Unit G21 2A Victoria
Avenue Castle Hill
2154 p: 02 9659 0811 f: 02 9659 0833
The BEMW Rally Team Results
2009 Currently Leading the AMSAG 2WD Modern Rally Championship 2008 AASA 2WD Modern Rally Champions 2008 AMSAG Modern 2WD Championship 2nd Outright 2007 Forster Great Lakes Rally 2WD Outright Champions 2006 2WD(over 2 Litre) Class NSW State Rally Champions
Cowra Services Rally WIns 1st Outright Open (2WD) and takes 2nd Outright!
The BEMW Rally Team is proud to announce its best result to date, with a category win and 2nd outright amongst a field of over forty competitors. Held in the beautiful Cowra region four hours west of Sydney, the rally took place over 15 stages on Saturday and Sunday last weekend.
The team arrived late on Friday night in time to make documentation before bedding early for a 5:30am start on Saturday morning.
Cowra provided beautiful weather across both days, with perfect sunshine and cloudless skies seeing temperatures reaching the mid-to-high twenties. The first transport stage saw the team head north-east, passing through the stunning iridescent yellow landscape that is Cowra’s canola plantations.
Only one significant change had been made to the car since the last round in Sunny Corner, with the fuel tank having been relocated to the boot. This followed several incidents involving the factory tank being damaged by being pounded with rocks on rough sections of track. The new tank represented a true collaborative effort, with Mark supplying the external dimensions to co-driver Matt, who then custom-modelled the new design in 3D (he is from The Other Dimension, after all...). Specialised software was used to get the required volumes for the unusually-shaped space. Together, Mark and Matt also designed the internal baffles to reduce fuel surge in cornering. Matt then output the CAD files to be sent on to rally colleague Rob Alexander (who ran Car 42, a Series 1 RX-7 at Cowra). Rob’s metal fabrication business - Hardware Products - then supplied the aluminium lasercut to size for Mark to weld and install the completed tank, with all the necessary plumbing. The results speak for themselves - not only did the car complete the rally without any fuel issues, but the workmanship of the installation turned heads at the service park as well. This relocation also allowed for a V8 Supercar-styled exhaust, exiting from the sill in front of the driver's side rear wheel. (see 2nd photo below).
Mark and Matt started the event seeded a respectable 5th position, amongst turbo and four-wheel drive company. However, the car’s reliability proved to be enough to see them lift two places to third position by the afternoon as two of the leading cars retired with mechanical issues.
The shire roads’ smooth surfaces and long, open stretches provided the perfect opportunity to stretch the BMW’s legs - bouncing off the rev limiter in 5th gear, the car reached speeds of almost 200km/h. Quick by any measure, this feat is all the more impressive on dirt roads.
An incident during the second forest stage saw the BMW take a heavy impact to the off-side rear, splitting the rim and bending the rear arm. The wheel travelled up sufficiently to cause panel damage to the rear guard, pushing it out with the impact. However, somewhat miraculously, the tyre maintained pressure and got the car to the service park with it’s occupants unaware of the damage that had been sustained. A keen eye from one of the service crew (hats off to Cameron) spotted the damage to the inside of the rim and led to the team switching to the alternate set of rear wheels.
Without a doubt, the hairiest moment of the weekend came as the car slightly overshot a corner and found itself at an angle of ‘pretty damn close to rolling’ as the back of the car slid off the side of the road and pulled the car sideways onto the steep shoulder. Encouraged by Matt’s fervent shouts of ‘Keep it going! Keep it going! Keep it going!’, Mark kept the power down to eventually drive the car out of the ditch and back onto the track, with only a minor loss of time and a slightly increased heart-rate to testify to how close a call it had been.
By comparison, the rest of the day finished quickly yet uneventfully with the team managing to climb to second place by the end of Saturday’s tenth and final stage.
Sunday morning saw Mark and Matt looking to close the one-minute gap to first place as they headed out onto the fast-paced shire roads once more. However, a strong performance by the leading car meant that the BEMW team remained in second position as they entered the final stage.
Woodstock Speedway provided a great venue for both spectators and drivers, together with an opportunity to thank the RFS volunteers by way of some thrilling hot-laps.
The BEMW car once again performed strongly in this stage, not only in terms of lap times but also in terms of spectator engagement. It seems that in a world of smaller engines, bigger engines, and turbo engines somewhere in between, there’s something about a worked BMW six-cylinder engine at full noise that always appeals to the crowd.
Mark and Matt finished the day in a highly impressive 2nd place outright, securing the BEMW Rally Team its best result to date.
The team owes their success to the assistance of their sponsors: Sydney-Wide European Autos, Penrite, and Sonax car care products. The BEMW Rally Team were proud to host Penrite manager Steve Dodsworth, who made the trip to Cowra to watch the team race and see the benefits of their competition-grade lubricants in action. Steve definitely caught the rally bug and seems to be split between supporting the BEMW car in future and creating his own competitive entry!
Anyone interested can view some video footage of the BEMW Rally team in action on Youtube - just search for 'BEMW Rally Team' or follow via the website www.bemwrally.com.
Once again Mark, Matt and the BEMW Rally Team would like to thank the businesses that support the team and ask that where possible you support them. You can click on their names to link to their websites:
For more information on AMSAG and the 2009 AMSAG Rally Series please visit: www.amsag.com.au
Regards,
The BEMW Team.
Previous Rally Updates:
► Update 1: Manning Valley -
click here
► Update 2: Bega - click here
► Update 3: Canberra - click here ► Update 4: Cowra -
click here ► Update 5: Jenolan -
click here ► Update 6: Bathurst -
click here
Rally Videos & Downloads
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