Pinch Me - I Must Be Dreaming

Well it sounds like every school boys dream, "one day a handsome saudi prince comes along and offers our fair petrol-headed under 25, a drive in any rally car of his dreams, and will pay for the lot, all he has to do was drive". Sounds like a familiar fairytale to some of you? Well just like in the other magazines I read.....the one with the really good articles and pictures..... I never thought it would happen to me, but it did.

I have known of Kerry Turley from Broken Hill for a few years, having really enjoyed travelling to the Broken Hill rallies in the 90's. Some of you may remember Naomi (my wife) co-driving with Kerry in this years Australasian Safari in WA. Well to cut a long story short, they had an excellent time mixed with some rotten luck and an indifferent result. But like I've said in the past, the people you meet are, in my opinion, the best part of motorsport. As it turns out the Turley family of Kerry, Deb, Brianna, Stephanie and Little Lachie have 'hit it off' with the Tillett's of Naomi, Big Lachie and I. On one of Kerry's removalists jobs to Adelaide he asked me if I would like to drive his Subaru. I said no-way, the car belonged in a museum due to its history. Kerry disagreed, he could not see why a thoroughbred horse would be tied up in the yards, and he asked me again. Realising the costs involved there was no way I could commit our family to thousands of dollars for one day of fun, when it could be spent on bills etc. (every competitors dilemma I know). Kerry made a very generous offer of covering the expenses over and above what I would be paying anyway, entry etc.

So without doubt this was an opportunity of a lifetime, and I said yes. We went up to Broken Hill during the school holidays and spent quite a few days with the Turleys. I got to fire a rifle for the first time, we went yabbying, wrestled a goat (yeah you read that right), and skinned a rabbit, but the highlight was a drive of the ex-Herridge/Bourne/Crocker WRX. Kerry took me for a drive and even though I have been in Craig Fox's GC8 WRX, this was even more potent. The time came for me to drive. It was windy and dusty at the Farmcote property, but there is nothing massive to hit out there and the roads were graded with small mounds that keep you on the road (to a point) a little like bumper bowling. Very quickly, driving fast on dirt roads was coming back to me, I struggled with the dog-box initially, but was starting to get the hang of it. The brakes however required a lot of driver effort and only really began to work properly once they had warmed up, not really a problem on dry Broken Hill roads on a 24 degree day.

We spent the next couple of days preparing the car, putting on the finishing touches and getting ready for Malcolm (a local scrutineer) to cast his eyes over the car before loading it into the truck. We drove our car back through one of the now famous dust storms, to get Lachlan home for his specialist appointment in Adelaide. We stopped for a very nasty car crash, and were there for about 3 hours until the occupants were airlifted to hospital. We missed getting the permit, but still had tomorrow. I arrived to scrutineering at 9pm, to find the scrutineers had left, even though it was supposed to be open until 10pm. The following day I ran out of petrol and I started to think like maybe these were all signs not to race on the weekend. When we met the Turleys at Wirrabara oval and it was pouring with rain, and had been for a couple of days, I was starting to doubt this was going to be a very good experience after all. We recce'd and our fears of a soggy track, of which I had absolutely no experience on in such a fast car, nearly prevented us from even getting around at recce speed.

The organisers made some difficult, but sensible changes to the course. After speaking with Sally and Patrick Hall and a couple of other people about how nervous I was about starting, and with 2 of the Turley kids becoming sick, I was really torn between, calling it quits, and heading home early. I even left putting the stickers on the car until late Saturday afternoon.

Okay, lets do it, I thought. Surely all the bad stuff had finished, and we were due for blue skies ahead. When we woke up Sunday morning, that is exactly what we got, blue skies and a drying course. Marc, my dad had come up to service, and it was really good to have my rally hero/guru with me again.

We filled up the tank and headed off to the first stage, the airstrip. It had been modified (like most of the stages) and on the start line I was now super nervous. Craig Fox and his family were running the start control, and Craig, like a number of the other people that wished me the best of luck, gave me the 'you lucky bastard' speech.

Well of the start line I really botched it! Bogging the Subaru down, over shot the first and second corners, oversteering through the next corner, nearly losing i down the boggy straight, and basically I was just plain relieved to finished the stage without damage, but probably coming dead last.
I reminded myself, I was not out to win, but its hard once your in the 5,4,3,2,1 countdown to be anything other that a competitor. I started to get into the swing of the stages, but had to be very careful, as there was very inconsistant grip. There were a few very slippery corners that came up quickly, and it was vitally important I listened to my wife, now more than ever.

Due to the major shortage of officials, there was no event scoring, and this probably was a good thing. I would not be pushing myself at any stage, and just working up to a comfortable pace. I began to nail my starts, I was starting to throw the car into corners and had a good feel for the brakes, even though the cool conditions and lower speeds did not really help with getting them hot. I had 2 'moments' where I felt like I had gone quicker than comfortable, but managed to pull something out of my clacker and keep it on the road. The joy and adrenaline rush of rally driving was definitely back, except now I want one of these!

After we finished, Michael (Naomi's boss) had grabbed our in-car footage, found my indiscretions and uploaded a youtube video, complete with slow motions, captions and swear words.

I'd like to finish off by saying I did really well, considering the old tyres and the even older fart behind the wheel, but I can't, the results showed us 6th outright on the day, and 7th outright in some of the e-group chatter, hopefully the results will be finalised soon. Either way, Naomi and I had a ball, we finished in 1 piece and worked really well as a team.

Now is the time to finish off the Toyota, and cross this one of my 'Bucket List'.

Article by Adam Tillett, SDCC