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arc news, team news

Team News: The rally that was or was not, rally victoria

The road to Rally Victoria was quite bumpy and the bumps would continue during the event testing.

Before we get to that, lets go back two weeks.

The team decided to do some pre-event testing at a local rally, The Blue Range RallySprint, the goal was to test suspension changes and a few other new parts that had been added, and generally add more seat time for Mick, little did they know that this event would lead to a chain reaction of events that would see the end of the season for the Repco Rally Team.

The damage caused at the Blue Range RallySprint was repairable, however with just a week to go before the start of Rally Victoria it was going to be tight, so much so that the team was still putting the car together at the 11th hour the night before scheduled testing in Victoria.

The team rallied together and in a short few days managed to repair the damage, replace the damaged bits and got the car and truck to Victoria just in time for testing.

Testing is an important part in the teams preparations for an event, it not only gives the team a chance to drive similar road conditions to stages of the rally, but it also gives them the opportunity to test and put any new parts through their paces before the event begins, effectively pushing parts to their limits to make sure anything that can break will do so before the event.

Rally Victoria has been a successful event for the team in the past, in 2013 the team came 4th and with the recent Rally Australia result the team were optimistic of a good result coming in to the event, “I really enjoy the roads in Victoria and we wanted to better our place from last year’s event” said Mick.

Testing began at lunch time and after 3 or 4 passes it was time to push a little more, little did Mick and Bernie know what was just around the corner, literally.

At about the half way point of the test stage there was a rocky creek, large blue stone rocks needed to be pushed aside to make way for the compacted road underfoot, unfortunately one of these rocks got lodged in between the caliper and the rim of the rear left wheel, in doing so it bounced back and fourth which eventually resulted in the entire brake disc shattering, the result; no rear brakes, as Mick and Bernie made their way through the creek bed and up the hill Mick realised something was wrong when the brake pedal went flat to the floor, the Repco Rally Team Polo headed straight for a tree at 90kmph and that was it, rally over.

The damaged caused by both the impact and the rock was to much for the team to be able to successfully repair in time for the start of competition in 2 days time, and with no testing it could be a disastrous move without knowing full well what other damage may have resulted.

The team made the heartbreaking decision to call it a day and headed home, a fortnight the team would probably like to forget.

And that brought to a close the end of the 2014 season in the Australian Rally Championship, a roller coaster season for the Repco Rally Team, stay tuned for a review of the season in the coming weeks and what is in store for the team in 2015.

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arc news, team news

Team News: The High’s and the Low’s of Rally Australia

As the dust settled from the most successful event for the team since joining the Australian Rally Championship and after an emotional event prior in South Australia the team celebrated as they came in 2nd place at the event that started it all.

A gruelling 3 days of competition with over 350km of competitive stages came to a close on Sunday afternoon in more ways than one, the result had just sunk in when the compulsory post event scrutineers came to the teams tent to do their mandatory checks, unbenounced to the team within minutes the celebrations would turn to heartache, the official ruling:

Car No./Driver: Car #84, Mick Paton
Session: Post-event scrutiny
Facts: Car #84 was checked by the scrutineers at post-event scrutiny and was found not to have an operational catalytic converter as required by Article 6.1(a) of the Group G2 Technical Regulations.
Offence: Breach of NCR 183(i) – participation in a competition of an automobile found to be ineligible therefore;
Decision: Car #84 is excluded from the Event.

Fortunately after an appeal process with the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS), the decision has been overturned, and the teams result stands and they have been reinstated with the second place result.

Mick had this to say: “It has been a very difficult process to go through, from the elation of finishing a very tough event in second outright, our best result in an ARC event; to the devastation of being excluded.”

“The appeal process was pretty stressful and it’s a huge relief that CAMS have made the decision to restore us in second place. There was no performance advantage gained from the converter failure, so common sense has prevailed.”

With the final Rally Australia result restored the Repco Rally Team has now moved from eighth to fifth in the Australian Rally Championship.

A positive from the event was the performance of the VW Polo. After a challenging 18 months of development, the car performed well with the service crew only required to fix a few minor issues over the gruelling three day event. “I’d like to thank the many people who helped us through the appeal process and everyone who sent us messages of support. It means a lot to have so much support,” said Patton.

Source: http://rally.com.au

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ARC ECB Round 5 – Rally Australia – 2014 – Gallery

Rally Australia 2014 Images

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Team News: Ready to rock Rally Australia

The team has just completed 225 kilometres of testing over the last two weeks, things are looking good as they head toward next week’s Rally Australia, round 5 of the 2014 East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship.

We caught up with Mick after the testing, “Testing was great, did 140km of component testing ie dump pipe, throttle cable and gearbox mount. All 3 things were perfect. Found a few little issues with a power steering oil leak and some damaged bolts. The other 85km was testing with the car set up and tyres. Both went very well and gave us some real confidence in the car.” said Mick.

We also asked about his thoughts on competing at Rally Australia where all this began, “RA is just awesome, the best in the world on our door step. Cant wait”

Make sure you stay tuned to the website and facebook with daily updates from the team as they compete at Rally Australia with the worlds best.

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Forza 5 does Repco Rally Team

The Repco Rally Team makes the big screen, well small screen, well lets just say a screen in front of many in the Xbox game Forza Motorsport Forza Motorsport 5, Repco, Penrite Oil, OEX, Kumho Tyres Australia and East Coast Bullbars – ECB all up in lights, perhaps an Australian Rally Championship section in the game? whatever it is, its very cool.

Check it out.

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ARC Round 4 – Wrap up

The team made the long drive across Victoria and NSW to the Barossa Valley and the Adelaide Hills for the ever exciting and very fast Scouts Rally SA which was round 4 of the ARC.

The team had made few changes since Queensland and during testing on Wednesday just a few days prior to the start of the rally disaster struck, after a difficult day the team made the hard decision to withdraw from the event. With a sticking throttle caused by a leaking dump pipe the team thought it was best to be safe, fix the problem under controlled conditions as opposed to risking it happening again during the event on a live stage. The team worked hard to repair the issue, however after a short drive the issue returned. The car returned to Canberra early and the crew have already started work on fixing the issue.

Mick said “It’s a big disappointment for us, as we haven’t missed an ARC event since we started 3 years ago. Thanks to all that helped and we will be back ready for Rally Australia.”

Update: After removing the exhaust the team found the turbo flange was warped, most likely from the dump pipe cracking at the previous round in Queensland. The new turbo, dump pipe and throttle cable have been re fitted and the team is off to Wakefield Park next week for a full day of testing. The car and team will be ready to go for Rally Australia in the coming weeks.

Mick said “We cannot wait till September 8th for a run on the roads around Coffs Harbour.”

Make sure you check back here for updated information on the team from the testing session at Wakefield as well as the lead up to Rally Australia.