A challenging and very rewarding year of Rallying

BY ALAN JO & TK SMITH.

Six rallies, 900km of special stages and a 100% finish rate.

First rally for the year was Whangarei.  Half way through the rally we broke an axel which we managed to replace at service and carry on.

The next rally was Hawks Bay.  At the end of stage one we broke second gear and had to do the rest of the rally with no second gear but we managed to finish.  Then it was off to Wairarapa.  It was great start to the rally but clutch and handling issues towards the end of the rally.  Still managed to finish 2nd in class E.

Next rally Taranaki and onto Tar Seal.  Right from the start I was not happy with the handling of the car and later in the rally the up pipe to the turbo broke.  Also, my navigator, Tk got very sick from exhaust fumes but we still finished the very wet rally.

Rally of Coromandel was our best start all year until stage four when we had fuel pump trouble.  At the end of the rally we replaced the fuel pump and wiring.

So off to the Rally of the North with lots and lots of pressure on me to do really well for the Top Half points and Rally Xtreme points.  The first five stages were the best all year and then it all went bad with a total of 43 one lane bridges!  I hit the side of one and received my first panel damage for the year and then about 5k up the road I put a wheel over one of the many slips on the road which pulled the front strut out of the top mount which made the car very hard to drive.

We arrived at service the crew were filling the car with fuel and saw the fuel running out under the car we had a hole in the fuel tank, We had about six minutes to fix this and carry on but we did it with ten liters of fuel to spare.

Overrall results for 2014.
First over all Top half rally series
First over all non-pace noted driver
Second in class in central region
Second in class in rally xtreme

A Big Thanks to all my navigators and service crew over the year.

I could not have done this without you all.

Alan and Jo Smith.