Molly's pre-event diary

Competing in the Australian Rally Championship isn't just about turning up on Friday evening for the Ceremonial Start.  There's a whole lot of planning required, with the week before the rally one of the most hectic.

Here is Molly's pre-Great Lakes Rally schedule:Rally Week
Monday: Travel Day
Forster is one of the closest events we do, with only about 3 hours travel time compared to the 48 hours it takes to get to the Forest Rally in WA. My Dad, Dale, Mick and I drive up a medium rigid truck towing the rally car and also a Landcruiser with the recce car on the trailer.

Tuesday: Testing
Usually we test on the Wednesday, however being a close event we have decided to test on Tuesday in order to give ourselves an extra day to make sure everything is right after testing and ready for the rally. I try not to make too many changes to the car so that it’s not dramatically different every time I drive it. My aim is to fine tune the set up as well as just getting some more time behind the wheel close to the event.

Wednesday: Organizing Day
Today there will be quite a bit of cleaning going on, detailing the car and also checking over everything after testing - hopefully there are no dramas at testing, otherwise this could make for a very busy day! We also do our documentation this day, where we have to show our licences and paperwork and receive all our information for the rally including road book, stickers etc.. To keep costs down I will go and do the grocery shopping and probably pre-prepare a few meals for when all the boys come so we don’t always have to eat out. Then it’s an early night ready for a big day of recce tomorrow.

Thursday: Race Day
This is the most important day before the rally. Today we drive over all of the stages twice and write our pace notes.  Recce is carried out using a road car and the speed is limited to 60 kph. We have put some stiffer shocks and a sump guard on an old Mirage which now doubles as my recce and road car. It’s fundamental to write good, fast and accurate notes to make sure you are quick but also safe. Being a new event everyone will be writing new notes, so it will be quite a big day. Most of the time, who comes out on top at the end of the rally will be partly determined by the quality of notes they write in recce. I find this day very challenging, not having had much experience writing pace notes. It’s something that I am working very hard on. The rest of our crew, Bill, Trent and Shane will arrive either tonight or tomorrow.

Friday: Media Day/Shakedown and Ceremonial Start
In the morning we head off to a media day or shakedown in which all the event & local media as well as sponsors are given the opportunity to speak with the drivers and then go for a ride in the car. Before the rides begin each driver gets to drive the course twice, which is timed so there is always a lot of competitiveness. In the afternoon we carry out the final prep on the car before heading off to the official event start in the evening.  The cars are on show to the public and usually a lot of the locals turn up.  I really enjoy soaking up the atmosphere prior to driving over the start ramp.

Saturday & Sunday: Rally Days!!
At last it’s rally day! Now it’s the time to put everything into practice. It is very important to put a lot of effort into the week before the event to make sure that everything is set to go when the stop watch starts.