Women rally for wheel success

By Casey Neill
TWO Dandenongs women joined forces to triumph over mounting obstacles and taste car rally success.
Upper Ferntree Gully’s Kimberley Barson and Cathy Rainer from Avonsleigh took out third place in Canberra’s Rallye des Femmes on 5 December.
Both are now hungry for success in the 2010 Victorian rally season, which kicked off last weekend, 20 February.
Driver Barson, 28, hopes to again tackle the all-female rally this year, saying competing outside Victoria was challenging, particularly the surfaces.
“I was not expecting just how rough they were,” she said.
Co-driver Rainer, 23, said the pair had plenty going against them. They were racing interstate for the first time on roads they’d never even seen before, had never driven together, were in a new car and had co-driving notes in an unfamiliar format.
“We were learning the whole way through,” she said.
The pair came together for the event because Barson’s regular co-driver Sandra Cuttle was unavailable.
Heading into the race they were aiming for a top 10 finish, but thought third was out of reach.
“It was quite unexpected actually, because we knew there were quite a few quick women,” Rainer said.
“We were setting really quick times all day and settling ourselves into it, not trying too hard, just getting familiar with how we both worked in the car.
“Suddenly we got to the end and we’d done it.”
Rainer said she was always destined for motor sport.
“It runs in the family, unfortunately,” she said. “It’s a genetic condition, I’m told.”
Her father Phil was a rally driver in the 1970s.
“I just kind of fell into it,” she said. “He actually left the sport when I was born, but he always had paper clippings.
“I was flicking through it going, ‘this is pretty cool, I’d like to give this a go’.”
At age 18 Rainer encouraged her dad to let her buy and build a car.
“That was really good because it gave me the mechanical skills and a whole different field of knowledge that I’d never been into,” she said.
“He was encouraging because it creates a respect for driving and car handling that young people forget about these days.”
Rainer put her 1977 LB Lancer to the test in a few events and “did OK”.
“I learnt a whole lot about not finishing events,” she said.
She then lost a friend, Maya White, to cancer.
“She was one of those people that was very much ‘give everything a go, make the most out of life’, and it made me think about things a little bit more,” she said.
“I was kind of inspired to try a bit of everything so I jumped in.”
Rainer joined forces with driver James Elliot in 2007 for the Victorian Rally Championship. They finished outright 16th as novices in a field of 47.
“We surprised everyone,” she said.
They continued to race together until they wrote off their car in East Gippsland last May.
Rainer said they’d had mechanical problems all day but were placed 13th outright.
“We were a bit overcommitted and a bit ambitious,” she said.
“Hindsight would have told us that we’d already spun twice in the two previous stages so to back off would be a good idea.
“But no, we kept going.”
Their car hit a rut in the road approaching a corner, hit a bank, fell down a hill and landed upside down.
Elliot hit his head on the roll cage and suffered a minor eye injury but they were otherwise unscathed.
Rainer said it was camaraderie that kept her in motor sport.
“I think it’s the people more than the sport itself,” she said.
“You look forward to waiting on the start line and chatting to everyone, and telling tall tales.”
Barson agreed. She said the rally environment was competitive but supportive.
She’ll hit the track in a new car this year after last year claiming third place in the Victorian Excel Rally Series and third in her class in the Victorian Rally Championships.
Barson drove her first rally event almost five years ago – just three weeks after having a caesarean to deliver daughter, Hannah.
“I would not recommend it,” she said.
Barson’s father, Trevor, had built her car for the event and she had not wanted to let him down.
“He had put a lot of work into getting it ready,” she said.
“I’m essentially the son my dad never had.”
She remembers noting there were no female drivers while watching Formula 1 with her dad. He told her the men were physically stronger and better able to handle it.
“So I challenged him to find a motor sport I could take part in,” she said.
Barson cut her teeth in motorkhana events and progressed through the ranks.
“The rest is history,” she said.
She watched her times become more competitive last year and hopes to see more improvement this season.
She’ll again race with Nar Nar Goon’s Gunnawyn Motorsport.
The team will this season field three cars. Cuttle will again partner Barson. Rainer will ride with Daniel Carney, and Stuart Diggins and John Carney will join forces.