Grasskhana Results from the South

I just received the latest OSCC newsletter in the weekend, with a full list of the Grasskarna results. You were right - there was very little in the times. The MR2’s certainly acquitted themselves well. I discovered on Saturday afternoon that there was a gravel hillclimb on at Church Road (near Seacliff) on Sunday. I didn’t have time to let you know beforehand.

Anyway, I was fed up with working every weekend for the last month, so I entered. The MR2 was the only street car there - all the rest were purpose built rally cars. Mine was the only car with road tyres, and they are not particularly good tyres at that. The course was great, but I had never driven it before, nor even seen the road. It was 1.5 km’s, all up hill, except for a short downhill straight leading to a tight left/right S bend, and a longish straight (I was exceeding 120 kmh) leading into an off camber 90 degree lefthander. There were a number of quite tight corners, and 2 sections of "snake wriggles".

I was very cautious in practice run, and was about 3rd last at 1 min 44 sec. First run was still a bit on the "lost" side, but felt a lot better, and turned in 1 min 37. The next 2 runs felt better and better, as I started to know the road a little better, and were 1 min 35 and 1 min 34 respectively. By this stage, I really wanted to do a couple more runs, and am sure I could have kept improving, but 3 is all you get. End result was 12th out of 20, much to my suprise, and the surprise of most others. Apparently, rally tyres are worth about 4 seconds on that hill, which (if true) would have meant about 7th or 8th.

One guy (who is on the verge of selling his Rally Levin and buying a MkII MR2 for rallying) timed all the cars from the start to the first corner (I was up to almost max revs in second before hitting the brakes) and according to him, the MR2 was third fastest on that section, beaten only by a Mitsi Lancer Evo 3, and a Pulsar GTR 4WD. It was apparently quicker than the Mazda 323 4WD’s there, and everyone seemed very impressed with the way it just dug in and took off, except for the timing ladies at the start, who were showered with stones each time. I couldn’t tell, being in the car, but it seems that its traction was superior to the other 2WD cars, by quite a margin. That also helps in getting out of corners, so as I get used to the car, I am hoping that I can improve substantially on these times. There is another event there in August, so it will be interesting to see what develops.

So, having had a blast, and being surprised and delighted with the results, I headed to the clubrooms for a beer and a natter. The end result was purchasing a set of barely used rally tyres (on mags), and booking the car in next week for some suspension attention. The next gravel hillclimb is Longridge Rd (over the back of 3 mile Hill) on July 17th, so with rally tyres and suspension dealt with, I am hoping to get a little more competitive. These events are a real blast, and I can’t encourage you and the others enough to have a go at it.

Daryl Munroe