ABOUT ME
to be updated soon!
I am a 23 year old
young woman who started off in Rallying in 1998 as a service
crew member for a local
Rally Team
In 1999, I was selected,
beating 15 others,as co-driver for the Family and Children's Services Young
Womens Rally Project, which was known as - The
Motley Crew.
Basically, the project gave
a group of young women like me the opportunity to crew and maintain a Rally
car,competing in most local Rallies and ending with Telstra Rally Australia
in November.
Just before Christmas, I
was selected by Ken Jaffey (my teacher in navigation)
to be his co-driver in the
prestigeous Targa Tasmania for 2000.
This event was completed
in May of this year,and car #714 finished a very respectable
19th (out of 300) outright,
winning class, category and prologue trophies.
I LOVE Rallying -
for me it's something that I have found,that I can do really well.
I was lucky enough to meet
several well known top rally names such as Colin McRae, Nicky Grist, Ed
Ordynski, and many others at the post Rally Aus dinner in 1999
and it is my ambition in
life to become a professional co-driver.
End of
Season review for 2000
I have had the best season in
rallying this year: The New Millennium. 2000 saw me fly across to
Tassie, compete in clubbies and state rounds and pick up a trophy or two
for the trophy room.
At the beginning of the
year I teamed up in an RS Turbo 4WD for the 2000 Forest Rally, it was a
lot faster than my previous experiences in a slower 2WD Diahatsu! It was
fast and fun and certainly brushed up my co-driving skills, infact it even
messed my senses up a bit as I had my very first roll! I must admit, that
wasn't much fun but we got going the next day with the help of our excellent
service crew and gracefully finished the event with a ceremonial spraying
of the car in champagne.
My next adventure came soon
after the Forest Rally, as the Drury's packed up and left for Tasmania,
for the prestigeous Targa Tasmania.
WOW! That's the only word
that sums up this experience, I was definately swimming with the big fish
here! It was the best experience and learning curve that I have
been on this year. It was 6 days of fast, slidey, twisty, fun roads that
were meant to be driven on like that...NOT!! I quickly learned (I
think) how to add times together and work them out (as all the workings
out had to be done by us) I also had a lot of time to think of ideas on
how to make my side of the car more comfortable/accessable. One thing
I did learn - wear a neck brace next year! At the end of the rally we came
home with a load of trophies and won our class and category. Back
in Perth, Boddington was next (a state round) and I was back in the familiar
RS Turbo, but unfortunately we didn't finish as engine problems got the
better of us. I think the most annoying part of that rally was the
fact that I have reccied those Sotico jumps 9 times now and I never seem
to go down them in a rally! And I want to SO badly!! The latter half
of the year saw me change teams and join Rob and Dean Herridge at Maximum
Motorsport, where I was welcomed with open arms into their "family".
I was actually very impressed by how clean their rally cars are, on the
inside! I'm not used to that, at all! So I paired up with one of
their clients in the same car that is used for the 96fm Win-A-Drive comp
held over rally Aus, and did the Stirling Stages rally (another state round).
I think this rally goes down as one of the most special and significant
rallies for me, not just because I was co-driving for Maximums, but because
our results saw us come home with 1st novice driver and co-driver, so that
trophy is definately the centerpiece on my trophy wall. The last
rally of the season was umm, well an experience to say the least! It was
the Big A clubman rally and this saw me with my first real rally in a rear
wheel drive rally car - a Datsun 1600! It was a lot of fun sliding and
overshooting mostly all of the corners (sorry Brett! :-), but is was fun!
We had trouble with the throttle cable linkage popping out, thus causing
us to run into late time but we came home with 6 minutes to spare. I think
we finished dead last but it gets a bit boring if nothing out of the ordinary
ever happens, right? I think that was the dustiest I have ever been, but
at least I could feel proud taking my now bluey-brown racing suit to the
drycleaners!
So, all in all, I have had
an exciting rally season, I have learned new things and valuable lessons.
What's next? I am off to Tassie again in April to do Targa with Ken, this
time in a Nissan Skyline GTR and we are hoping for a top 10 finish.
My goal for 2001 is to compete in the ARC doing all rounds. I would especially
love to get into the Aussie car class, as I think it's the best class to
get into, and soon enough it will be one of the top contenders for manufacturers
points. One of my dreams for next year is to do the Forest Rally
and win the Rod Van Der Straaten Memorial Trophy, as I feel that it is
the ultimate award I could ever achieve in my co-driving career.
My thank-yous this year
go to my Mum and Dad, who, bless their hearts are there every step of the
way, washing windows, changing tyres and paying for the event, even when
they are sick! Wally, my mascot, who kept me sane during Targa, all
my drivers who let me have their lives for the time during the rallies.
My best friend Matt and the Teapes' for being so lovely to me, and last
but certainly not least, Maximum Motorsport for welcoming me in and giving
me the knowledge and experience I have gained this year. So until
next April, things are pretty quiet, so for me I'm going to finish off
my floristry course and practice adding times together for Targa!
Stay tuned for more news,
and thank you to everyone who has looked at my page and signed my guestbook.
Keep coming back!