The Yealering 300 has been run and won and was quite
a successful event for the Flat Out Off Road Racing Team. With the LS2
powered 80 Series running in the Extreme 4wd class and the Pootrol
running in the Production 4wd class, it was going to be a busy weekend.
After arriving late on Friday night, the next item on the agenda was
scrutineering on Saturday morning. In Production 4wd it would be a
battle between the short wheel base bling patrol of Brett and Michelle
up against the budget Red Pootrol with myself (Jason) driving and Lee
navigating. One noticeable absentee from the class was the big yellow
jeep, which was left quivering in its shed in Carnarvon, scared of
taking on the mighty pootrol! In Extreme a large competitive field was
present with Mark’s big blue 355 stroker patrol, the Sootchucker, the
debut of Banger’s Patrol, Owen’s Patrol, Dad’s 80 Series Landcruiser and
Dave’s big red Landy. Added to this many new buggies as well as some of
the regulars and the scene was set for a great race.
With both cars unloaded, passed scrutineering, final
checks were carried out before reconnaissance. Upon scouting the track
we found that it had a lot of varying terrain, from flat out sections to
rutted rough sections through trees and many roots on the side of the
track just waiting to puncture tyres should the cars leave the track.
Prologue was a short 5km blast and I surprised myself with a quick time
only 3 Seconds behind Brett’s Patrol. This meant that we would start
Section 1 directly behind Brett and the chase would be on. We set off at
a decent pace, however we found that we did not quite have the pace to
match Brett without punishing the car. After 2 laps and 1 or 2 hairy
moments we could hear a rattling noise as the exhaust had broken a
mount. The pootrol was also not handling quite right and so we stopped
to suss out the issue. As Lee got to work on exhaust I had a quick look
around the car, the Raw Nitro Max shocks were working hard and were
quite warm. As I looked around the front of the car the massive lean to
the drivers side indicated that something was not quite right. With Lee
proving that he can fix almost anything with some wire and pliers I
jumped under the front right and much to my disappointment found that we
had broken the coil in half. We then limped the car slowly home to
finish the section and just hoped that we had some suitable coils
stashed in the truck. After we limped over the finish line and headed
back to the pits, it was apparent that the track had taken its toll with
quite a few bent and broken cars left stranded on the track.
I pinched Dad’s spare coils which we fitted to the
Pootrol and we would be back in action for the next Section. On Section
2 we had a clean run, picking off a few cars in front of us. Brett was
slowed slightly after hearing funny noises on the first lap and we
managed to set a section time slightly faster than his, meaning that we
would start the final section directly in front of the bling Patrol. The
plan was to have a red hot crack and see how long we could keep Brett at
bay for and then back off and save the car once he was past. Lee was
realistically predicting somewhere between 20-25kms into the first lap
as the lap times from earlier laps suggested. After having a dream run
and passing several cars we managed to hold off Brett until around 25kms
into the second lap. Once Brett had gone past we settled into a slightly
more conservative pace to save the car. Halfway into the third lap the
throttle started sticking and then the engine started coughing and
spluttering. When we pulled over to let someone pass, the car stalled
and would not start and run right. We thought that it may be a fuel
issue, after clearing the filter, the car still wouldn’t run right. We
then found that the air filter had come lose and that the carby was
blocked. After clearing this out we were back on our way to finish what
was a good event.
We ended up second in Production 4wd to Brett who
drove well all weekend. Dad ended up taking out 1st in the
Extreme 4wd Class. Thanks to Lee for navigating, you great help all
weekend. Thanks to the Nissan Car Club, all the Officials and The
Property Owners and all the other Competitors for the great event.
Thankyou to our sponsors Raw 4x4, FJG Engineering and The 4WD Shop
Cheers, Jason #766
