Heading towards the International Rally of Queensland, APRC driver Sanjay Takale left his home in India a few days early to spend three days at Rallyschool WA in Perth, Australia.
Rallyschool WA owner, Bill Hayes, organised the three day session bringing in 2012 APRC drivers champion Alistair McRae, current APRC co-drivers champion Glenn Macneall, with additional support from current APRC drivers Tom Wilde and Mike Young. Interviewed shortly afterwards Takale was rapt to have spent the time in Perth and is looking forward to Rally Queensland where he hopes to put all he learnt, into practice.
1. What made you choose Rallyschool WA??
The reason I chose the rally school of Perth is because the kind of teachers that they provided …nobody better than 3 WRC participants together. Where in the world would you get this combination to teach you: Alistair McRae , Glenn Macneall and Bill Hayes, support from Michael Young, Tom Wilde plus rally engineer like Dave McShane. They organised a specially booked rally stage at Nannup for 2 days and one day at the rally school in Perth. … I THINK THEY ARE THE BEST COMBINATION IN THE WORLD.
2. What are the important points you’ve learned this weekend?
Going to this school and spending three days with these champions has changed me a lot. I was missing everything and whatever rallying I did before going to school was just a waste of time without knowing how to drive properly and correctly. I improved on my pace notes writing on day one with Glenn at the rally school where he also showed me how to use racing line.
Bill taught me the art of cornering and selecting the line in the corners. That first day they got me in the right understanding of rallying and importance of writing the pace notes correctly , so you can drive fast and at the same time be safe. We also drove in wet conditions on the Rallyschool course to give me an understanding of the braking points and the pressure to apply with the brakes.
On Day 2 we moved to the actual rally stage some 300 km south of Perth in a town called Nannup. Its where fellow APRC driver Tom Wilde lives and where Rallyschool WA had booked a 3 km rally stage for our training . Firstly we did pace note writing with Glenn and we went to different areas to write more pace notes and practice. Then Alistair sat with we and watched me driving and pointed out what I should be doing, then he drove and showed me how it should been done.
I went off the road with Bill Hayes once and with Alistair once, but they did not discourage me. In fact they encouraged me to go faster and made sure I got those slippery corners
correct. They were all very patience with me and made me push to a different level very cleverly.
We had breaks in between so I could rest and we had Mike (Young) and Tom (Wilde) helping me. We are competitors in APRC but they showed a true sportsman spirit. I sincerely thank them. We had Dave (McShane) as engineer who got our car always ready on time and repaired if any damage caused by us.
IT WAS A LIFE TIME EXPERIENCE TO SIT BESIDE ALISTAIR AND SEE HIM DRIVE AT A TOP SPEED A TRUE CHAMPION HE IS, HE IS ALSO A VERY MODEST MAN I THINK …. THATS WHY HE IS THERE AT THE TOP ….. I DO BELEIVE IN A SAYING ….”YOUR ATTITUDE WILL DECIDE YOUR ALTITUDE IN LIFE”.
It was a great learning experience in Perth and getting a life time opportunity to spend 3 days with these true champions, just being in there company and carefully listening to their words of experiences, I learnt a lot.
3. Do you think other drivers from India would benefit from Rallyschool WA
I think not only drivers from India but from all Asia Pacific zone should go to the rally school in Perth , they are missing a lot of things in their driving and pace notes writing.
I first started Motorsport on 10th June 1987 on a motocross bike …till now I have easily more than 200 trophies in bikes racing and car rallying. But I think the 3 days I spent in a rally school were the best days of my racing career in terms of learning and enjoying to drive fast with these legends.
It is very difficult to put in words about my experience in WA RALLY SCHOOL. I think going there I have understood car rallying and now the onus is on me to perform and practice what I learned from these rallying legends. I once again thank Bill for his sincere and very professional effort, Glenn for his teaching the pace notes, surprisingly when he drove the Evo on the track he is much faster than me and have a very good car control , and above all thanks to the legend Alistair for this time he gave me and the efforts he put to teach me .
