FLUFFY DUCK 2010

It’s been quite a wait for the rally season to start for 2010. Last year the Duck was run on a stinking hot black Saturday. I tips me hat to those who completed the event. Thankfully this year the event was delayed until March 13 and we were rewarded with cool temperatures with occasional showers (some heavy).

I started preparing the Zed on Sunday 7th fitting new sway bar link bushes. Oh disaster!! Brake master cylinder is leaking. Monday I book the car into brake shop to fit the new Chinese cylinder I had bought a while back and had difficulty fitting as the pipes wouldn’t seal. Car booked for Friday at 08.00.

Dropped car off Friday morning and picked up at 13.00 with a bill for making up new pipes to adapt Chinese and Jap parts together. Fill car with relatively cheap fuel and spend the afternoon fitting rally meter etc and checking oil levels etc.
18.00: What is that smell? Fuel! Leak near the tank! 20.00: All fixed (crosses fingers).

Saturday 13 March: 06.30 wake navigator. 07.00 head off for the start. 07.45 do the Speedo check and arrive at start in the park NW of Wyong.

Fill in final paperwork, scrutinized had a crew briefing and ready for first car at 09.30.
The competition: Some Peugeots (404s and 504s), 240Z to keep my 260 honest, P76, Datsun 1600, Dolomite, Commodore, Nissan Gazelle and class X lancer. (I could have missed some others).

Section one.
A short route chart takes us to a service station to fill for the start of the economy run. A couple more kilometers and we move onto the map which has been highlighted to show us the route which after 136 km takes us to Kurri-Kurri for the end of the economy run and a tank top up to check our usage. We used 13.20 liters. On the way we were taken over some roads that many of us hadn’t seen before. There was some dirt but none of it was rough enough to stop a long wheelbase 260Z.

There were some photo id points, photo points (camera supplied), lots of route control boards and passage controls.

From Kurri we had a transport stage to Ringwood Motorsport Park for 2 motorkahna
Tests and two special tests using tennis balls and the hill climb. Lets do lunch said Ron Pope and we all tucked in to Sausage Sangers, hot dogs and drinks. Well done Ron.

Section two.
We leave Ringwood about 14.00 using map two which has an overlay with 7 points marked which must be passed through in the direction indicated using the shortest distance point to point. A grand tour was plotted through Seaham, Dungog, Glen William and Clarence town to a finish on the Buckets way near Lime burners Ck.

We encountered plenty of PIDPs, photo points, route boards and a UP to keep us all busy. Great driving roads abounded.

A transport stage took us to Awabawac Park for a two kahnacross runs. These were a lot of fun and quite a challenge to get it right on a twisty track with no practice.

Once again we were fed and watered using the relaxed time to catch up and chat with fellow enthusiasts.

Huge thanks are owed to Jim and Ron Pope for the enormous effort that they have put in to once again providing us with an event with enough elements to challenge the navigator and the driver through out the day.

From a personal point of view I would like to thank Dylan (my 15yo navigator who has never used maps before) for doing a great job and keeping us on track for most of the time. The Zed as always just worked away all day without a complaint. Note: Dave must keep his head around routine checks on the car to save the agro of last minute issues cropping up.