by Bev Randall

Sara Randall and her Toyota Levin

The New Zealand Rally Championship is a series of six rallies - some only two weeks apart - run throughout the winter months. As the mother of rally driver Sara Randall, I serve as “Team Mum” for the crew. Preparation for a rally begins as soon as the previous rally has finished. The car comes off the finish ramp and is driven back to the motel where the service crew water blast it to clean it and do a quick check to make sure nothing major is wrong.

After the initial clean and check, we tow the car home and give it a thorough going over - stripping down many parts of it to check for damage. The car is then stored away ready for the next event. On rally weekend, our team can consist of up to 10 people. This means a lot of planning is required to make sure nutritious meals can be served which will ensure they all perform at the very best. It is especially important for our driver Sara to be fed & hydrated properly as she is only around 90 pounds and dehydrates very rapidly.

Some meals are prepared prior to the event, but there is a lot of sandwich making, etc. that goes on during the event. We also tend to go through a lot of hot soup to counteract the effects of the cold and damp conditions in which we have to service the car!

Team Mum, co-driver and driver try to get to the event a few days prior to the official start so they can be rested and fresh for their task ahead. Reconnaisance (recce) is held usually the day before the rally so that the drivers & co-drivers are able to make any necessary changes to the stage notes they are given. These notes are vital to ensure the cars can travel at very quick speeds over the roads without any 'surprises'. The notes given to the competitors have corners with ratings from a 1 up to an 8 (1 being very tight) - we find most competitors tweak these calls a bit to be able to driver faster. Sara and her co-driver Carl tend to turn them from stage notes into attack notes.

Prior to the rally event, the cars are thoroughly scrutineered by MotorSport NZ officials to make sure they are in a safe condition to compete at the event. They are then put in a Parc Ferme (secured car park) where the crews are unable to touch them until the first service next morning.

The car at a Service Park

The morning of the rally is an exciting time - the crews are all fed good, nutritious breakfasts, and the first truckload is sent out to secure a good spot at the service park. The second crew vehicle takes the driver and co-driver to where their car is parked, and they then tour to the first stage.

One of our favourite rallies is the International Rally of Rotorua (an APRC round and a NZRC round), an intense, two-day competition. First car out of Park Ferme is released at 7am , and tours 81 miles to Service Park A, where they are only allowed to re-fuel and change tyres (20 minute service). We had one service car here waiting, while the other went on to Service Park B. The rally cars then went on to compete in special stages (Stage1: 9m), Stage 2: (7.6m), and Stage 3 (15.14m). There was a supplementary fuel stop after Stage 3, and the service vehicle was waiting with fuel to allow the car to make it to Service B.

Service B is a 20 minute service where the crew jack up the car, take all tyres off, check the underneath for any problems, spanner check to make sure everything is tightened up, check under the bonnet for any problems, attend to anything Sara may have noticed or is concerned about, wash the windows, water blast the car so it is clean and still shows off the sponsors' logos, then re-fuel the car. During this time, Sara and her co-driver sit, eat and drink!

The crew finishes the car & sends Sara out to do the next two special stages (Stages 4 & 5). These two stages are the famous Motu 1 (11.98m) & 2 (16.75m), and can be very hard on the cars, as they are tight and twisty (with huge drops off the side of the road and unforgiving banks!).

Luckily, Sara and Carl came back into Service C with no problems (and great times). The same procedure, in the same time and they are sent back out to rally Stage 6 (20.44m) and Stage 7 (15.65m). There is a supplementary refuel after Stage 6, so the second service vehicle is sent out to cover that and then dashes back in time to make Service D. This service is 45 minutes, as after this stop, there is a 200km drive back to Rotorua and Parc Ferme where the cars are locked up for the night. During this service we give the car another thorough check over and install road tyres.

The first day has seen the rally car cover over 96.25km of special stages and 263km of touring stages. Dinner that night consists of a high carb meal to set everyone up for the next day. Everyone climbs into bed for a good sleep before an early rise in the morning.

One of the scariest times of the whole rally is waiting to see if the car starts the next day - usually it is a cold frosty morning & some of the cars tend to give a few nervous moments! The cars are released from Parc Ferme and are driven straight into the first service area. This service lasts 20 minutes and is mainly a re-fuel and change back to rally tyres. The car is sent on its way to rally Stage 8 (15m), Stage 9 (10.96m), and Stage 10 (10.83m).

A supplementary refuel sends them on to Stage 11 (6.10m) and then they are on to Service F (20 minutes), where we repeat the procedure of the day before.

Stage 12 (12.73m) and Stage13 (5m) follow and then Service G is the final service where we make sure the cars are spick and span and ready to drive over the ceremonial finish ramp, which is an agonizing 30km back in Rotorua.

Sara Randall

Leg 2 total is 60km special stage and 110.6km touring stage. The roads are primary council roads on the first day and forestry roads on the second. All roads are gravel surface. The cars are timed during their special stages and the car with the lowest time to compete the rally is the winner. The end of the rally is followed by a prize award ceremony, and then we pack up and head back home only to start the whole process again.

The reason I chose this rally as our favourite? We won the New Zealand Rally Championship Two Wheel Drive class here in 2003!

Editor's Note:

New Zealand Rally Championship driver Sara Randall lives in Bulls, New Zealand , and drives a 1997 Toyota Levin, with hopes of moving up to a four wheel drive - possibly a Mitsubishi Evolution 5 – in 2005. Sara hopes one day to compete as a works driver in the World Rally Championship. Team Mum, Bev Randall has been involved in rallying for five years – since Sara discovered she loved the sport. We are grateful to Bev for sharing her race experiences in this article, and for her volunteering her expertise as web editor here at Thunder Valley Racing!

Sara's Thunder Valley Racing Profile

Sara's Website

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