Condobolin, the centre of NSW was the venue of the Condo 750. Two days over easter approximately 890klms of which 416k was on public roads and 474k of selective stages (racing) on fast farm tracks, tight and twisty gullies and rocky sections.
Well, I was looking for something different, I just had to gear up for it. Navigation equipment, blinkers, mudflaps all had to be addressed, as we would have to drive on public roads to get to selective stages. Go to RTA and fill in permit to operate unregistered vehicle. We also had to run to CAMs cross country and technical regs, not off-road regs. All done, we are here.
Thirty-one autos entered including four buggies, myself with Peter Calvert navigating, Ian Irons, John Fraser and Dalby and Ray from Broken Hill - a fantastic, enthusiastic service crew from Sorra club. Also starting was seventy-five bikes and nine quads. The cars do north loop while the bikes do south, then swap around next day.
We started nervously driving through the main centre of town, 7.30 Saturday morning on a fifty kilometre road section to the start of the first selective. They start us on selective stages one or two minutes apart. Great terrain, no dust, no arrows, better learn to navigate real quick. No problems, ninety kilometres, we only missed a few turns, what a hoot.
Oh well, what do you know, next selective, gearbox failure, our race is run. The three other buggies had a good run, but the rain came, and the last selective stage was cancelled. Only four DNFs on the autos in todays leg.
Leg two. South loop, three selective stages, buggies had another good run, although Ian suffered a flat tyre in the last stage. Twenty-five autos finished the event. Results www.condo750.com.au
Overall I would say we had a ball - drivers, navigators, crew alike. We will be back. Thank you to all who helped over the weekend. Some interesting points:
Not a car breaker type of event
Dont cover same territory twice
No reconaissence (just your navigating and driving ability)
Yep! we sure had great service crews and a big learning curve for some. A great time was had by all. The service crews managed to get a little time to take some pics as well as getting to & from service points.They also cover a lot of miles in this event , it is a top weekend. If you ever get the chance to do the CONDO 750 DO IT!
Hi I have competed at the Condo 750 for a few years now, I was please to see that four buggies had entered this year. I love the concept of this event, the co-driver is more like a navigator, and I am sure they would enjoy being a lot more involved in the event, as they have to read instructions and give accurate directions. I think it is quite quaint getting an unregistered vehicle permit and driving for 100km on the main roads. My co-driver David Adam and I had an average run in the event. On the first day a stone cut my brake lining about 30 km into the first competitive section which was approx 90 km long. I can tell you it takes a lot of concentration to drive without brakes. In fact we could not fix them at the service point, and ended up driving the whole day (approx 400 km) without brakes. We had other things go wrong like the terra trip failing (we got lost when we had no idea of our km distances), I lost all the gears except 3rd but still manage to do the last 150km in that gear, lossing time but still got to the finish. With all our minor problems we finished 16th outright and won first 2 wheel drive and 1st buggy.
-- Edited by Friz on Wednesday 22nd of April 2009 08:31:05 PM
just thought i would add a bit to this topic as well. i went to this event to work as pit crew for ian irons and also helped out jeff thomas. i took tons of photos of the event but not on my camera so as soon as i get them i will put them up.
from a pit crew point of view the weekend was great we covered about the same miles as the races and had to get to the service points before the racers.(plenty of time as long as you don't get lost) you are given a set of race notes just like the racers get and have to follow them to a t to get to where you need to be. as pit crew you have to be on the ball because you only get 10min to fuel and check the cars over before they need to be gone.
once you get the hang of it all you are able to get in front of the racers and see some great racing. i will go back next year as it's just something a bit different.
