Kim, Kate and Sally Celica II

It’s got a 2.4 litre engine, a glass bottle protecting the front-right indicator and a whole lot of heart behind the dashboard. Meet Sally Celica II, the 1985 Liftback two Canberreran mates – Kim Winks and Kate Ballard – are entering in the 100th Alpine Rally in Gippsland.

Kim and Russell live on top of a hill in suburban Canberra. Their home boasts a pool table in the trophy room, an outdoor fireplace and balconies that overlook nature reserves as far as you can see. But the family garage is the real drawcard. Kim says it’s the main reason they bought the place. And you can see why.

The roller doors are open when we arrive. A little Jack Russel is scurrying about a hanger-sized space that’s as clean as an F1 garage. There’s a workshop out the back, that’s the length of a cricket pitch and it looks like you could fit about eight cars in there.

It’s not enough room for fifteen or so vehicles spilling out onto the street. But there’s always prime space for Sally Celica II – a burnt-orange beast that’s been lovingly badged with local sponsors and hand-cut decals in preparation for the upcoming Alpine Rally in Gippsland. It’s one of Australia’s oldest races and it’s only open for classics.

Russell, Kim and her co-driver Kate greet us warmly. The racers are dressed in TOYOTA GAZOO Racing apparel for the occasion. Kim’s rocking red suede boots and a big smile too, despite the fact she’s recovering from a chest infection. She thinks she picked up in New Zealand while she and Russ stood in the mud, getting pelted with cold rain while helping officiate the World Rally Championship.

They’re clearly rally die-hards. But it wasn’t always this way. Kim says she met Russell when she knew nothing about racing. He hurtled into her life after he lost control of his old Celica at a local club event. “I was a volunteer firefighter at the time and was helping with refuelling,” she explains. “I went out to a road closure – I didn’t know what a road closure was at the time – and this one crashed right in front of me. I told him to stay in the car and it’s a good thing I did because he’d fractured his back!”

Russell recovered and Kim got more involved with rallying through the Light Car Club of Canberra (LCCC). It wasn’t long before she was sitting alongside Russell, navigating the races. “I was always someone who got car sick,” she says. “But when I navigated I never did.”

The Winks have had some tense moments in the heat of competition, like when they battled an engine fire in Russell’s Mitsubishi. “I'm not ashamed to say that I panicked, I mean, we were only newly married then, so I thought they tried to kill me,” Kim jokes.

These days Kim is the Events Manager for the LCCC. She’s one of the only women in the country to earn a nationally recognised licence as a Silver Official. So her skills as scrutineer, timekeeper, fire and rescue specialist, and event commander are especially crucial to the smooth running of the LCCC’s Kosciuszko Automotive Monaro Stages Rally – an event that draws car lovers to the Snowy Mountains from all over the country.

Russell’s on the LCCC Committee with Kim. And if they’re not in their garage fixing up cars with their mates on “Tinker Tuesdays”, they’re hosting club barbecues, or scouring wreckers and Facebook groups for parts. Russell’s birthday present for Kim this year? A rare set of original wingnuts for Sally Celica II.

Sally II lives in the Winks family garage about seventeen years after the original – Sally Celica I. In 2005, Kim and Russell were helping out at the Alpine Rally and a competitor smashed his Celica RA60. He asked if the couple could store the wreckage while he spent a stint overseas. Russell made him an offer instead.

By then, Kim was getting behind the wheel herself. “That was Sally I,” Kim says. “We raced her in the next two Alpines and did pretty good. I had a lady co-driver then too. But I sold Sally I to pay for our wedding.”

Years later, Kim had planned to race an old Gemini in the upcoming Alpine. But then another Celica popped up in her feed. “It was about ten o’clock at night, Russell was in bed. I said ‘look at this car, it’s just like Sally!’” The fact the seller had a spare engine sweetened the deal even more. “We left here at six in the morning and drove up to Newcastle to get it,” she says.

Sally Celica II was secured. Unlike similar vehicles on the market, she came with an upsized 2.4L motor and an independent rear end, the same suspension that gave the Celica RA65 and the Supra their smooth handling.

Now Kim just needed a co-driver. “Russell’s instrumental in making sure the car runs right and is mechanically sound. He also keeps me a bit sane. But he’s a terrible navigator,” says Kim.

Kim’s old friend Kate stepped up for the role. Kate was going through some big life changes at the time. She used to work with show horses and Kim had recently helped her get a job working alongside her in forensics administration. “I told Kim she had three tasks: get me a new job, a new hobby and a new man,” she quips. “Two out of three ain’t bad.”

“You have to think quick.”

Kate

The pair had a hard start in rallying. They got bogged in their first race in Bega and the car’s terratrip computer played up, which made it nearly impossible for Kate to navigate. “Everything got thrown at Kate in our first rally,” Kim says.

Nevertheless, they still had a blast and Kate reckons she’s improving as a navigator all the time – getting better and better at working backwards to finesse the terratrip and calibrate the kilometres on the road with the routebook in her lap.

“You have to think quick,” Kate says. “It’s quite a thing to learn but that’s where the community comes in because, being a brand new nav, I sit down with the routebook in a little circle with all the other navs and we mark up the book together and everyone is always teaching. There’s never too much competitiveness that people won’t share.”

So, do Kim and Kate think this high-pressure driver/co-driver dynamic has strengthened their friendship overall? The question has them both laughing.

“I said to Kate when we started I’m not a super competitive, fast driver,” Kim explains. “Obviously I want to do well. But not at the expense of our friendship. My main thing is to have a good time and enjoy the rally. I don’t even look at our times until well after the event. Russell will often tell me if I’ve improved my time on one of the repeat stages. That’s important to me. But it’s also important for me to just support the sport.”

“My main thing is to have a good time and enjoy the rally.”

Kim