We arrived at Western Park early on Saturday morning, having already scrutineered the previous day without any problems.
Seeded 11th Mini out of the 22 Mini crews that were competing on the day, car 25. The day started off with the stages being very greasy, with no grip at all for the first few. We encountered a misfire shortly after the start of the 1st stage, which soon cleared by itself, and the car went on to run perfectly for the rest of the day. After the first 3 stages, Gary and I were lying 5th Mini and then moved up to 4th by the end of Stage 5, the halfway point in the stages. However, with the stages getting drier throughout the morning, this benefited the crews with the bigger and more powerful engines that we were competing against. The gap was slowly increasing between us and Ryan Taylor in 3rd place.
Going into the last stage we were now lying 6th Mini, with just 1 second between us and 5th place, so it was all to play for. However, due to an unfortunate change in weather conditions by the time we entered the stage, it was very slippy and we dropped a massive 25 seconds to the time we set on the stage before when it was dry.
Therefore, we finished 6th Mini, 1st in Category 3 and 14th overall which I am happy with and is a very good result for us after an enjoyable day rallying.
Jack Hartley – Mini Sport Rally Team
(Feature photo – Kieren Griffin Photography)
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