Yarra Valley Stages, 6 November 2021
78 entries with 54 of our members, 38 nominated HRA and 16 nominated for other clubs.
50 crews entered in the VRC with only 45 starting and unfortunately 15 failed to finish and another 3 missed major controls but were classed as finishers. 2 crews were disqualified for rule infringements (Warren Lee/ James Rooke after James became too ill to continue and Tony Robinson slid into the co-driver’s seat after Steve Porter’s RX7 ran into brake problems and also a novice crew for a control issue).
29 crews entered the VCRS with all but 1 starting. There were 6 DNF and 5 crews missed controls to still be finishers.
Top VRC performances were from Justin Walker in 3rd place (behind Darren Windus and Brendan Reeves) and Joel Wald in 7th position.
In VCRS it was Keith and Judd Lewis in 1st place with Dave McKenzie co-driving Colin Sichlau to 3rd and Richard Carter bringing his Stanza home in 4th place.
Among the VRC DNFs were Doug Fernie co-driving for Tim Clark in Tim’s WRX with diff problems, Luke Sytema and Tracy Dewhurst had motor issues in the S2000 Fiesta, Braeden Kendrick rolled his Commodore and former Victorian Champion David Bond had a disappointing return parking his Escort in a large off-road hole.
In the VCRS Ray Garrad and Nick Wright lost the spark in Ray’s Peugeot and Graham Wallis missed the second half when Brian Ward became too ill to continue but was classified as a finisher.
Parwan 20 & 21 November 2021
The Autocross on Saturday had 10 HRA members out of 34 entries doing up to 8 runs with their best 3 counting for results.
Steve Marron was the highest placed at 6th outright and 1st in class. Ben Marron was 12th O/R and 2nd in class. Rob and Chris Sanderson were 14th and 15th with Geoff Holloway 19th. Next was Rob Cranston in 23rd just ahead of Daniel Letty in 24th. Mark Sanderson, Max Engellener and Jordan Kline were our other runners.
The Rallysprint on Sunday had 13 members in 10 crews tackling 6 runs at the long course and Michael Osborne had a good ride with Brad Hall to take 1st outright. Graham Wallis and Callum O’Callaghan came home 3rd and Michael Ward with Graham Wallis swapping to left seat duties were 5th. Ben Marron with Tim Shepherd took 7th place. Geoff Holloway returned after Saturday’s effort to take 9th just ahead of James Pickard who also backed up again after Saturday. Max Engellener and Jordan Kline were another 2 drivers to do both days with Max in 13th place just 24 seconds ahead of Jordan after their 6 runs. Ian Ellis as ballast for Simon Ellis and Matthew and Amy Jones were unfortunately the DNFs for the event.
Next event is the Gippsland Rally as round 4 of the VRC and round 8 of the VCRS. It will be a pace noted event for the VRC with testing and promotional running on Thursday 2nd December and recce on Friday 3rd. The rally is on Saturday 4th and HRA will be controlling Stage 3/7 with officials for the stage expected to meet by 8.30 am at the Toongabbie Store. Some of our members have also offered to assist on the lead up days as well.
Peter Canals.
Historic Rally Association 