Crusty Goes to Nelson

My rally weekend started a couple of days out. I traveled to Nelson with the service barge, intent on doing a bit of business. I was coming through Foxhill when a motorsport fan in his blue van decided to take a pre-rally photo (fans). I then proceeded to take the Transit to it's overnight accommodation where I locked her away. Saturday morning, still finding it hard to believe... the fans started photographing two days before a rally. I went to collect the van so it would not be in anyone's way. I duly swung the front into a logging truck (not were I would have parked it) and damaged it.

Not liking dents I took it away and panel-beated the front with a port-a-power and a rubber hammer ay. Quite pleased with the result, I did a small amount of business, went to scrutineering etc, parked the van in the motel car park. A couple of hours later I backed the BDA into the van. Surprisingly I managed to sleep that night, even with those snoring around me. The next morning we got up with our three indiscretions behind us and headed to the drivers briefing.

The Rally. We were about five kilometres into stage one and our newly repaired throttle linkage decided to slip, so we pulled over (obviously the photo shooter was a fan as this must be the third thing) and Bert adjusted it with the eight-inch crescent on a 8mm nut. We traveled another couple of kilometres and went through the same procedure. This stage was a dog; wet, slippery, no vision etc, the throttle linkage probably kept us on the island! We had a pretty trouble free day until the second run through Tunnel Road where a little bit of a spin evolved. The starter motor was not working without the use of the jack handle and some colourful words in the service parks, yet it did work everytime we spun. The last stage required a couple of Red Bulls for the ageing driver in the control zone.

We were pushing hard through the this long stage trying to recover some of the three odd minutes we lost in stage one, when we passed Brent Rawstron stranded up a bank. Realizing we were at least second in class we slowed a bit, but still managed a spin at the top of the Dovedale. At this point a flying Tracey Mann passed us. Tracey obviously doesn't know this is the ultimate sin. When one catches a BDA, one must slow as not to catch the said BDA. Fortunately for Tracey, Bert observed the Lancer approaching whilst we were in a spin, and we parked the car in the puncture position so as we were not
technically passed. This avoided Tracey of an expensive fine at the pub later.

We finished eleventh overall and first in class. Bert and I were happy to receive our only trophies for the year in a rally.

Glenn Buist