RallyNSW Ultimate Navigator competition winner, Michelle Van Der Wilk, had her first event last weekend at the Light Car Club of Canberra’s Tidbinbilla Rallysprint.
As part of the prize, Michelle will get to sit in with Charlie Drake for five events throughout 2016, and the stages south west of Canberra proved a huge test for her.
Michelle has never competed in a rally car prior to the Rallysprint and is being mentored by well know professional co-driver, Bernie Webb, from Smoothline Pacenotes.
Bernie and Michelle spent a day together in early March and went into a bit more detail on the challenges that face co-drivers on event. They worked on writing pacenotes, the abbreviations used, timing of calls, and rally schedules. A short video of the day can be seen below.
On Sunday morning at 8am, reecce started on the two stages, run both anti-clockwise and clockwise - a total of three runs of each stage in both directions. Tight and technical stages would mean that Michelle would be busy during recce and when the action started.
Charlie was impressed from the start of the day on how Michelle performed.
“One of the areas I thought Michelle would struggle with was writing the notes I use on recce. We had looked at a clips of the stages the car club had put on the event page and there was a lot of places where drains, culverts and rocks were sticking out waiting to grab a wheel, so I knew detailed notes had to be made,” Drake said.
“The first stage of recce I kept asking Michelle if i was going too fast or putting in too much detail, but she had no problem whatsoever. The only time we stopped on recce was when I pulled in to correct my own description of a corner. That really impressed me, she had studied the abbreviations and had the confidence to write down what I was calling without hesitation.”
Stage 1 got underway at 11am, and although a little nervous Michelle got strapped in to the car and put on her new Stilo helmet and HANS device, which was part of the winner’s prize pack. V-Sport in Sydney jumped at the chance to sponsor this equipment.
As the day progressed so did Michelle's confidence. Stage times improved and by the end of the day Charlie and Michelle were trading times with ARC regulars Mick Patton and Molly Taylor.
The car and crew finished the day without a scratch and after getting thrown in the deep end, Michelle cannot wait for the next event on the RallyNSW Ultimate Navigating Competition calendar.
Charlie was impressed with how the the day went and when asked if he would be happy to have Michelle in the car again replied:
“Absolutely. She really did get thrown in the deep end here, very tricky stages on notes. Initially we planned a blind rally as our first event, but after speaking with Bernie we decided that Michelle had the skill set to start off with a noted event.
“I was impressed how she handled the nerves and had the confidence to back herself from the get go. It was a fun day and I felt very comfortable with Michelle in the car. Bring on the next event,” Drake said.
Stay tuned to RallyNSW for Michelle’s Blog and more videos and in-car footage from the weekend’s action.
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