Team News from MRT

Welcome to the 2003 rally season from MRT at Rally Tasmania!

Rally Tasmania is a non championship event, however with the number and calibre of the entries you would not think it!

Renowned Targa Champ and Touring car driver Jim Richards in a turbo 4wd Porsche.
Past NSW state rally champ Miles Sandy in his Subaru WRX
Touring Car Legend Win Percy in a Sunbeam Talbot V8
Tasmanian Rally Champ Andrew Murphet in a Pulsar GTiR
Singapore Tarmac Champ Jeff Beamont in a 1973 Porsche
Victorian legend Ian Swan in a 1967 Ford Mustang Cobra
F2 rally Champ Lee Peterson in a Mitsubishi Cyborg

The event is 100% tarmac and broken up into two categories, Modern and Classic.
Over 130 cars
Competitive distance is approximately 150 km
We do two Stages Friday nite of 2.5 km repeated.
Then the rest of the rally proper Saturday and Sunday

Famous stages such as Heleyer Gorge and Savage River make up over 50% of the event.

We are seeded at car 14 mixed in with popular cars such as Porsche's, Nissan GTR's, Mazda RX7's, BMW M3's. yes there are Lancers and WRX's, but no where as many as a typical Gravel rally.

The hard working crew of MRT began preparation for the event well before Xmas, changing the DMS 60 mm Gravel "Super Struts" for 50 mm "Giant" Tarmac spec struts. Several weeks ago we spent a whole day testing at a local race track, changing the settings and basically Dialling in the car to its new layout.

having not much tarmac experience, we gained valuable help from close friend and notable circuit racer Brendan Helsham, whom used to drive a very potent WRX track car. Additional valuable help was from Jim Gurief at Whiteline, Jamie Drummond DMS and Wayne Boatright GTP wrx circuit driver.

The times we set at Wakefield (the track) we respectable considering we are running in Group A spec with a 34mm inlet restrictor! We use Falken Azenis road tyres. We are not allowed to use race slicks nor are we allowed to hand groove tyres during the event, so the 225 16 inch tyres are good all round tyre in case it rains!

Pace noting was completed by myself and Andrew, (from scratch) Wednesday and Thursday, and was a breeze, again compared to the usual rush of the WRC and ARC gravel events we do!

More news and data go to www.rallytasmania.com.au

HOME