In 2004 I decided to convert my road vehicle (1997 Nissan GTR) to a full tarmac rally car and embark on a new sport.
Competing in my first rally at Mt Buller Hill Climb we started out on the prologues at Mansfield Country Victoria. They call the prologue the Mansfield Mile!
I was so nervous however I had a very experienced navigator, Kim who had done numerous navigation stints with professional drivers.
It's our turn to front up on the start grid and we have 30 seconds to get ourselves organised. This is normally heaps of time but I was so nervous that I had forgotten to connect my helmet intercom to the car. Ten seconds to go and my clutch leg was so shaky I had to put the car in neutral and take my foot off the clutch. Five seconds to go and I push the clutch in and select 1st gear... 3,2,1 and we are off.
My car has launch control and in excess of 650HP and the car launches forward much faster than I expected. The first corner only 50 metres away, bang 2nd gear and we get to the corner. Left, right and left in quick succession, no need to navigate here, so Kim stays quiet.
Down the straight 250 meters, 1st, 2nd, 3rd gear by this time we are doing 160km/hr and the U turn is approaching quickly. I am waiting for Kim to tell me to brake or a distance before we turn right. Nothing from Kim so I keep my right foot planted and we are building speed fast, then I feel Kim hitting me in my left leg and gesturing to turn right, by this time we are doing 170km/hr. Shit!!! I bring the car back to 2nd gear and turn in, the car slides left. I hit the apex and hit the gas, just in time too as we got around the corner really fast. Back down the straight in main street Mansfield and we are cranking. Left turn comes up fast this time, Kim's on it, tapping me and gesturing to go left. We get around the corner really well and blast down the road. A right and left in quick succession and we are across the line.
We pull up to the timing marker and they hand us our time card, they said very well done. I thought that they were encouraging for the newbies of the field as it's my first rally. We pull up in Park Fermi and unbuckle my harness with shaky hands. Jim Richards walks over to see how I went.
I said we did alright I think!
But I don’t know what a good time is so I am assuming that its just a newbie time.
Jim takes my card and says what? Hey Barry (Barry Oliver Jim’s long standing co Pilot and friend) Baz what was my time again. Barry says 1.08 Minutes.
My time: 1.06. Jim says well done George you beat my time, I said jokingly, this rally stuff is easy isn’t it? He said wait until you get on the proper stage then we will see.
He was right!!
My times up the Mount Buller where nearly 1.58 slower than Jim’s worse time, better still I went from top five to bottom five in the first three runs.
Lesson learnt, Better to say nothing and assumed an idiot, then to open my mouth and remove all doubt.
Ever since then I have absolutely loved tarmac rallying. I have stopped now but hope to return one day to racing but maybe not tarmac. Its super dangerous.
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