Justin Friedrichs reunited with his first ever navigator, Matt Monto, behind the wheel of his Datsun 1600 at the recent Robertstown Rally in South Australia.
After a seven year hiatus from rallying, Friedrichs was delighted to win the Classic class in the event, a round of the SA State Rally Championship, which was held on August 8.
Competitors were offered a variety of surfaces, featuring fast long straights, sweeping corners, hair raising jumps, numerous crests, muddy creek crossings and some tight technical sections amongst the bushes and farmland.
Additionally, the inclusion of a Classic category gave rally machines of the yesteryear like Friedrichs’s 1970 Datsun a chance to compete with modern and highly modified vehicles.
Friedrichs was driving at a very competitive pace from the get go. After a nightmare start where the ignition failed just after the starting line, intercom issues, running out of legs in fifth gear max revs on too many long straights and a blown front tyre near the start of the last stage, he managed to record some decent times, including some fourth outright times and several fastest 2WD times. He and Monto also managed to finish as the leading the classic car, despite at least driving for ten kilometres on a flat tyre.
Before the event, the only request from Monto was to finish, considering Friedrichs' last race at Robertstown ended him with him hitting into a fence.
“Walking away with a trophy this time was fantastic,” said Friedrichs.
“I had many comments from the officials and competitors remembering the ill-fated pace noting mistake many years ago.
“It was very humbling for multiple SA Rally Champ Andrew Gleeson to congratulate me on some, as he put it “Insane” times,” he added.
Friedrichs and Monto are looking forward to competing in Scouts Rally South Australia in October to get a taste of national competition and have picked up a major sponsor, TEB Contractors in Adelaide, for the event.
Photo courtesy Matt Talbot. See more of Matt's photos from Robertstown Rally here.
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