The second outright finish by the Anglomoil Side By Side Rally Team at the International Rally of Queensland in June was an historic moment for crew members Nathan Chivers and Peter Harris.
It was Nathan’s first podium in Queensland and his first since acquiring the turbocharged Can Am Maverick SXS racer at the start of the season. Peter, who has been a rally co-driver for over 20 years, celebrated his first spraying of champagne at an Australian Rally Championship event.
The 234 kilometre/18 special stage rally was held over two days and being an endurance round, the teams had to finish the entire course to score points.
The clock was ticking when Nathan arrived in Queensland after having raced in the Tatts Finke Desert Race the weekend before. Everything had to be changed – suspension, brakes, tyres, ride height – to suit the faster hard packed forest roads west of the Sunshine Coast. The service crew only had two days to get the job done.
As soon as the rally started the duo knew something wasn’t right. The turbo SXS normally peaks at 129 kilometres per hour but they were barely making 110. Nathan had broken the exhaust system on a sharp rock in the desert the weekend before and lost power. The turbo motor requires back pressure to maintain horse power and it was thought that there might be another crack in the pipe.
At the Saturday night service park they found the split – interestingly enough in the same place as Tatts Finke - and fixed it. However, on Sunday the lack of power continued and the crew began to wonder if sand had got into the clutch during the desert endurance race.
“It was frustrating because the car is capable of so much more and I was really getting a hang of the roads,” said Nathan. “The large rocks on the roads caused a number of high profile rally teams to crash out of the event or break down so we were lucky to make it all the way through. A big rock broke the exhaust pipe and smashed the brake caliper on one wheel. I only had brakes to three wheels. Another rock was almost like an arrow, it managed to penetrate the deep tread on a tyre by more than 30 millimetres and give us a flat. So, I wasn’t happy with our stage times.”
Peter, in contrast, was happy with how they performed.
“Despite us being way down on power the Anglomoil SXS set quicker times than most of the purpose built turbo all wheel drive rally cars competing in the Queensland State Rally Championship class. For example, our car outpaced Subaru WRX’s, a Holden Commodore and a Mitsubishi Evolution 8! Nathan was giving it everything he had. We crossed the finish line only five minutes behind the winner who is a former Asia Pacific rally champion and when you consider that we achieved this while giving away so much speed it really was a big result for the team.”
He added that Australia is the only country in the world where Can Am Maverick turbo SXS’s are raced competitively and as the car is developed it will get even quicker. The Anglomoil team’s next event is Rally Australia in September.
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