After a 20-year break from competitive rally driving, John McCredie and Nick Maude returned to rallying taking on the 2022 Local Legends Sunraysia Safari Cross Country Rally in an ex-Bruce Garland Holden Jackaroo.
The 2022 event was shortened significantly due to wet weather, with Day 2 and Day 3 cancelled. The first day of competition started with a 100km stage, followed by the shortened Tarcoola 25km test. The final day was just one stage, but at 232km, it proved to be a real test for drivers and cars.
The event was plagued with issues for the OHM productions Holden Jackaroo. Overheating slowed the progress of the team, and on the final day, the overheating saw the team drop over 10 positions on the leader board.
“It was a great event despite our issues”, said John McCredie. “We had a lot of fun, and it was great to be back in a rally car after so many years”.
“The first stage was a bit of a challenge. We were quicker than a few of the cars in front of us and quickly caught them and having to deal with their dust. We had a bit of a close call at one point! I was too focussed on the dust and not listening to Nick and all of a sudden, we were going the wrong way, missing a turn right and almost taking out a fence post”, he continued.
“We were running brand new Kumho MT71s tyres on the Jackaroo and we had no idea how they would perform or wear. It was all a bit of an unknown, but they were faultless. The grip level was just right and with not one puncture, it was giving us confidence to push a bit harder.”
“We settled in pretty quickly to a good rhythm and were comfortable with our pace. But with about 30km to go in the first stage, the temperature started to rise. We backed off a bit to control the temp and headed to service in Pooncarie. The boys pulled the inlet manifold off to get to the thermostat and discovered it had dislodged and jammed closed. So, they stripped the centre out, put it back together and we headed to the next stage.”
“The overheating returned, so we knew it was more serious. We made the decision to use some Nulon head gasket repair as it was clear that we had a head gasket issue with the engine compression pushing the water out of the system. We went for a test drive, and the repair fluid seemed to have worked.”
“In the final stage on Saturday, it quickly became obvious that we hadn’t fixed the issue and we had to stop 8 times in the stage to fill the radiator with water. And then we would stop to fill the water bottles at cattle troughs.”
“Every time we stopped, 5 cars would pass us and then we’d catch them and pass. Only to stop and have them all pass us again”, McCredie lamented.
“But we made the most of it, pushing on and just trying to have a bit of fun. Amazingly the engine didn’t blow up and we finished the stage and the rally. I was quite amazed the car made it considering how hot it was.” McCredie said.
The final results saw the team finish 22nd outright in the Auto Division out of 33 cars.
The team are planning to rebuild the engine and be back for the next Sunraysia event and look at other opportunities to run the Jackaroo.
“Nick and I would also like to thank our dedicated service crew. They were quickly on top of every issue. Nathan McCredie, Brett Middleton and Steve Kennedy did an awesome job and I can’t thank them enough”, McCredie concluded.
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