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The Winter Classic Rally,
2000
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| This report was filed by Andrew Gregory, his second Winter Classic: | ||
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Queen’s
birthday weekend again saw the running of the Winter Classic Rally by the
Ballarat Light Car Club. The event is run over three days Sunday to Monday
with the presentation dinner on the Monday evening, so those who need to
can head back home late Monday evening ready for a normal work start the
next morning. As
with last year, the rally was staged out of the magnificent Blythewood
Grange Conference Centre in Sebastopol. Blythewood Grange is not only very
convenient to competitors –– no packing and unpacking each morning
–– but is a majestic property full of character, polished wood,
marble, open fires and generally the feel of times gone by. The property
in its former life was a church operated orphanage. Meals and crew
briefings take place in the magnificent chapel, which is a worry because
it now even has its own bar!! The
Winter Classic is a mix of closed road touring events and motorkhana
driving tests interspersed with navigation events and returning daily to
Ballarat. The
navigation occurs over some of the most scenic landscape that Victoria has
to offer. This years event included routes along ridges with views that go
on almost to Bass Strait, the valleys of Daylesford ,Woodend and Halls
Gap, the hills of Gisborne ,through Western District grazing land and past
many old gold diggings. Magnificent. Our Club had members in 11 of the 28 teams that completed the event. A level of support worthy of the effort the BLCC puts into staging this event. Numbers were down due mainly to commitments in the historics. It was also not long after the extended millennium Targa Tasmania. This however made for a very, very experienced field. Thus the pointy end of the field was very close. Good competition. Saturday
started with a closed road run through part of Victoria Park in Ballarat.
This is how each day was kicked off. A first up adrenalin starter to get
competitors on the job for the days competition. Good fun breaking into
speed limiting garages, chicanes and doing 90 degree turns between mature
trees. Lets face it .. there aren’t too many places where one can
legally hoon through a park. Bitumen tracks and all. O.K.
now that the crews are awake and on the job the next order of daily
activity was a navigation section. On Saturday it was a challenging 175 km
run to Ararat where a driving test was waiting. Then a 71km navigation to
Halls Gap for lunch. Following lunch a 152km navigation to Maryborough
over a course set by a particularly mischievous course director. At
Maryborough a motorkhana driving test was run on the local tarmac air
strip. This last event made great spectator viewing and there were some
memorable efforts including as always Jeff Beable. Jeff’’s run was extra memorable because immediately after he finished an over zealous and stubborn caretaker drove on to the course in his half cab yellow lights and all whence he parked in the middle of the turning area and proceeded to put the negotiating skills of the BLCC through the wringer. A letter of authority from the local council and a permit were produced but to no avail. After observing the goings on for some time, Greg Aimers and I decided that there was a lovely bottle of his sponsor’s Punters Corner waiting for us and we left. That is, we figured the caretaker was not going to budge. We were wrong because the BLCC won through and the rest of the field got through just on dusk saving a down grade. A commendable effort in patience from the BLCC because most of us had concluded only a blow on the back of the head was going to get the old fellow out of the way. On Sunday after Victoria Park we navigated 169km to Happy Valley which must have been so named by rally drivers because one goes there to drive the perversely named Devil’s Kitchen. Even though it has been slowed down by the inclusion of two garage stops, its still a short sharp fun run. Then it was a 105 km run back to the Ballarat airport, lunch and a run through the Traffic School course. A 126km navigation run north of Ballarat which included such beauties as ignoring a closed road sign, small sections of unmapped roads which were essential to avoid a wrong direction penalty and some tricky stuff that had even seasoned crews driving around chewing up time. This navigation led us back to the Ballarat Traffic School for another run and the end of day’s activities. Monday
brought another day of fine weather and a fantastic day’s activities.
Crews navigated from the Victoria Park heart starter to the famous Cut
Hill for a ripper of a closed road section. This first navigation section
ran through Daylesford to Woodend Gisborne, Bacchus Marsh to Cut Hill an
absolutely glorious route. The way into Daylesford was the usual tricky
stuff but most found the way out even trickier this year. A real
navigators route. The course director must have had a good chuckle at the
quality of his deviousness. Cut
Hill was followed by a 89km navigation section down to Bannockburn on the
Midland Highway. This course was a challenging as it was scenic. Greg and
I got to see Meredith very well indeed but then consoled ourselves that we
were in good company as we saw the rally leaders and ultimately outright
winners Riseborough / De Vaus three times in this town. After a tight little driving test in front of the local Bannockburn police station and a well provisioned lunch it was navigate the 121km back to Ballarat through some scenic undulating Western District farming property. As with past years the event concluded with a driving test in the bus park near Victoria Park finishing again in fine weather. Best
finish by a Club member was Phillip Meiklejohn in 4th spot and
Tony Hawker 6th outright. The Begley’’s achieved 2nd
in class with 9th outright and the Beable’’s 10th
outright after a mechanical hiccup which was a disappointing result for
them but a terrific result I feel in the circumstances and so soon after a
3rd outright in Targa Tas. I
navigated for the first time, having always been a driver and having
driven in the prior years Winter Classic. Greg Aimers had navigated for me
in Rally Tas. and we had agreed that this was a fair exchange. Besides
which Greg thought it was time I learned whether east was to the left or
right of north when looking at my compass. So it came to pass. A sort of
diversional therapy, guaranteed to take your mind off work and well almost
anything else. A challenge. I finished the event telling Greg that the
driver in these events was really just the servo turning the wheel! How
the wheel turns!! Pity the navigator doesn’t have the same level of
control over the drivers right foot hey Greg. Just ask Winnie Kim who I am
told holds the Winter Classic record from several years back and at a
level to stand for all eternity. So
Greg and I learned lots on day 1 and improved somewhat from there on. The
improvement may have had something to do with Greg’s sponsor “Punters
Corner” which incidentally has just been named as this years winner of
the Jimmy Watson trophy for the best red. With a sponsor like that I might
just find a future in navigating. It
was the second year that I had competed and again the weather was no cause
for complaint. One or two sprinkles but otherwise fine and in fact most
often sunny both years. Belies Ballarat’s reputation somewhat. The
BLCC stage a really good value event, run efficiently in a friendly no
fuss manner and at a time of year just when one needs to blow out the
cobwebs. Well done again BLCC. Andrew
Gregory
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