Gilderoy - OST 11 Sunday 22/9/02

Gilderoy would have to be the property find of the year, with a wide expanse of land and many varied sections available, this old bush sawmill site has it all. Good rain throughout the previous week resulted in greasy ground and full dams. Craig Hansen, Keith Mitchell and Linsey Mercer spent the Saturday creating and pegging new sections and each time they hacked their way into an area, another opportunity for a good section opened up.

Because competitor numbers were down, Director John Cox elected to run each section twice in the morning. This proved to be a popular move as it gave an opportunity to learn from mistakes and make better efforts with a second pass.

The morning was spent trialing around a couple of small gravel pits and surrounding bushland. Linsey Mercer doubled up in Keith Mitchell's car and found the lower pegs of section one cunningly placed in sloppy mud which required quite a bit of the right foot and left fiddle to negotiate. Never the less, the two peg caught him out both times.

Most others made their way to the higher scoring end of the pegs and with a second pass, Geoff Taylor managed to clear the tricky banking and get the first 10 for the day.

The next two sections were carved out of the bush by Craig the previous day and caused considerable entertainment as we toiled our way around trees and gullies in search of the final red markers - once again most bettered their scores second time around.

The final section before lunch was through the nearby gravel pit. The pit had a good firm bottom which promoted plenty of grip under the water, however by the second pass some deep ruts caused both Graham Moyle and Keith Mitchell to sit with wet posteriors next to the four peg with no further forward motion evident. Unfortunately Greg Cox experienced driveline failure on this section and had to spend the rest of the day as a spectator.

Lunchtime and the sunshine brought out quite a few spectators who keenly gathered around waiting for the afternoons activities.

First section of the afternoon was a ripper with a hill to climb and then a free fall into a long tunnel like gully and finally up the banking, and through the finish. Geoff and Grant got as far as the nine pegs which was a great effort whilst others had trouble coaxing cars over the steep hill prior to the fall off into the gully. Craig had to park the car after one attempt with a suspected and later confirmed cracked pressure plate, whilst Keith had an drive line input shaft let go on his second attempt which also finished him and Linsey for the day.

With only three cars left running, the courses were quickly modified or abandoned so we didn't spend the rest of the afternoon pulling cars out of deep water just for the sake of it.

Grant etched out a sizeable lead as the afternoon wore on with Geoff just keeping ahead of Graham to take out second and third spot respectively. All in all a great venue which could only be improved with the support of more competitors and some better luck mechanically.

Keith Mitchell