Michael BUSBY and Steve FISHER – Mazda RX7
2012 Rally Calder ‐ Classic Rally Challenge
Neal BATES and Coral TAYLOR – Toyota Celica RA40
Jeffrey DAVID and Grant GEELAN – Porsche 911
David THOMPSON and Matthew SANDERS – Triumph TR8
2012 Rally Calder ‐ Tarmac Modern
Peter GAZZARD and Mark STACEY – Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9
Michael STEELE and Tony BEST – Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 7
Brendan TEMPLEMAN and Peter HOWLETT – Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8
2012 Rally Calder ‐ Tarmac Classic
Stephen SIMS and John WHITE – Ford RS200
Barry FAUX and Theresa MIHAJLOVIC – Mazda RX7
Tolley CHALLIS and Greg FLOOD – Triumph TR7
2012 Rally Calder ‐ Side x Side Rally Challenge
Cody CROCKER and Greg FOLETTA – Polaris RZR 900 XP
Nathan CHIVERS and Les CHIVERS – Polaris RZR 900 XP
Iain HUGHES and Hamish GROVEN – Polaris RZR 900 XP
Hopefully the event can run again next year and based on a very positive response from fans and ARC CEO Scott Pedder, it looks like it should. Maybe with more to watch over the whole weekend though… for the slackers like me and Benji.
The second round of the ARC will be the Quit Forest Rally in Busselton, Western Australia, from March 30 – April 1.
For more information, results and upcoming rounds head to www.rally.com.au
Dave
Shift Up 
Massive apologies for the delay on this guys and gals. The move up to Sydney and no Internet access has made things a little difficult. Enough whining though, check out the cool pics and rest assured the Shift Up crew have got plenty more stuff coming.
Dave