Rally Wairarapa?s natural man

WARREN Forbes never actually put himself forward for the job of Wairarapa Car Club president.
His elevation to that high office, after his predecessor left abruptly, was more along the lines of : "Hey Forbesy, you're it."
That was a few years back. The Wairarapa farmer was at the helm when four clubs, Wairarapa, Wellington, Kapiti and Harbour Capital, first came together to run a round of the national rally championship.
Warren was on that committee. And when that group became an affliated club in its own right ? Rally Wairarapa ? with its own closed membership, Warren became a member of that too.
Since then Rally Wairarapa has gone from strength to strength, capitalising on Wairarapa's wonderful gravel roads.
Today Warren Forbes is community liaison officer and safety officer for Rally Wairarapa.
He's a natural for community liaison.
He knows many of the farmers along the rally route, and they know that he's aware of concerns they might have.
"It takes a lot of door-knocking, but we need to involve the community, to have these people on our side."
And the community has got behind the rally enthusiastically, in some places taking care of the taping of gateways, erecting signage and the myriad of other small but critically-important details.
One frequent question is what happens if there's an accident on the farm while the rally is coming through?
The answer is that you'll get help a damned sight faster than you would at non-rally times.
The reason for that is that there are 20 highly-trained paramedics working on the rally.
They can attend far sooner than conventional medics.
The rally also has a fail-safe and very effective communications system that can whistle up help without delay.
A farmer becoming ill or injured during the event will get the same help as the crew of a crashed car.
"The secret is to ring the 0800 rally number, not 111," says Warren.
Warren joined the Wairarapa Car Club in 1968 and competed for some time before dropping out.
He rejoined in the late 1980s and has been a regular since.
He's been more involved with administration than competition (helped out at times by wife Pauline), although he does hold a record that will never be beaten, a flying quarter down Paierau Road from the Loop Line south.
That venue is no longer used, so his 15.2s standing quarter in a modified 970cc Mini Cooper will be there forever.
Warren recalls the road as fast, with the top cars hitting around 140mph in the flying, but bumpy.
He's owned some rather special machinery over the years, from the Mini to a works Escort Mexico. There's a Nissan 240RS in the shed, along with a turbo Mirage rocketship.
Pride of place, however, goes to a full-blown black 1983 Audi Quattro, from a marque that dominated world rallying in the 80s.
Group B was eventually banned as too dangerous, former champion Walter Rohrl remarking on one occasion that the Quattro went faster than the human brain!
There were just 250 rally Audi Quattros built, for homologation purposes, and all up 8000 of the cars were built.
In 1983, roadgoing examples like Warren's cost $105,000.
When he's not planning rallies, Warren's attention is on the Wairarapa Car Club's 50th anniversary, to be held the weekend before Labour Weekend. Guest speaker for that will be former Carterton lawyer Peter Wollerman, now technical officer for the Confederation of Australian Motorsport and a big noise with the Aussie V8s series.
Planning for that is still under way, but we'll keep an eye on that.