By
Andrew Stackpool
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SGT
Andrew Gray, above, with the modified VX SS Holden he and
ex-Air Force member Stuart Connor will race. The vehicle
is shown being put through its paces during its first track
test below
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A
LONG-time love of motor sport has taken Sergeant Andrew Gray,
an electrical fitter at RAAF Base Wagga, and his mate, former
Air Force electrical fitter Stuart Connor, from the spectators’
stands to the competitors’ pits.
The two men will compete as the Gray/Connor Racing Team (GCRT)
at the Alphera Dutton Rally in Victoria from August 6-8.
They will drive a modified $50,000 2001 VX SS Holden Commodore.
“We removed about 40kg of stereo amplifier and sub-woofer,” SGT
Gray said.
“It meant I had a pretty quiet trip from Wagga when we went to
Goulburn for the first trials. However, if all goes well we are
looking at an engine increase to about 270kW.”
The car is No. 77 because No. 77 Squadron was the pair’s first
operational posting. “We formed GCRT in August 2003 after watching
the rally on television.
We’ve had a long interest in motor sport. We’ve attended the Bathurst
1000 every year since 1989 and reckoned we could do the rally,”
SGT Gray said.
He already had a car, but the next steps were finding sponsors,
money to modify the Commodore and pay for licenses and fees, and
the necessary clothing and safety equipment.
The car’s first track test was at Wakefield Park, Goulburn.
“I drove the first tentative laps.This proved a little daunting
as there were many other cars out, including a Porsche GT3 CS.
Those things are road-legal racecars at somewhere between $250,000
and $300,000, with factory roll cage, race seats, full harness
and super-sticky Michelin tyres. ‘Oh boy,’ am I suddenly thinking,
‘I’m out of my league’,” SGT Gray said.
“My best lap for the day was a 1:16:89, only 16 seconds behind
the V8 Supercars.
The car performed superbly and didn’t skip a beat.” A second trial
at Winton at Benalla, Victoria, used two V8 Supercars for comparison
and resulted in further modifications to the car’s set-up.
The Alphera Dutton Rally is for road-registered performance cars
competing in 24 separate driving tests, including timed laps,
slaloms and wet skidpans.
“We are competing for fun,” SGT Gray said.
While they did not expect to be competitive with some of the higher
classes, they hoped to finish in the top five in their class.
