March 2018

Welcome to SWTCC 2018 motorsport year.

With last year being one of the club’s most successful years with numbers of competitors at events. This year is

shaping up to be just as big with a number of members keen to start the year, having upgraded cars, and also I

know there are a few new competitors keen to have a go.

Some members have already started their season competing in rally sprints and summer autocross at Perth

Motorplex. SWTCC season officially starts with our Motorkhana in the speedway southern gravel car park on

March 11th. If you haven’t done one of these before come and have a go. You are allowed to have a navigator and

we have a free sausage sizzle at lunch.

Two weeks later on 24th March the season hots up for some of us with the first round of the State Rally

Championship in Manjimup. Anyone keen to get involved in rally…… get in touch with me. As always, the

organisers are looking for time control and road closure officials, and this is a great way to be part of the action.

Autocross kicks off on 22nd April and finishes with the night meet on 6th October. The first event date has been

moved from the original date due to clashes with other events.

Forrest Rally, the WA round of the Australian Rally Championship is a week after our first autocross, April 28th-

29th. Each year our club supports this rally, and our competing members, with a contingent of officials running

the Nannup oval stage on Saturday afternoon and the Forest stage on Sunday as well as helping at the night

stages in Busselton. If you are free that weekend volunteer, join in and see what else our club does. You won’t get

any closer to the action without being in a car.

If you are a keen motorsport fan and go to all the events our members are involved in, there aren’t many spare

weekends between now and October.

Wishing everyone the best of luck for the 2018 season….. see you at the Motorkhana.

Graeme Miles President

SWTCC Season Dates

Motorkhana Rd1 Sunday March 11th

Test and Tune Sunday April 8th

Auto X Rd1 Sunday April 22nd

Auto X Rd2 Sunday June 10th

Auto X Rd3 Sunday July 1st

Auto X Rd4 Sunday August 5th

Auto X Rd5 Sunday September 2nd

Auto X Rd6 Saturday October 6th See Mark and Justin at the corner of Blair and Stuart St

ph (08)97 21 7688 . www.tyrepowerbunbury.com.au

2018 AGM

The 2018 AGM was held at Graeme and Kathy Miles’ place and there was a fantastic turn out of members . Reports

were presented and thanks were given to the 2017 committee and all others that made 2017 another fantastic year

for the South West Touring Car Club . All positions were declared vacant and as is tradition Life Member Mal

Thompson took charge of proceedings . The new committee was elected and it was great to see a mix of old and new

faces taking up the roles which can only be a positive start to the new season .

2018 Committee .

President Graeme Miles Vice President Dave Lathwell Treasurer Julie Bywaters

Secretary Jenny Gerdei Auto X Secretary Ron Ferguson Track Manager Peter Mountain

Motorkhana Secretary and CAMS Delegate Stephen Mckinlay Time Keeper Alex Quartermaine

Training Co-ordinator Brendan Quartermaine Canteen Manager Kathy Miles Web Master Elle Kane

Horsepower Editor Jeremy Edwards Chief Scrutineer Terry Van de wyngaurd .

Committee Matt McComish , Todd Johnson ,Angelo Sadotti, Kelsey Gerdei ,Beth Haiste

Call 0488 441 157 or 252 Harris Rd East Picton .

Specialists in Water Cutting and General

Fabrication .

Alpine Adventures 2017

In December 2017 Mark Travers and I were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to compete in Australia’s

premier classic car gravel rally , The Alpine Rally of East Gippsland based in the beautiful sea side town of Lakes

Entrance in Victoria . Mark along with the crew from the Onslow Contracting Rally Team left Perth 10 days before the

event in a convoy of 2 truck and 2 4wds transporting 4 rally car and spare across the country . Mark takes up the

story below . Trucks are loaded and off we go . Let's just say the trip across was no less than first class and can't thank Sheryl

Harmer enough for everything she did and putting up with us boys along the way. So we roll into Lakes Entrance

the sun is shining and things couldn't be better. We get settled in, crack a beer and then the messages start

coming through, torrential rain for Melbourne on the weekend of the rally! We didn't believe it at the start but

Thursday afternoon the clouds started rolling in.

So Friday came along and the rain had come and wasn't going anywhere. We cruised through the first stage

with no dramas and were happy with our pace. Whilst waiting to start the second stage, unknown to us , we had

blown the cooling fan fuse and the car was starting to get hot. We took off and the car would not rev . I looked

down at the temp gauge and it was off the clock so we pulled over and I thought our rally was already over. A

phone call from Nic Box and a reminder the ECU reduces engine rpm at a certain temp and we were off again

and the car was running fine. By this stage I'm probably over driving and eventually caught the car in front of us .

I lost concentration and then crashed. At first we didn't think it was that bad, but by the time we got it back to

town we learnt that it was pretty bad. It's a long story but basically the whole front end, including the engine

cross member was pulled out and repaired/straighten/modified/welded and even fabricated new bits. The guys

worked until 2:30 in the morning and got it sorted. I can't thank these guys enough and really appreciate

everything they did that night.

Friday Night Crash Repairs

We started Saturday with a different game plan DONT CRASH AGAIN! Off we go, the rain still pouring down and

the stages where extremely difficult. I'd never driven in conditions like this and in the back of my mind was

thinking these stages are a bit dodgy and sure enough some or most stages where cancelled at some point. For

example the guy in front of us at the last stage on Saturday had only done 2 stages for the whole event! We

checked the car over Saturday night and everything was looking pretty good. Changed front brake pads, had

some beers and pizza and then off to bed.

Sunday morning, and typical Melbourne, suns out and warming up. We get to the first Sunday stage and said to

Jeremy, it's feels like we are back home. So we took off and we're having a great time. It took about half a stage

to get back into it. There was still some slippery spots and the front end of the old girl was starting to wobble at

high speed and eventually we had to slow down because of this, but all in all we had a great day on the Sunday

and finished with no issues.

The event itself was excellent and can't wait to try again. A huge shout out to Hugh Harmer, Tim Harmer, Shane

Harmer from Onslow Contracting for all there help and support, there is no way I could have got there without

these guys and cheers for the good laughs on the way over and back. It's something I'll never forget. Also if

anyone is looking at giving Zestino Tyres a go do yourself a favour and do it! Absolutely excellent. Also a huge

shout out to Andrew MacDonald, Nicholas Box, Chris Gerdei, Mat Gerdei, Wendy and Anthony Travers, John

Moore, Wayne Keating, Mitch Gray and Nicholas Anyan for keeping the car going and getting it going as good as

you guys did. Also thanks heaps to Jenny Gerdei, Bec Moore, Brooke Gerdei for helping out and coming over

and supporting. And another big shout out to Angelina Travers and Sarah Edwards for letting us do this and all

your help . Finally thanks heaps to Jeremy for sitting next to me, absolute perfect job mate and hopefully we get

to do it again. Hopefully I haven't forgotten anyone and once again really appreciate everyone's help .

Mark and I all smiles on Sunday Afternoon A great Friday afternoon action shot

A happy team at the end of a hectic weekend . Thanks very much to everyone .

Trophy Time

Presentation night is more than just trophies . Isn’t it . It is the chance to say thank you . Thank you to the people that

make each event possible . Thanks to sponsors and the people that help us get to each event . Thanks to the people

who give us advise and their knowledge to develop our cars and our skills and probably most importantly thanks to

our friends and families that support us and allow us the opportunity to do the thing we love . Driving cars really fast

. A great crowd enjoyed a relaxing evening and meal at Graeme and Kathy’s and when it came down to business the

winners were as follows .

Ladies : 1st Jenny Gerdei . 2nd Kathy Miles. 3rd Marnee Watson Juniors : Ethan Andersson . 2nd Blake Rattenbury .3rd Nathan Quatrermain

Grade 3: 1st Damon Loxton . 2nd Mal Watson . 3rd Callum Jakovich

Grade 2 : 1st Angelo Sadotti . 2nd Darren Loxton . 3rd Rebecca Lathwell . Grade 1 . 1st Matt McComish . 2nd Les George . 3rd Sally Dixon .

Experts : 1st Andrew Jansen . 2nd Kyle Grant . 3rd Peter Dixon All the award winner .

Other Awards went to : Encouragement Award Danielle Wiseman . Most Improved Brodie Hilder . Motorkhana Champ Adam

Wright .Wreckers Award David Laing . Auto X Champ Andrew Jansen . Female Competition Champ Kathy Miles . Male

Competition Champ Adam Wright . Female Club Member Jenny Gerdei & Kathy Miles . Male Club Member Terry Van de

wyngard . Non Competing Club Person Alex Quartermaine .

Rally Season Hots Up

The 2018 Rally season is already underway for the World Rally Championship and Australian Rally Championship with

the WA Rally Championship about to crank up on the 24th of March with the first round , the Kari Rally based in

Nyamup south east of Manjimup . It is looking like another exciting year . Monte Carlo is the traditional start to the

WRC and again it was a challenge for crews on the very changeable road conditions . As always when it is tough the

cream rises to the top and it was 5 time world champ Seb Ogier in the Ford that came out on top . Hyundai had a bad

start to the year with Sordo crashing , Mikkelsen losing an alternator belt and Neuville have electrical issues . Kiwi

rally star Hayden Padon has unfortunately only a limited program for 2018 and sat out the rally in favour of Sordo .

But he was back in the Hyundai for the next round the high speed excitement of Rally Sweden . Sweden was an about

face with the Hyundai’s having a strong event . Like it or hate it the WRC seeding for the first day of each event is

based on championship postion and with Ogiers Monte win he would be first on the snow covered roads . This would

be a distinct disadvantage and his times reflected this . He would struggle to be up to pace for the rest of the rally .

Hyundai would be the beneficiary’s as they would start at the back of the 12 car WRC field and have great road

conditions . Thierry Neuville would win the rally with Citroen driver Craig Breen have a great event to take second . In

a now strange move Citroen’s season plan now has Breen , Citroen’s highest points scorer sitting out the next round

in favour of 7 times world champ and rally legend Sebastien Loeb . The next round is Rally Mexico .

The first round of the ARC was last weekend , the Eureka Rally in Ballarat , Victoria . Returning to do battle this year is

2016 champ Molly Taylor in her WRX , Eli Evans with WA co-driver Ben Searcy in the Mini , the WA teams of Brad

Markovic and Toni Feaver and O’dowd and Shiel in the Maximum Motorsport Subaru’s and Adrian Coppin in the WA

built and run Race Torque Engineering Peugeot . But it was Harry Bates in the AP4 Toyota Yaris that took out the

round from experienced rally competitor Steve Glenney in a WRX in second and Glen Raymond 3rd in an EVO 9 . The

next round is our big event for the year, the Make Smoking History Forest Rally on the weekend of the 27th to the 29th

of April . Once again SWTCC will be assisting with officials on all 3 days and if you are interested in getting involved

keep an eye out for info on the Facebook page .

Racing Red Datto

Terry Van de

wyngaurd had a

great day at the

1st rd of the

WAVSCC season

,the Ice Breaker

event at the

Collie Motorplex

taking 2nd in

classic regularity