2021 AMSAG Rally Training and Test Day – Black Springs

Saturday, March 6, saw another successful rally test and training day in the forests around Black Springs. Run under the banner of the Australian Motor Sport Action Group (AMSAG) it was capably organised by Ron Moore, well known in the district for the ten years of sponsorship of his cars by Reliance Bank, and his wife Jo who recently received the 2020 Motorsport Australia – Coral Taylor Award for "outstanding contributions to motorsport by a female".

The event used parts of Vulcan State Forest between Riverview Road and Willow Springs Road and also along Beemerang Road, south of Campbells River Road. The two stages were well chosen to provide a good variety of road conditions to test cars, drivers and codrivers. There was a service area in the Avoca Pioneer Park at Black Springs which allowed service crews to practise their skills and also become familiar with the safety and environmental regulations (a rally service park is a designated work area and Worksafe health and safety rules apply).

Crews could run the stages in any order and as many times as they liked or felt they needed. Timing and scoring were the same as for a full rally (giving control officials a chance to practise as well) but there were no winners and losers and no results were announced.

Rallying is a team effort and test days like this not only give competitors a chance to test the preparation, performance and reliability of their cars before entering the year’s calendar of full-length events but also to learn and practise the teamwork that the sport requires. There were some people having their first experience of gravel roads and some people who found out that they hadn’t done enough preparation, but that’s what testing is for.

The forests around Oberon are as good as they get for rallying, and there will be three more rally events near Oberon in 2021 (a NSW State Championship round in September and two more AMSAG events in October).

You can read a full report of the event plus see a lot of pictures at ausrally.com.

This story appeared in the Oberon Review on March 11, 2021