2011 Rally Victoria

Final event of the year for the Lake Mountain Ski Hire team, Derek and I still in with a chance to win Premier League and Privateers Cup.

Recce went well, was interesting to see how much our notes have developed since last year. Certainly the changes and the noting experience have helped to make us go faster.

Heat 1, with 4 forest stages and 2 runs over the Super Special about 70km comp for the day. Went out to try and keep Charlie honest, he had been a bit quicker than us at the last few events, but this was Derek's home turf and hopefully it would make a difference. After 3 stages we lead Charlie by 0.3 sec now how close is that. Top competition, our times weren't that far of Simon Evans and we were in 9th. The ARC has got a lot closer this year.

Anyway we ended the day behind Charlie in 2nd in Premier League, so this meant that whoever won Heat 2 would be champion driver. There was an interesting effort for us at the end of stage 3 with us going over the Flying Finish backwards, there is footage on http://www.bakermotorsport.net

Heat 2 we started off fast, only to lose about 12 secs to Charlie and the 1st stage and again on the 2nd stage, we then took 10 secs back on the 3rd stage of the day. 4th stage Charlie responded beating us by 5 secs. Looked like it was game on for the afternoon as we were in similar positions with our limited tyre allocation.

Unfortunately on the 1st stage after service we broke a few things culminating in coming to stop with a 5 speed box of neutrals. This gave Charlie his well earned championship. While out in the forest I was trying to work out the codriver points, realised that there was a slight chance I could still win, had to rely on a fair few other competitors to swap positions though.

Ended up that John Berne got in front of Raz in the Fiesta meaning I got the championship by just 2 points. I was pretty stoked with that.

Would like to thank all the people that have helped during the year. Our service crew, this has varied through the year, but Dash from Dashsport has been very helpful, all the Rallyschool.com.au crew especially Mick Ryan for all his support. Brent, Joel, Kelly, Angelo and some extra help from guys like Matt Boorman and Carl Stewart during the year.

The biggest thanks goes to my mate Derek, for a great year of driving on a small budget. Derek was actually as high as 5th outright in the points at one stage. He ended the year 8th, not too shabby. Derek showed what can be done with an older car and a lot of perserverance.

Well done to Charlie on his win and also to the new Australia Champions Justin and Matt.

We will be back next year, don't know what category yet but follow us on Facebook or at http://www.bakermotorsport.net

Ray