Australia’s Alpine Rally is one of the oldest surviving motor sport events in the world. Only the French Grand Prix, the Monte Carlo Rally and the Indianapolis 500 have been running for longer.
An Alpine Rally Gippsland Report from John Morrissey VK3ZRX, Event Commander:
A very big THANK YOU to all who made the Alpine such a success this year.
Although the event was trimmed from 18 back to only 9 stages due to fire and rain, and lost a full day along the way, the organisers were happy with how the event went, and told Chris VK3CJK at AWI that they were very happy with the service provided by WICEN.
So – from a WICEN perspective – a very good event.
From a field of 104 starting the event, there were 30 DNFs and with (so far as I know) only one serious incident which happened on the Friday.
And, a special ‘thank you’ to Maurie VK3VLR and Ralph VK3WRE who have done a LOT of work over an extended period to get the repeaters set up, both fixed and portable.
As with all events of the scale of the Alpine, most things went well and some not so well. The things I am aware of are some unexpected problems on a couple of stages (5 & 9) with getting comms to work on 6m, and also, the problems with the Mt Bemm repeater. If there are other problems we need to consider, please let Chris or I know.
But, at the end of the day, the problems were overcome, and we delivered the service required – another example of WICEN operators “getting the job done”.
Once again, thanks for all your help – we could not have done it without you. See you in 2 years for the centenary.
Event Tip
Dry feet mean happy feet. Lachlan VK3LEL has “no soul”, or was it a hole in his sole? A boot malfunction meant Lachlan had to endure wet socks and boots for most of the event, which he fortunately was able to change halfway home on the drive back. So before heading out on an event check your boots! – source unknown
