The Brisbane Sporting Car Club got the 2021 Next Level Creations QLD Rally Novice Series underway with the KCF Rallysport Winter Stages rallysprint.

The KCF Rallysport Winters Stages is a short course, pace noted action filled event in Benarkin forest complex.

Recce options being the previous Saturday or the morning of the event or you could go blind and just use the tulip road book.  The event uses the very friendly A to B timing for flexible relaxed competition. 

Heat 1 is over two approx 9km stages, minimum two passes of each allowed, more if you fit it in.  Heat 2 is a combination of the two shorter stages making one longer approx 19km stage.

This is great for beginners and experienced alike.  Rally Monaro was there for it’s first Special Stage event in about a decade.

The event comprised a good mixture of old roads from past events and some new sections, open forest and tight and technical to please everyone.  Spectating was available all day with the option for camping in the Benakin school grounds.

There were 42 crews from around the state entered including 13 novice competitors which was great to see. 

The entry list featured some of the state’s biggest rally stars such as Tristan Carrigan, Glenn Brinkmann and Cahal Carey- the latter of which has been enjoying a fine season in the RSEA Safety Motorsport Australia Rally Championship (ARC) and is currently ranked inside the ARC’s top 10.

Click here to view the entry list.

However, while there was plenty of star power taking on multiple stages spread over two heats, one of the main objectives of the event was to help rookies gain valuable experience behind the wheel of a rally car. 

The event is the first round of the state’s Novice series.  The Novice Series does not have a restriction on age but requires eligible drivers to have contested six or less rallies prior to the start of the year.  So anyone relatively new to Rally should join this series and have a go.  There’s also no limit on vehicle types, but participants were encouraged to consider 2WD vehicles as their initial vehicle of choice.

Clerk of Course Peter Flynn believes these types of events are essential for inexperienced drivers.  “Novices are exactly what these entry level events are aimed at,” Flynn said.  “We utilise A to B timing to give maximum flexibility and reduce pressure. We offer recce beforehand and we have experienced people on hand to help them through the day. So they can compete and learn and hopefully come back looking for more.”

Queensland Rally Advisory Panel Chairman Gerard McConkey echoed Flynn’s comments, further highlighting the panel’s goals to grow participation in this area.  “The QLD Rally Advisory Panel has been working hard to encourage new competitors to the exciting sport that Rally is,” McConkey added.  “It is awesome to see that work coming to fruition with 13 Novice Competitors in this weekend’s KCF Short Course Rally.  “This event is the first round of the Next Level Creations Novice Series, and to see such a healthy field of new competitors getting ready to fight it out with each other shows just how exciting and healthy Queensland Rally is.”

The event is open to the public with one free spectator point available for fans to see the cars go past.  With multiple laps and a large field the spectator point was a hive of activity all day.

The Monaro was so cool to drive and sensibly we took it very cautiously over the two stages to begin with.  Taking a stop then to check the car over and it was fine so out for another two stages.  This time knowing the stages we went a bit quicker and it was starting to feel right. Third time around and I think we were getting more to event speeds and that’s where the suspension showed some room for improvement. 

While the Monaro was awesome to be in and sounded incredible, to be honest it was a real handful.  It had me wondering if I had aged that much since rallying in the 80’s (well it was about 30 years ago) as I found myself spinning out a few times and really no hope of grabbing it once it started to go.  We had oversteer in bucket loads as was somewhat expected being a leaf spring V8 but we also had understeer and fair to say it was a skatey wild ride.  Yes the third time over the stages was slower, much faster on the flowing sections but you have to get around the corners facing forward and we had overstepped the mark and were a fair bit slower.

Now for the combined long stage and the aim was simply to complete it without spinning on any corner.  Chris noted down the corners we had spun previously on and called them as double cautions and we made it through without a spin and had a ball it was such a good stage.  The Cordia behind us did pull about a minute on us in the stage and ate a lot of Monaro dust doing it however they were certainly in another league than us with some impressive driving indeed. 

With great respect for Ken Cusack’s ability to control the Monaro with such hard suspension, I knew I needed some help in that space and looked up the great Murray Coote (MCA) for guidance.  This led to MCA Gold custom shock absorbers on the Monaro and reset springs front and back and wow what a difference.  Murray told me it would not be great, its not an Escort or a Dato 1600 but it will be ok.  Talk about modest it was like going from the Flintstones to the Jetsons.  Testing at Ipswich dirt circuit at the Come and Try Kanacross I found I could do 100kmh power slides on the dirt and still be in control, wild.  Thanks Murray your knowledge of suspension is the best.

 So KCF Rallysport Winterstages is an event to look out for as an entrant, spectator or future official (we need more of all three), looking forward to seeing you all in the forest in the future.