I have a few but in the spirit of the GRY and to be honest probably my favourite memories are when the WRC was in Western Australia. I was there for a project but was able to wangle time off to go to the special stages in the Collie forest which were pretty local. Then on Fridays I would head up to Perth office for some meetings or other and spend the night watching the super special stage in the city.
The stages were really accessible and the service stage in the Collie main street was even more so. The drivers would be doing their duty with the media but every so often you would have someone to yourself or at least to a group of 5 or 10 others. I got to talk to Tommi, Colin, Possum to name just a couple.
Two things though really stick in my memory. The first was an accident which caused massive damage to one of the Lancers. It arrived in Collie for service with the front pretty much torn off, one wheel at a weird angle, windscreen smashed and the intercooler dragging on the ground. Yeah that is rooted, not going anywhere. The cars sat for 30 minutes or so before work was allowed to start. The service area was on the street and we were able to walk along the footpath in front of the cars and be within a couple of metres of them. Because this car had such massive damage to the body it had been agreed that the windscreen could be removed before the service started to ensure the safety of the spectators. So off to one side the old windscreen was kicked out. The car rolled up in front of me and was left there like a wounded animal dripping every colour possible. Service started and it was amazing. One crew jumped inside and using a portapower ram pushed on the roof frame around the windscreen until a template fitted. While this was going on all four corners were in the air and stripped and the front had come off. New radiator, intercooler, oil cooler you name it was bolted on and the suspension mounting points at the front jacked into relatively correct position. By the time the 30 minute service was done the car was back together, windscreen and front bumper held on with kms of tape but it was done and drove off and finished the rally. Amazing. The whole time this was going on Tommi was calmly talking to us and explaining what had happened.
The second was on a transport stage. Everyone was told no speeding etc etc and spectator cars would be on the same transport roads between stages as competitors. I happened to have a car full in a manual 4L locally made 4 door on one of these pea gravel roads. We had already passed a speed check on the way. We were happily sliding around doing the speedlimit (100) and a bit and I noticed a plume of dust catching us quite quickly. The dust passed us and went on ahead. We were peppered by a blue Subaru with the number 3. Got to the parking area at the stage and looked over the front on my car. All four headlights and the two fog lights were smashed. Mates were a bit shocked at the amount of damage but I was in awe of being passed by Colin Mcrae!
