The last year or so has been a bit of a rollercosater – for those not following along at home the last 18 months has seen:

Crashed the 240z at Adelaide Rally 2022

Bought a new 350z (retail therapy)

Crashed the 350z at Lake Mountain Sprint 2023

Finally rebuilt the engine for the Elfin

Blew up the engine in the 350z

Blew up the new engine in the Elfin.

Built a fresh engine for the 350z.

Built a fresh engine for the Elfin.

Finally completed a rally again at Lake Mountain Sprint 2024 (with a trophy).

So there have been a few challenges and both the driving and engine building skills have been seriously tested with a healthy dose of self reflection thrown in for good measure.

With a fresh engine, new tyres and a stern talking to we set our sights on returning to Lake Mountain for some unfinished business.

Lake Mountain Sprint is the first round of the AASA Australian Tarmac Rally Championship and is based out of the beautiful township of Mansfield, Victoria. While the 2023 event ended early for us in the scenery, the 2024 event dawned with dry tarmac and no snow and seventy crews ready to tackle the challenging alpine roads.

With two DNF's in a row we were determined to get a finish on the books for this event with a zero risk approach and blissful ignorance of the stage results until the end of the day. Spoiler alert – we managed 30th outright and 3rd in the Early Modern class and brought the car home without a scratch.

But this doesn’t tell any of the story really. It’s fair to say that with two crashes in two rallies, both on the first or second competitive stage, my confidence was at an all time low and the thought of returning to the scene of the crime for another wet rally wasn't at all palatable.

So we did our best to mitigate the risks and allay our fears before the event started.

Firstly, we went over the circumstances of the last crash – new car, wet and unfamiliar stages, ABS that failed in the first stage. The 350z is at least 300KG heavier than the old 240z and has a much bigger tyre with large power assisted brakes. When the ABS failed it was almost inevitable that my inexperience with that combination was going to be exposed. In fact, I hadn’t even driven the car in the rain before the event.

So we did some homework, changed to a smaller tyre on the front, invested in a second set of wheels for dedicated "wet" tyres and fitted a tyre rack onto the trailer. Plus, replaced all the ABS sensors in the car, purchased a decent scan tool and entered some more track days to put in some serious seat time.

And while the event turned out to be dry, the ABS never failed (although I believe I only actually activated it twice) and now we have a decent tyre option for the next inevitably wet event (Victoria in winter, what are the odds?).

We also did some work with the data logger on the car, the original setup had no way to log the oil pressure and given we had lost an engine this year it was important to get that covered so we could at least see what was going on.

Then we looked at the stages. We allowed plenty of time for recce and spent a bit of time identifying the particularly slippery and bumpy spots (there were a few) and making sure they were well noted.

But the big item to review was the nut behind the wheel. A car won’t drive itself off the road so a reality check was required to ensure that our approach to the event was a zero risk – finish at all costs deal with a complete disregard for the results and the stage times.

And it worked, we completed every stage, no mishaps or close calls. Sure, a few more cars caught and passed us mid stage than we are used to and our class leader was more than 10 mins faster overall but we still outlasted a few crews and came home with 3rd in Early Modern. Result.

So we're back in the saddle, but don’t expect to see any blistering stage times anytime soon. The next two events at Snowy River and Baw Baw are both new to us with unfamiliar roads and stages and unpredictable weather.

The zero risk approach might just be the new default setting.

Back on the Horse - Lake Mountain Sprint 2024