Dave Laird: Travel: Telstra Rally Australia

In a word -- WOW! This was the first car rally I'd ever been to, and I absolutely loved it! I've seen rallying on TV a few times before but like most things, nothing compares to first hand experience. Even if it's just spectator experience.

What I truly love about rallying is seeing the drivers push their cars seemingly beyond the laws of physics. Taking a several thousand pound highly tuned machine and propelling it at speeds freater than 150kph over ball-bearing like dirt. Barely controlling the roaring, backfiring beast during a rapid deceleration down a steep hill, cutting into a hard 180 degree hairpin turn with heavy overstear. Exploding forward again, back uphill, all four tires rabidly biting at the dirt, blasting it out behind the car like rocket propellant. Flying down steep outback hills, leaping through the air over jumps on the way down. Charging like a bull through small rivers that cross the course's path. And through all this, somehow, managing to keep the car mostly on the road. Managing to keep the car mostly right-side-up. Managing to keep the car mostly undestroyed. (And managing to keep the repair crews working like crazy to repair the damage.) It's one hell of a ride!

There's a lot of content to this section, so I've broken it down a little to keep it more organized. Here are the sections:

The Spectator Experience is my impression of what it's like to go to a rally, with lots of photos from a number of stages.

The Service Parks is a description of what goes on in the pit area while the mechanics fight to put cars back together in record time. There's a series of photos here showing the rapid replacement of some damaged bodywork and suspension after a successful race.

How It Works explains a number of concepts about rallying with descriptions of the governing organizations, an overview of the event, how the races and stages are planned, and a description of the different car classifications.

The Race Results covers what actually happened in this leg of the series -- who won, who was forced to retire and why, etc.