Car 44 Repco Reliability Retrial 2019

Finished..

Day 26- 27. Lightning Ridge- Bathurst- Lakes Entrance. What an amazing contrast of Australia in two days- Outback, Snowy Mountains area and East Coast again. Nice time was had at Mt Panorame, but the start this morning at the top was quite chilli. Our adventure concludes tomorrow at
Melbourne Showgrounds. 14 782 klm finished now!!! Has gone so quick!!!

Day 24 and 25. Bowen- Springsure- Lightening Ridge. Event total now 13 543 klm. Such a change from the East Coast tropics to the Outback again. Temp tonight about 3 degrees. Everything is going well, the days and klm pass quickly. Three days before the end in Melbourne!!!

Day 23. First day of the last leg ( Cairns - Melbourne) . Passed the 12 000 klm mark today. Was a great day, beautiful scenery, special stages with gates, creek crossings, meeting original entrants etc, Back inland tomorrow to Springsure.. camping again.

In the original Repco in 1997, 13 cars qualified in completing the event, out of over 200 entries. In this event, over discussion at dinner, we realised only three or four have completed every stage available to us, we are one of them!!! So proud of our team, sponsors and Tonto.

Arrived in Cairns, one day rest stop before the final leg back to Melbourne. 11 412 klm now completed in the event. Nice to sea the east coast and have grass to walk on!!! All good!!

Arrived Charters Towers at end of day 20. Nice change in environment from “the desert”. Tonto had a major mishap, first of the event, Rear Tyre disappeared in a cloud of smoke!! Cairns tomorrow

End of day 19, some car maintenance, tour of Mt Isa and then a stage tonight. 6am start tomorrow to Charters Towers! Melbourne from here is 2 008 klm as the crow flies, 5 000 klm our way....

End of days 17 and 18 from Darwin to Mt Isa via Daly Waters ( 618 and 1 009 Kim’s). We have now completed 10 091 klm of the event, 5 000 to go. Special stage tonight in Mt Isa then onto Charters Towers tomorrow. Car is performing well. Big surprise meetup with Eric Hutton in Darwin, after about 35 years!!!

Well done Bob.... Team Captain!!!

https://www.triplem.com.au/shows/moffee-for-breakfast/catch-up/kRMYoztBrEuTiaquAC4vEg?fbclid=IwAR34zZNDb_bz7VC7wpfgnSymVHEpqfJGxfxKesLhsh71SQh-jqKhtMp-GV0

Bob Carle Calls In From Darwin on the Repco Around Australia Rally Rerun Moffee For Breakfast

We have now arrived in Darwin, end of leg two, and have a two day rest. Nice not to be up @ 5 am with a thousand klm to be covered. Weather is hot and tropical, far distant from our frozen nights a few days ago across the Australian bight. We have travelled now 8379 klms in the event ( almost 10 k with travel to the start in Melbourne, two weeks ago today!). Tonto is travelling well, just needs a service etc for our third leg across to Cairns. A few photos of Broome to Darwin.. almost 2 000 klm last two days!!

Day 13, Broome to Kununurra, longest day 1039 klm. Stop at Fitzroy Crossing.... Emergency fuel has arrived

Today’s ( Day 12) start @ Port Hedland (off to Broome) Total Distance now 5 933 klm. Pic also show the Commodore group yesterday @ Chocolate Truffle... After a 50 klm detour to get there found it wasn’t Chocolate Truffle after all and the organisers didn’t know where it was... nice drive thought. Also some kids from a locals school enjoying Tonto!

Today is day 12 Karratha- Port
Hedland via the infamous Chocolate Ruffle pass. We have now completed 5 538 klm, about 10 000 to the finish. Some photos here of car 207 (original number from the 1979 Repco- Holden FJ ) getting a new axle and a couple of shots over the last couple of days- Hutt river Province, Carnarvon Space Station. Tonto is performing well!!

Lunch @ Billabong Roadhouse ( Geraldton- Carnarvon)

Start of day, Geraldton

Today ( Monday) We are venturing out to the 2nd Leg of the Repco Around Australia Retrial. The 2nd leg, Perth to Darwin heads up the west coast, overnights at Geraldton, Canarvon, Karratha, Port Headland, Broome, Kununurra arriving Darwin Sunday night. This leg totals 4385 klm so, with two rather long days for the team (832 & 1039 klm)

The first leg, Melbourne- Perth totalled 3995 klm. Event total on arrival is 8 379 over the two weeks.

Last night attended Fleetwood Mac in Perth/ awesome

Some photos of us on the circuit this morning.

Morning start @ Wanneroo Raceway heading to Geraldton today

Bob Carle Finally some inspiration from the Targa for a few mods to Car 44 ‘ Tonto’ from the Banshee car. Our aim is not to lose the dust from Car 14. Busy afternoon/ night ahead!!

Today, in Perth at the
Targa City Sprint. Beautiful morning here. Scrutineering for the Targa done and dusted

In between sections @ Kellerberrin.. slight knock in suspension (Bilstein), quick check and off we go!!!

Roll off at Kalgoorlie. Great to have the Commodores.. Car 17 original of Ferguson, Bell, Boddy ( 2nd in 1979) with the legend Barry Ferguson on board, and replicas of the other HDT Commodores ( Brock, Philip, Richards and Mehta, Aaltonen and Lake. ) Of interest is the replica Commodore the “Mule”, test car for the HDT team

Team is tired, hungry and wanting to wash off the dust and mud @ Kalgoorlie

Arrived Kalgoorlie, all good, tomorrow Perth.... camping again!

On the Nullabour!

Bit of a problem with fuel yesterday, also some of the 1979 wrecks!!!

Start at Eucla, 2461 klm done 900 today!!

On the road yesterday, reached Border towns last night, leaving Eucla now. 2461 klm down, 900 today.

Cold start in Ceduna- wind blowing directly from Antarctica we think