Friday I set off to Bencubbin having done a lot of work on the Pootrol
since Wooramel. We had changed the gearbox (thanks to Big Russ for the
box), clutch and gone right through the power steering among other
little changes here and there. The car was feeling great and we were
confident of a good weekend to come. After arriving and setting up camp,
a quick tour around found most of the other Production 4wd’s already at
the track with the usual friendly rivalry and banter had already begun.
Saturday came and after passing scrutineering no worries we set off for
recon, noting that despite the track had changed from last year, it
would still be high speed and awesome fun. We went out for prologue,
which we knew wouldn’t really suit us all that much as it would give
those with horsepower a chance to stretch there legs. We ended up 4th
in class just behind Greg in the 80 series. For Section One I would have
Markus Christie navigating for me, this would be his first event in the
navi seat and he did a great job which had been made all the more
daunting as we would have the Renton’s in a Jimco starting behind us
after they had issues in prologue. After a good run over the 2 laps and
quickly checking over the car on Saturday night we looked to the times
and had maintained the same position, 4th in class
On Sunday Sarah would be back in the car navigating and we would face 2
sections of 3 laps. In the first section we set some decent times,
moving up to 3rd in class as Matt had some issues on a rocky
section on the track (3 flats in one go). After getting the Pootrol
right up on 2 wheels coming into the finish line we settled into a
rhythm and were soon waiting to see when the front runners would be
coming round to lap us. The first 3 only just got us at the end of the
section, a result which we were pretty happy about. We ended the section
in 3rd place and again checked the car over before the next
section and found no faults.
In Section 3 we had a massive scare coming through the first 8kms of
railway run as we came across Jeremy Lia’s steering-less super 1650 half
on the track. It certainly gets your heart racing when you see this
coming around a blind corner; luckily by the time the next lap came
around he was much farther up the bank and off the track. Early on in
the first lap we passed Ted Schultz in his limping Jeep, after chatting
to Ted and Rick later on that night it turns out that they had diagnosed
the problem being that they were driving a Jeep. As we came through to
finish our first lap, we had closed on the car in front and managed to
pass them coming through the houses. We then followed the Galloways for
about half a lap before they managed to pull away. At the end of the 3
laps and this time without getting lapped by the pro buggies we were
happy to finish, but not before one more little moment. Somehow
in-between the second last corner and the finish straight the car had
made its way into 2wd and coming across the finish line I stepped on the
throttle expecting the normal 4wd reaction, however got a 2wd reaction
and scared Dan Rogers, Ted and a few others by the finish line as well
as myself due to that massive shed that didn’t look like it was going to
move!
After finishing the event we ended up placing 2nd in class, a
good result and a good farewell to the Pootrol which is now for sale as
we move onto a new project (see ad on the offroadoz.net.au forum for
details of the car)
Thanks must go to everyone who helped out with the car, Mum and Dad,
Sarah and Markus for navigating, Russ for the gearbox, Ian Diffen Tyre
Factory Joondalup, The 4WD Shop, Raw 4x4, FJG Engineering and 4130
Clothing. Thanks as well must go to all those who put on the event,
property owners, WAORRA, officials and volunteers.
Cheers, Jason #766
PS. be watching channel 44 on Sunday 13th of June at 4:30pm
for a short interview and story about the Patrol on '4x4 WA'
