Adelaide Rally 2025

This all came about because I discovered if rally competitors failed to provide a volunteer for the rally they would incur a time penalty. 

So I contacted a bunch of competitors offering me as their volunteer in exchange for having my company displayed on their car.

F1 cars always have IT sponsors, so the idea of getting my company on a rally car seemed about as close as I'll ever get.

I struck a deal with Roy Adams of car No. 5hundred&nine; a silver NB MX-5 entered in the time-speed-distance category. For all three days I would be his nominated volunteer, and where needed pinch parts from my MX-5 if anything went wrong (it didn't). Roy was a cool bloke, even dropped past the shed.

In exchange a low-key version of the logo went on the car. It felt unreal. I wasn't going to get any new work from it, but it marked a win for making shit happen.

So eventually Friday rolled around.

My stage commander was some lovely old fella called Neville. He had white mutton chops and explained what to do. I'm a bit of a flog when it comes to basic instructions. 

Actually, they were so simple I felt I was better off ignoring them and figuring out what had to be done in the moment.

I was hanging out with some engineering students. The SA sporting car club sponsors a bunch of stuff they do so they were also obligated to be there. One young fella shared my attitude. He was a make-shit-happen type who'd managed to befriend the owner of a Mclaren P1, who had him sit in it. He also developed a crush on some wealthy car enthusiasts trophy wife. Throughout the day he'd remind me she gave him some kind of instigating look. Later on I drove him home - his new crush probably heading back to some expensive restaurant in a big dollar euro-auto.

I didn't sit in anything notable but had my fair share of cheeky banter, as I pretended to have any authority over where they parked. One old money looking fella in a merc stuck his hand out to give me something as he pulled in. It was an Allen's minty. I wasn't sure how to feel about the gift so I just decided to make it a goal of mine to do the same one day. 

Real happiness landed when fiveOnine arrived and the angst it crashed was over. They called the crash over the radio but not the numbers or vehicle makes so I was starting to panic a little with the late arrival.

For a first allocation I'd landed a cruisey gig. See the whole field, get free food, and meet good people. Car wise the only thing I took photos of was some Mitsubishi from the Indonesian rally team. It kinda looked like the Mitsubishi Grandis I drove on my P-plates.

I overheard it's the number one selling car in Indonesia at the moment.

Saturday was a different story.

New bloke giving out orders. This time I listened closely. It was bucketing with rain so I was keen to not get tasked with a crappy post. We taped up gates and fences to stop residents entering the road. 

Heading back to the meeting point meant pulling a u-turn in the wet. I tried to whip a one80 skid in the ute. Bad driver + the way the ute pegs it did more of a 320ish leaving me still facing the wrong way and in need of a second u-turn. Flog behaviour.

Gregory - my stage commander paired me up with some other old fella and we went to our allocated position before they closed the road off. The old fella taught me how to communicate on the radios correctly. I asked why he choose to volunteer?

Similar boat to me, time penalty. His grandson was in a different class competing in a WRX.

We had a long chat about his life, career, leaving Tasmania and more. I remembered a ted talk I'd watched at uni. Mike Dronkers explained the trick to interviewing is to just shut the fuck up and listen.

So that's what I did. The old fella talked the whole time. But the moment I really remember is when he said;

"Me and the boys would go to Summernats."

"We'd work every day the month before. We worked like niggers." 

"That's what you gotta do to get ahead." 

I just pursued the Mike Dronkers strategy.

The rain was on and off heavy but I had an umbrella. Seeing who was gunning it and who was cautious was entertaining.

 

Sunday.

 

The finale. I slept in for 30 minutes longer then I should have. I'd spent the night in Seaford which meant I was closer to where I had to be, and taking some fantastic roads to get there.

 

   

Day three was more of the same...

Taping stuff up, leaving my post to chat with the drone operator, getting told off, leaving my post again to help the bloke from Little Bang Brewing unload his ute, getting chewed out, giving people incorrect directions, pretending to listen to more instructions, etc, etc.

 

Eventually I got a good gig sending off the rally cars and counting in the tours. That was pretty fun.

But after a while, when everything seemed under control (& my mates had arrived) I checked the time and it was beer'o'clock so I wagged my post once more to get amongst the crowd for a bit.

It didn't take long to reach a collective verdict, Strath is a must-head-there for next years rally. The town stages are wonderfully entertaining, the pubs are class, food good, machines attention-grabbing, although, I did have a moment where I began to question my sexuality.

I was walking across a bridge ignoring all the display cars to investigate if the Saab I could see in the distance was an Aero. About halfway across the bridge I wondered (despite no sexual attraction to men) does this make me gay?

I mean I drive a VE ute, an MX-5 and a Subaru. Not helping.

Anyway I arrived to discover it was a very nice 900 Turbo survivor that had been up-dressed. OEM+ (pic taken later)

Two blokes were polishing it. We had a chat, chewin the fat that is Swedish cars. One bloke gave me a fridge magnet with his business on it - a Saab mechanic and wrecker. I told him I will visit to pester him further and if possible write about him. Both blokes owned the car together. As I walked back to my post it clicked, I'm not gay - they are. 

Awards for participation have always sorta been my ceiling. While car509 didn't end up making the podium it finished 10th. In the top 10 for STD is a win in my book. Oh and I got a free cap, which I'm always a massive sucker for.