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The Winter Classic Rally,
2000
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| It’s not often that we get the luxury of having two independent reports on the one event. It’s happened for the Winter Classic. This report is filed by Philip Meiklejohn. | ||
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The
fourth running of this event was conducted once again in Ballarat and
centred at the historic Blythewood Grange. A somewhat depleted field of
just over 30 vehicles gathered for what eventuated to be a most enjoyable
weekend. Some vehicles were
scrutinised in Melbourne the weekend prior, the remaining, in Ballarat on
the Friday night. It is to the credit of the Ballarat Light Car Club, that
all vehicles were placed on a hoist, and inspected with due diligence. A
far cry from the less than satisfactory inspections I have seen at some
events. As
always the event started in earnest with a special stage through Victoria
Park. An interesting innovation this year was the introduction of
stop/goes complete with preset red/green lights. This kept the average
speeds down, and placed on the fastest parts of the stage assisted in
lowering the terminal speeds of some of the fastest cars. We navigated to
Ararat for a driving test which a large percentage of the field WD. On to
Halls Gap and by this time after finding some info’s on what could only
be described as goat tracks, and
realising that not all Via’s had info’s we had decided that we simply
had to check every single realignment on the “shortest mapped routes”
regardless of the condition of the roads. Something that certainly
offended some competitors. A drive up the magnificent Silverband Falls
road preceded lunch, and more navigation to Maryborough. The airport at
Maryborough provided a driving test that was a feast of entertainment for
those involved with the event, and a state of apoplexy for the airport
manager. After viewing the first few cars including Jeff Beable he thought
we had all gone mad, were going to destroy his airport and ourselves. His
well positioned vehicle provided too much of an obstacle, and no amount of
persuasion was going to remove him, until his superior arrived and
promptly reinforced that all authorities were in place, and he was the
public nuisance. This obviously took some time to sort out with the result
that some competitors did not arrive back in Ballarat via a transport
until just before dinner. Results for the day revealed that half the field
had been pinged by the officials for speeding. The director had decided
that this year there would be no “buffer”. That is to say if you were
caught doing 101kph you lost 20 points, 115kph - 300 points. Needless to
say there were a lot of very unhappy people, with some threatening to
withdraw. Dinner Saturday night was rather subdued, and for whatever
reason the director decided that the traditional debriefing of the day was
not necessary. Perhaps tomorrow would be better. Sunday
morning brought the revelation that the director would introduce the
“buffer”. This meant that those penalised Saturday moved up the leader
board, and those who did not speed moved down. Now the entire field was
offside. Victoria Park again then navigation to the Devils Kitchen stage,
and back to Ballarat to the Traffic School and lunch. After lunch off to
Cambelltown and back to the Traffic School. Dinner again at Blythewood
Grange. Monday
brought Victoria Park again, navigation north of Ballarat and on to a
driving test at Bannockburn complete with police car as a cone, (no key).
Lunch in the local school followed by a quite simple tour back to Ballarat
and the Bus Station. Now for the presentation dinner. The
event was won again by Peter Riseborough with Matt DeVaus bossing him
around, the Furmedges in second, and Nigel & Alice Montgomery in their
superb BMW 3.0CSL in a very creditable third. What of Maserati members?
Yours truly with Peter Jacobs fourth, Tony Hawker/Larry Walker sixth,
Nerida & Jeff Beable tenth, Washington/McNeilly twelfth, Chris &
Dee Stephen, Ann & Mark Connolly, Jeff Beaumont/Peter Gale, Steve
& Brian Canny all came somewhere. Perhaps next year. The Ballarat
Light Car Club once again provided outstanding trophies. Extensions to
some homes to provide space for same are in progress. Philip Meiklejohn |
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