MOTORSPORT: Honda and Eli Evans eye rally history

A record ninth straight rally win beckons national rally champion and Honda Jazz in Rally SA – and there's a second SUV entry at last

Honda and its top driver Eli Evans are chasing a slice of Australian Rally Championship history this weekend, with the chance to break a record they share with Subaru and the late Possum Bourne of eight straight victories.

Rally South Australia, the third round of this year’s ARC in the Barossa Valley and Mt Crawford Forest, is the event at which the reigning national champions, Victorian Evans and his Queenslander co-driver Glen Weston, can make history by winning a ninth straight rally in the Honda Jazz they share.

In a championship now primarily for two-wheel-drive cars rather than the four-wheel-drive beasts of the late New Zealander Bourne’s era more than a decade ago, Evans and Weston already have 11-point advantages over veterans Scott Pedder and Dale Moscatt in the driver and co-driver championships respectively.

Pedder, who was the ARC’s chief executive the past two years and remains its commercial director, has returned to competition this season at the wheel of a Renault Clio R3.

Other top contenders are West Australian Tom Wilde in another Renault Clio R3, young Victorian Brendan Reeves in a Mazda 2, New South Welshman Michael Boaden in a Volkswagen Polo Vivio, South Australian Jack Monkhouse in a rear-wheel-drive Nissan Silvia S15, as well as Evans’ teammate Mark Pedder in another Honda Jazz.

“This is going to be the closest event all year,” Evans said.

“We are all going to be on par and it will be up to the team that pushes the hardest that will take home the crown.

“The super-fast stages will test us all but I’m confident the Honda Jazz can hold its own.”

Including entries in the state championship round, 52 cars are to face the start on Friday night – 18 of them in the premier two-wheel-drive category.

Ahead of the outright field will be the classic cars, headed by Neal Bates and Coral Taylor in a Toyota Celica after victory at New Zealand’s Otago Rally, up against South Australian legend Barry Lowe in a Holden Commodore with Helen Pearl-Lowe co-driving.

Taylor’s daughter Molly returns from her international program to drive a Ford Fiesta R2 in the premier class with British co-driver Sebastien Marshall.

Look back at the motoring.com.au's feature on Evan's Motorsport and the Honda Rally team

SUV competition – Porsche Cayenne to take on Subaru Forester

The SUV category introduced last year finally will get some spice with a Porsche Cayenne driven by Victorian Mark Fawcett taking on what has been the sole entry to date, the Subaru Forester of NSW’s Brett Middleton.

Scott Pedder, who championed the introduction of the SUV category, said recently in an interview with rally.com.au that he “wouldn’t be scoring the success very highly (yet), for obvious reasons”.

“We’ve had great support from Brett Middleton, but so far he’s been the only entry,” Pedder said.

“We went into the SUV category because the manufacturers we were speaking with wanted to showcase this segment of the market to buyers.

“Unfortunately the attractiveness of the outright category, and the move to two-wheel drive, has blunted their interest in a second tier category like the SUVs.

“We definitely see a future in the SUV category. I believe to showcase that class of cars the ARC represents the best possible scenario.

“If a manufacturer wanted to show off that class of car taking it tarmac racing wouldn’t make sense, and at the other end off-road racing is too punishing and extreme.

“We are looking at ways to make the category more attractive, and one way we are considering is making it open to score manufacturer points.”

Pedder gave the ARC’s change from four-wheel-drive to two-wheel-drive as its primary category “an eight out of 10” to date.

“Two to three years ago the ARC was taking on water and sinking fast,” he said.

“It had been through some great times with massive manufacturer support, from the likes of Subaru, Toyota and Mitsubishi. Those manufacturers had left, and with it the sport had lost some credibility as a promotional tool.

“(But) now you’ve got guys like Jack Monkhouse and Will Orders (Nissan Silvia S13) being ultra-competitive in rear-wheel drive cars.

“You’ve got privateers investing in front-wheel drive cars, guys like Michael Boaden and Mick Patton (in the second VW Polo Vivio).

“And you’ve got factory involvement from Honda, Renault and Ford.

“I think that diversity is terrific, it’s what rallying has always been about – variety.

“I think that’s the most exciting thing – it has validated the decision to go to two-wheel drive.

“I can’t think the last time you had multiple drivers all within a handful of seconds of each other on every stage.

“And the other impressive thing about the two wheel drives which hasn’t really been publicised is that, despite the presence of some good four-wheel-drive cars and drivers at the first two events this year, the fastest car in the overall event at both the National Capital Rally and Forest Rally (in WA) has been an outright two-wheel-drive car.

“And I would be 75 per cent sure that next year there will be another manufacturer - and there are a lot of people looking on with renewed interest in rallying too.”

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MOTORSPORT: Honda and Eli Evans eye rally history

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