After three years of preparing, local Tony Jacklin and his mate Todd Small from the Central Coast, headed off yesterday for who knows where.
The pair are taking part in the 10th annual Mystery Box Rally which raises funds for can-cer, however they don’t actually know where they are going.
The Big Boys (their team name not our de-scription of them) left Cobar yesterday on their way to Port Lincoln in South Australia, for the rally’s pre-briefing on Friday.
They head off on Saturday for who knows where, which is what the Mystery Box Rally is all about—teams don’t know until the start of each day what their destination that day is.
Tony, who’s lived and worked in Cobar for the past five years, said he and Todd got the inclination to take part in the rally after the business Tony used to work for on the Central Coast sponsored one of the rally entrants.
“He came back and told us all about it and said he had an absolute ball. So Todd and I we were like, ‘oh well let’s do it!’” Tony said.
That decision was made more than three years ago, and they are only just heading off now after the event had to be postponed three times due to COVID.
The pair, who’ve been friends for a long time, enjoy getting out driving in the bush and have had to patch up the odd scrub basher once or twice. They reckon those past experiences will hold them in good stead for the rally.
In addition to a lot of driving, the rally is also about raising funds for the Cancer Council.
“Lots of people have been affected by cancer and still are affected and we both know a few personally,” Tony said.
The minimum amount they needed to raise to take part in the rally was $4,000.
The Big Boys had exceeded that and before they headed off yesterday they had raised over $10,000.
“And if anyone still wants to make a dona-tion, we’d be happy to take it,” Tony said.
In addition to securing sponsorship from five businesses, they’ve also been fundraising through raffles and 100 clubs as well as getting donations from family, friends and workmates.
Another condition of entry of the rally is that teams need to source their own +25 year old car to use on the rally.
There was no budget restriction as to how much they could spend on it, only that it should be reasonably reliable, and was regis-tered and insured.
Todd found their car, a 1990 EA Falcon se-dan which had pretty much ‘only been driven by a little old lady on Sundays’, back on the Central Coast.
When the woman heard what Todd and Tony planned to use the car for, she sold it to them for the bargain basement price of just $800!
“It’s like a lounge on wheels,” Todd said, which will come in handy if they need to sleep in the car in case of rain as they camp out each night.
Since the purchase they have spent a bit of money on the car—Todd had to buy a new battery on his way out here when it didn’t start one cold morning, and they’ve also replaced the bushes and the steering arm.
It’s also had the addition of a rear spoiler (which Tony purchased on eBay for $50 bucks) and added a couple of racing stripes and their sponsors’ stickers which now makes it look “race ready”.
As part of their travel group on the rally, The Big Boys have been matched with three other Falcons teams (which could come in handy for spare parts) and a BMW one (which probably won’t be of any help at all).
While the rally is not a race, there will how-ever be a winner named at the end of it.
According to the race information, the win-ner is judged on how hopeless their car was, how much the team got into the rally spirit, how much the team raised and a number of other undisclosed reasons the rally director will generally make up as the rally unfolds!
As part of the rally there’s a few ‘dress up’ days and the boys have made sure they’ve packed a few dresses for that—in with the spare spark plugs, oil, leads, filters, belts, cable ties and some duct tape!
The Big Boys’ plan is to provide an update of their progress each day on social media but that will however depend on where they are and if they have service.
