Some of you may recognise these faces. If you’ve come for a Rally Driving Experience with us or been a rally competitor in WA, you may have met Karen and/or Shaniece.
For the Darling 200 rally- the last event in the 2013 season, the pair teamed up to compete in one of our WRX’s.
The Darling 200 rally is run in the forests around Jarrahdale, southwest of Perth and is traditionally a hot and dusty event, running in mid November. This year was no exception with the temp hitting 37°C during the day.
What made the 2013 Darling 200 Rally special for the Rally Action team was Karen and Shaniece’s entry into the event. Normally Karen fulfils the role of navigator on state championship rallies, having driven on a rally just once before and for Shaniece, this was her very first rally as a competitor.
Shaniece celebrated her 15th Birthday just 3 days before the Darling 200 and special permission was sought from the organisers and CAMS for her to be able to compete in the rally. It was to be a unique birthday present that not many 15 year olds could lay claim to!
As the Darling 200 is a championship round for 2 wheel drive rally cars, any 4 wheel drive rally cars like the WRX have to run at the rear of the field. Karen and Shaniece started as the last car on the road (car 35).
During the rally there was much action and drama with the heat, dust and slippery ball bearing gravel taking its toll on cars and competitors. By the time our all girl team got to most parts of the special stages, there were plenty of tell tale signs that others had been struggling with the conditions.
The first 3 stages resulted in a couple of spins, whilst “dialling in” to the rally and at the first service the most major item to fix was to replace a mud flap where the cable ties holding it in place had broken. The pair were having a ball.
After the last 3 stages, the girls arrived at the finish, beaming from ear to ear as a decent sized group waited for them to arrive. Karen said she had thoroughly enjoyed herself as did Shaniece which was the major goal for the team.
After 80km of competition on some very fast and slippery roads, Karen and Shaniece finished a respectable 4th amongst the 4WD cars and 24th outright.All girls team rally finish
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