The WINS SUFFARI Adventure's of...

He's easily distracted

I just saw the photo elsewhere and it reminded me...

I don't want to rush things... Nev only just finished proof reading the first chapter... he lost his place and had to start over again...

Nev can read?

I hope Nev's reading is better than your Maths Pete . This thread started in 09 , thats Six years to finish the story by my reckoning , but worth the wait , cause my old brain had forgotten all the detail and it is as hilarious , every bit of it , as the first time I read it .

Pity most of the pics have dissapeared into the ethernet void ( attachments ???).

Love this yarn! Gets a regular read through about once a year!

Just a few for OFBM and old times sake...


























Kon-ichi wah...

Awesome read!
Thanks Troy!
Is there more coming?

I might knock out the (two conclusive) Mindl Beach finale and Presentation Dinner chapters, if I can find my pile of scrolls in some boxes (after the move 18 months ago)... other than that, the chronicles of the dynamic duo; Hiro, Legind and the supporting cask of 1000's, is pretty much a done job... as far as my hap hazard memories of the Safari's 1988 to 2000 go anyway...

This should get the DR 650 supporters up in arms... Mick had a way with words, the ideal sponsors interview...

https://www.facebook.com/#!/video.php?v=10153087794153958&pnref=story

Rumaging through some drawers on sunday night... looking for something else, quite by accident I stumbled upon the manilla folder of notes and anecdotes that I used to roughly compile Hiro and Legends memoirs (that what make up the bulk of this nonsensical thread).

I thought about adding the last two chapters... and when I took a cursory look back over the previous pages of the thread, I noticed that most of the chapters did not fare too well in the "great ADV cyber migration of 2015"... most of them are a jumble of script and code, interspersed with the original text.

For the purpose of continuity, it seems a pity just to dump the last two chapters in now... and the previous 20 something posts (that suffered in the cyber time warp) will take a bit of "re-construction" in order to make them legible again. (I tried to re-read some bits... and it was a pain in the arse for me to try and understand... and I wrote the crap! )

So for the faithfull few who might be interested, I will attempt to tart up the scrolls of Hiro and Legends Suffari chronicles, and once I have, put the final two episodes of the sandy samurai duo's adventures to bed...

I just tried to read through your report, and in the words of Melanie Safka "What have they done to your song"

Chris

Seem's that a certain amount of the type font size, colour define and smilie icon script/code din not make the jump across cyber space at warp speed Chris...

But no biggie... the new format ADV is working fine, it has some great features and advantages and majority of inmates seem at ease with it once they got a handle on the new layout...

So a bit of housekeeping to get Hiro and Legend back in shape a small job by comparison.

"Is all no probrem... berry good..." as Hiro would say...

Berry good

Kimosabe

Yep, I'd noticed the issues with Hiro, thought maybe someone had handed him a server rather than his "suffari steed" and let him loose! If you can find the time and dedication to sort the thread out again, Troy, I reckon most devotee's would shout you several beverages!

Chapter 32: The “Controllies” and “Radio Safari” - The eagle rules the airwaves…

Two Toyota Landcruiser HJ60 wagons stood by the beach head of the small dirt track that led down onto the Mindl reserve tidal flats. These were the “controllies” vehicles that the Safari competitors had come to know over the last 10 days, as Control Alpha and Control Bravo… and it was their role to perform the start and finish control procedures for this; the Safari’s final competitive stage – “The Mindl Beach Sprint!”

In their usual calm, friendly but efficient style the girls of Control Bravo* had arranged the riders and vehicle competitors outside the control zone in reverse start order. As one of the features of the beach sprint was that the victorious competitors would be the last to take the checkered flag and heralded immediately after at the podium ceremony. In effect it was a way to finish the event off with a climax. So the 30 or so moto and auto competitors were lined up in alternates… first a bike, then a car… and so on.

*all three women were wives of the counterpart control team “Alpha”… but after their first Safari as control officials –teamed up with their spouses several years prior… the girls subsequently decided it would be more fun to form an all girls control crew, so the hubby’s were left with no option to form their own testosterone based equivalent. Thus became Control crew “Alpha” and “Bravo” to be.

There were in fact all told seven “controllies” crews (each of three members) and these teams of volunteer official performed the control functions of all the competitive and transport stages of the Safari from Sydney to Darwin* (*except for the out control each morning, and the final parc ferme control each evening at the various bivouac overnight stops along the rally… which were manned by the HQ staff.

In a leap frog fashion, these seven “control” teams; Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Tango and Lima set out each day - often manning controls on alternate legs… and using the days in between to get ahead of the travelling circus, in order to make it to their next assignment by some obscurely marked location (usually a tree or a gate post with one of Bob C’s silver and black tribal Safari paint markings on it), which they found via a system of road directions, hand drawn mud maps on 1:100,000 topographic charts, and GPS co-ordinates (in the latter years).

Often the control teams would only make the “bivouac” every second or even third night… the rest of the time they would camp out “on piste” at their control assignment location – especially those that had the first selective start control for the particular day – so they were in position when the set up and “zero” car advance teams came through*

*Anywhere between three to one hour prior to the first competitor (eh GT…?)

Such was the life of the “controllies”… and without these gypsy’s of the Safari, there were no results… back in the day there was no such thing as spot trackers, electronically monitored GPS timing or such… it was very much analogue handy work… and it was thanks to the enthusiasm and dedication of the “controllies” that the Safari competition over the years, had one of the best records of accuracy and efficient scoring for events of it’s type, the world over.

Damien – crew chief of control crew Alpha, had sent one of his team - Max – the 300 m down the beach to the finish linebanner/ jump with the com radio, timing marker and fold up picnic chair; where he would effect the “flying finish” time keeping role. Meanwhile Damien and Charlie would man the actual control post, where the competitors came to a halt… handed the card to the “runner” (Damien) who then gave it to the desk control official (his brother in law Charlie*) who filled out the time details via the radio com-link with Max down at the finish line.
And that’s pretty much how a “finish control” worked… old school Safari style.

*Interesting sidebar was that “Charlie” had to be re-baptised to "Chuck", given that every time he answered the radio, as a member of control “Bravo” confusion reigned upon the Safari’s UHF communication airwaves as to the status quo of control “Charlie”. This caused a great deal of grey hairs for the comm’s manager in the Safari’s mobile UHF repeater plane “The Eagle” on more that one occasion, until Safari Director Bob came up with the solution…

The entertaining (goons sketch like) radio conversation went something like this;

“Solo leader to Eagle 1, this is Bob C… over…”
*Solo leader was the call sign for Event Director Bob in the Event Helicopter.

“Solo leader, this is Eagle 1… go...” (the com’s plane replied).

“Yeah Eagle, this is Bob here, do you think you can raise control alpha for me… they should be in position at Nappamerry Tank for the start control of the second selective today… I just want to get an idea of when the zero’s went through… over…”

“Yes Solo leader… understood, I’ll see if I can raise them…
Control Alpha, calling Control Alpha – this is Eagle 1 over…”

After a ten or fifteen second pause there came the reply;

“Yeah Eagle, reading you fine… this is Charlie… go…”

“Eagle to control Charlie… sorry we’re looking for Control Alpha at Leg 5. Control 2/1. Nappamerry Tank… over”

(Charlie of Control Alpha replies again). “Yeah eagle… that’s us… it’s Charlie here… over…”

“This is Eagle 1… negative control Charlie, I am trying to raise Control ALPHA… “A” as in apple… over!”

“This is control Alpha, Eagle… over…”
“Control Alpha…? then why did you answer as Charlie… over…?”

“‘Cause that’s me flamin' name… over…!”

“Eagle to control Alpha… is that your name… or your callsign… over…?”

“Well it’s what my mum called me, Eagle… so I guess the first one… over…!”

“Eagle to control at Nappamerry Tank… then why didn’t you answer as control Alpha… over”

“I ‘spose I could’a done that eagle 1… but then you wouldn’t have known who it was you were talking with…?! Over…?”

(a longer timely pause)

“This is eagle 1. To solo leader… over…”

“Solo leader… go eagle…”

“Yeah Bob… um we’ve raised control Alpha at Nappamerry Tank, I'll switch to duplex, they should be able to read you – within range… But first, one question… over”

“Yes Eagle… go…”

“Bob… where did you find this Charlie bloke…?! over…”

“Charlie… You mean Control Alpha...? Oh...?! He’s my cousin actually Dave… so I guess you could say it’s my fault… we’re from the shallow end of the gene pool…hahaha!”

(with that, the four bus loads of officials, mechanics and support personnel travelling along in the Safari’s air-conditioned coaches below, burst into fits of laughter… “Radio Safari” had provided another interesting interlude, an offspin of the vital safety and communications mobile UHF network, that the Safari pioneered… long before satellite mobile phones were commonplace.)

I'm going to sit in line for the midnight screening, but before I read it, I'm going back to read it again from the start.

Chapter 33: THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

Five… four… three… two… one… GOOOO!!!

And with that the lovely Gabby gave the signal, and the motorcycle roared off from the start line control…

… well “roared” might have been a slight exaggeration… Perhaps “wobbled off in a feeble attempt to attain forward motion in the soft, hot, white sand…” would have been a more accurate description.

The little Japanese samurai - Nori Notsoshit-Hotryda was the first competitor flagged away from the beach head on the final Mindl Casino sprint stage. The fact that Nori had played his two “Joker Cards” strategically during the week prior, and in fact avoided three complete days of the seven day rally, was of no concern at the moment, no-siree!? Nori was about to complete the Win’s Suffari in front of an ecstatic crowd of more than 100 of his konichi-wa countrymen… that alone meant he would attain hero status in his hometown province upon arrival back in the land of the rising sun!

He throttle wobbled out across the 100 meters or so of warm soft sand, to the point where the tidal flats… and a more substantial base surface afforded him the opportunity to get up to a cruising speed of about 45 km/h. At this blistering pace, Nori piloted his XR250R in champion like style around the 2.5 kilometer serpentine like temporary stage… taking extra special care not to bump and of the witches hats marking the course perimeter – that Director-Bob had so carefully explained would incur a ten second penalty. (fat chance there was of that happening… you had to line him up with traffic cones at times, to determine if he was actually moving…!)

The throng of Japanese photographers had flocked to each and every possible vantage point along the gymkhana like route in order to photographically document every possible nuance of Nori’s ascension to Japanese motorcycle legend status. The flash photography almost blinded the tropic rays of sunshine that bathed Mindl beach… every curve and ripple of the stretch of beach was captured on film by the NHK film cameras.

After what seemed like five minutes… Nori finally approached the timing marker and finish line banner of the beach sprint “Mindl Casino” jump!

“You fellas got the sundial ready… here he come’s…?” came Max’s voice over the com’s radio, to the other two boy’s on the Alpha control desk; up at the beach head (that was Max’s idea of a humorous com’s check!)

“Now!” came Max’s voice as Nori crested the manmade sand ramp… and promptly stopped!!!

What seemed like fifty… but was probably closer to a hundred pint sized paparazzi of the Nipponese persuasion, converged on the finish line to photograph Notsoshit-Hotryda in his moment of triumph.

“What the f….??!” said Bob C. as he waved the checked flag at the (now stationary) pygmy XR pilot.

While the actual photographic documentation was obviously the prime concern of the all Japanese media throng, what seemed to have escaped the attention of all these oriental motorsport aficionado’s - was the fact that the jump was a “flying finish”… not an ideal point at which one should become stationary. Added to the fact that the competitors were scheduled to start the stage at two minute intervals… given the considerable disparity in speed between Nori - relative to the next auto competitor; it seemed that the little samurai was only about ten seconds away from being turned into a hood ornament for a 2,2 metric ton Nissan Patrol...!

“Get outta road ya’ twit…!!” screamed Bob with the checkered flag waving feverishly, in an attempt to motion the throng of camera bearing fanatics away from the imminent disaster scene!

Right at that point in time Reg Owen was punting the big AAMI Nissan LWB Patrol for all he was worth; about four fifths of the way down the tidal beach stretch, before negotiating the sweeping 180 degree turn back towards the finish line jump…

“Road director to car 101… ummm Russel, you might want to ask Reg to lift off the noise pedal mate…?!” I was standing at a vantage point about two thirds of the way down the beach with the two Italian international FIA jury stewards, in order to monitor the proceedings… and could see the events unfolding before me.

“Copy that Troy… I can see the flock of little yella' fairy penguins from here…” came the reply from seasoned veteran navigator Russell Cairns “what… ARE they doing…??!”

With that the big Nissan came to a rolling halt about three meters from the base of the jump, with it’s quadruple airhorns blasting at the crowd of Nikon kamikaze’s that had cluttered the flying finish!

Nori and the crowd of Japanese well wishers turned around incredulously, and seemed genuinely surprised at the sense of urgency. Reg just looked out the driver’s side window at Bob and mouthed the words with a big smile from iside his visorless open faced helmet head; “W… t… f…?!”

“Sorry Reg… go ‘round back to the girls at Bravo and tell them I said to have another go… okay?” came Bob C’s apologetic directive. Meanwhile he and a couple of other officials ushered the paparazzi away from the flying finish and sent Nori on his way, the final 400m of the stage up to the finish control desk.

“Road Director to Bravo contrel… over…”

“Bravo Control… go Troy…”

“Yeah Deb’… ummm… can you hold the next starters for a bit… we seem to have a bit of a terryaki traffic jam down here on the flying finish… okay mate?”

“Yeah, no worries…” replied Debra of the all girl Bravo control team , located at the start of the beach sprint.

“Ahhh… we might have to send a couple of the others ‘round again also… Reg’ in 101 had to park before the finish jump…”

“Okay… we’ll sort it out…bravo control clear…”

It took Nori a further eight minutes to struggle his way the final 400 meters of soft white sand to the Alpha finish control desk… but he had made it… he was credited with a time of 5 minutes and 14 seconds for the final 2.5 km Mindl Beach sprint… and in his mind, and that of his Japanese brethren – he had finished the Win’s Suffari!

Mindl beach sprint... continued... the BIG WIND UP


“Have ya’ ever had déjà vu Reg…?” asked Russell in a rather ironic tone.
“Stupid little bastards…” came the short monotone reply from the somewhat perturbed driver over the intercom.

“Five… four… three… two… one… GO!” the gracious Gabby gave the #101 Nissan the start signal (for the second time that sunny Mindl beach afternoon…

After the debacle with the Japanese mid finish line phot ritual, the Clerk of Course had authorized the three following competitors (two auto’s and one moto) the opportunity to “re-run” the stage… given that they were all obliged to stop prior to the finish, while the officials herded the Nikon toting throng away from the vicinity, and establish a paparazzi barrier 20 meters from the finish line jump/banner.

Reg had a head of steam up now… motivated not only by the fact that he was still a bit dark about the first aborted attempt, and the flock of penguins that had baulked his attempt to storm the beach and take the finish jump prize money… but NOW there was a rather defined set of wheel tracks, that acted as a visual prompt as to the optimal line through each of the traffic coned curves laid out on the wet tidal sand. In rally terms; “he had the foot in it” so to speak.

Over the second of the smaller “sand yumps” on the down beach stretch of the sprint course, Owen held the big 4.2 liter 6cyl. turbo LWB PATROL flat in 3rd gear and launched the 2,2 ton juggernaut in spectacular fashion as he approached the final 180 degree sweeper that led back up towards the finish. With sand and salt spray in all directions, he lifted of the throttle, banged the straight cut gearbox back down into second and gathered the big red white and blue Nissan (a.k.a. “the fridge”) up under trailing throttle… then in a big gentle arching slide he pinned the loud button, fed in a fistful of understeer as he lined up the finish banner through the ARB bulbar sight on the front of the 350 hp “fridge” and aimed for the money shot!!!!

Co-Driver Russell’s job description during the beach sprint, could be referred to as being; little more than that of fleshy ballast and moral support… for his old comrade in arms. The roadbook was hardly needed in order to navigate this stage… especially as this was their second time around at it!

Shortly after departure from the start control, Russell had adopted the casual seated position - that of a routine and experienced Safari’s navigator… right hand gently holding the rally notes in his lap, left hand (usually holding the terratrip rally computer remote control) was on this relaxed occasion, now placed on the rooftop rain gutter of the open passenger side window… beach cruisin’ style.

By the time they had breached the second sand “yump”, madman Reg had a good head of steam up, and cocked the “fridge” sideways into the 180 degree sweeper… Russ had by this point in proceedings, discarded the notebook and had BOTH fists with a firm grasp of the obligatory “panic bar” on the dash in front him…! His knuckles were white through and through and the vinyl taste of RECARO seat foam in his mouth indicated to Russell that his lower orifice’s vital functions were puckering at maximum velocity!!!

“rrrrrrREG…!!!” said Cairn’s with just a hint of murmur in his voice “… we’ve come tooooo far to end this on the lid maaaaaayte!!”

“Relax mate…” replied captain Reggie… both arms flailing on the wheelhouse of the big Nissan barge… “… there’s no flamin’ way I’m lettin’ Garland get that 1000 bucks to shout at the bar tonight… we’ll never hear the flamin’ end of it… bloody ISUZU shitboxes…”

“You know sumthin'… when you’re right Reg’… you’re right…
… FEED IT mate… FEEEED IT…!!!”

The big turbo powered PATROL approached the finish banner jump at full noise in third… Bob C. was standing there with the chequered flag at the ready… but upon hearing the engine note, and anticipating the “sense of purpose” that the two white helmeted figures behind the windscreen exhibiting, he wisely took an extra couple of precautionary steps back from ground zero.

About 20 meters from the sand ramp Reg momentarily lifted his right foot, the punched the big girl for all she was worth!!! The front coil suspension bottomed as they hit the jump… the two I profiles of the full bumper ARB bulbar dozed a spray of compacted sand in a bow wave out front of the vehicle as the “fridge” simultaneously attained flight and Russell let out the customary Safari navigators finish line call of;

“faaaaaAAAARRRKK!”.

In a majestic “slow motion” sequence – reminiscent of the Hindenberg newsreels – the #101 made a nose first divot in the sand about two car lengths further down the “off ramp” to the flying finish, reggie knocked the Nissan back a peg, and continued the last 400 m to the finish control with a big grin on his head… while Russell recounted the “life before his eyes” episode that he had just gone through.

The benchmark had been set!




to be continued...

splintered sprint cnt'd