MOTORSPORT: Game on in the Canberra forests

The Australian Rally Championship still lacks the serious manufacturer participation of years ago, but it’s not lacking in driver competition – despite reigning champion Nathan Quinn not defending his title.

This year’s ARC will have reached its halfway mark by Sunday afternoon after the National Capital Rally in the forests around Canberra.

While 2016 champion Molly Taylor has support from Subaru and last year’s winner of the Canberra event, hometown youngster Harry Bates, backing from Toyota, the series is being led by three-time national champion Eli Evans, now in a Skoda Fabia R5, narrowly from versatile veteran Steve Glenney in a Subaru WRX STI.

The National Capital Rally begins with the field parading through Canberra’a Garema Place from 4pm today, then Saturday’s nine-stage first heat in the Kowen Forest east of the city and Sunday’s six-stage final leg on a narrow, twisty course to the west off Brindabella and Paddys River roads.

Evans, having parked his MINI AP4 in favour of the lightweight Skoda in which he won the most recent ARC round in Western Australia, has 137 points to the 132 of Glenney, whose car is that in which Taylor won the ARC crown two years but now painted bright orange.

Evans was fastest on 15 of the 19 stages in WA and has vowed that he and co-driver Ben Searcy will “continue the speed and keep on the same game plan” on the Canberra course, which includes some classic stages not used in many years.

The event is combined with a round of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship, although there is a very thin field for that in its 30th year, and Evans is intent on winning both.

“Anything less won’t be good enough,” he said.

Glenney, who has been on the podium at both ARC rounds this season, said the National Capital Rally “is very demanding on the driver, co-driver and car … car preservation certainly comes into it a lot”.

Bates won last year in the Super 2000 Toyota Corolla previously driven by his four-time national champion father Neal before him (and these days by younger brother Lewis) but he’s now in a Yaris AP4 and won the season-opening Eureka Rally in Victoria.

While the Yaris is being continually lightened and refined, Bates said repeating his success in his home event would be harder than last year.

Apart from his ARC rivals, Bates and his 1.6-litre Yaris will be compared throughout the weekend with New Zealand’s APRC favourite Mike Young in a Toyota Vitz which started out as essentially the same car but has a 2.0-litre Lexus engine and more weight.

Meanwhile, Taylor is intent on leaving Canberra in the championship’s top three – she’s now fourth on 94 points behind Bates on 122 – before she and her new co-driver this year, Malcolm Read, tackle the remaining rounds – the revived Tasmanian round at the end of July, Rally South Australia in September and Rally Australia at Coffs Harbour in November – in her Production Rally Car class WRX STI.

“This weekend we’ll be going all out to haul in some of Eli Evans’ buffer,” Taylor said.

Adrian Coppin was troubled by mechanical issues at the first two rounds but is counting on his experience from having started his career in Canberra and lived in the national capital until recently to produce better results in his Skoda Fabia R5.

“Being able to adapt your car set-up and driving style to suit the two very different days is the key to success in Canberra,” Coppin said.

A welcome addition to the field will be Tasmanians Marcus and Scott Walkem in a Peugeot 208 AP4 after having missed the earlier rounds.

Bumper GT field at Phillip Island

Victoria’s marvellous, although unpredictable weather-wise, Phillip Island is celebrating its 90th anniversary of motorsport, with a 500km GT enduro the feature event of this weekend’s round of the Nationals.

There are a record 35 GTs entered for the weekend, split between those in the category’s championship and its trophy series.

Sunday afternoon’s 101-lap race will be the second round of the Australian Endurance Championship, which is being led by Max Twigg and Tony D’Alberto in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 after their victory in the first round at South Australia’s new Tailem Bend circuit.

Supercar stars Shane Van Gisbergen and Garth Tander are in the field, in McLaren 650S and Audi R8 LMS respectively, while Queenslanders Liam Talbot and John Martin are the overall GT championship leaders going into what is the third round in a Walkinshaw Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge celebrates its 10th anniversary at this event too, while Formula 4 – still with only 11 on the entry list – and the Radical Cup also are on the program.

Toby Price has double vision

Looking ahead a week, the incredible Toby Price has his sights on becoming the first competitor to win the Finke Desert Race in central Australia on two and four wheels on the same weekend.

Price came close to achieving the double when he first attempted it in 2016, just months after his historic motorcycle success in the Dakar Rally.

While he won the Finke for the fifth time on two wheels that year, he was runner-up in the four-wheel division.

Last year he couldn’t ride in the event because of his leg injury from the Dakar but he drove a trophy truck that stopped 40km short of the finish.

To win the double on Queen’s Birthday weekend he will have to race about 900km over two days, driving his trophy truck from Alice Springs to Finke in the Aputula region to the south, fly back to the Alice and repeat the course on his KTM bike, then do it all again the other way from Finke to Alice the next day.

Another two-wheel victory would be a record sixth in the event, while on four wheels he will need to overcome Victorian Shannon Rentsch, who is seeking to go one better than the five victories he shares with off-road legend Mark Burrows.

An electric wagon entered this year, built by Spain’s Acciona, will be driven by Andrea Peterhansel, the wife of France’s 13-time Dakar winner Stephane Peterhansel.