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NEWS
MOTORSPORT: Rally Australia (ARC) Review
All done and dusted for 2014; here's how last weekend's ARC round concludedThursday's Armor All Power Stage was the forum for an epic battle which tied the lead in the Australian Rally Championship, which followed in the footsteps of the WRC crews as they tackled the same Coffs Coast roads.
Recovering quickly from an incident during Thursday's media commitments, the Mazda2 of Brendan Reeves and Rhianon Gelsomino took Friday morning's opening stage by 6.3sec from championship rivals Scott Pedder and Dale Moscatt in their Renault Clio.
But on the next stage the Mazda ground to a halt once more; this time due to a broken camshaft that put the team out of contention on Day One.
This left the stage open for the Walkinshaw Performance-run Renault team; Pedder taking the remaining seven stages to lead by a massive 2min 36sec by day's end. Pedder also won both passes of the 1.56km super special stage. Held at the C.ex Coffs International stadium backing onto the service park, the spectator friendly course was beset by heavy rainfall, making conditions treacherous.
Following Pedder was the Volkswagen Polo crews of Michael Boaden/Helen Cheers and Mick Patton/Bernie Webb. Both crews were having their best runs of the year, outpacing the factory Citroen team.
Saturday's heat two saw the Reeves Mazda return to the stages, and the former WRC Academy driver set the pace on the gruelling 48.92km of Nambucca. Pedder, in no rush after Friday's dominant heat victory, was only 9.7sec adrift. Team Citroen Australia driver Adrian Coppin, fresh from WRC Germany but with regular ARC co-driver Tim Batten (Pedder's co-driver Moscatt teamed with him in Germany), was third, just over a minute behind Reeves. It was an improvement for Coppin after several in-stage incidents on the Friday, including a dislodged bonnet, though a shock absorber malfunction thwarted his pace on Saturday afternoon.
Reeves would go on to take Valla in the morning, before taking a hat-trick of stage wins on the afternoon Nambucca repeat. It was here that Pedder lost time, finishing some 3min 30sec off the Mazda, thanks to a puncture that necessitated an in-stage change, although his overall lead remained over 1min 30sec clear of Boaden's VW Polo, which was running like clockwork.
Pedder's fighting spirit was demonstrated on the 7.92km Valla II, when he tied for the stage win with Reeves, before winning both super special stages once more.
Heat three commenced with the difficult Shipmans stage, held over 30.2km of mixed roads. Pedder signalled his intention immediately, taking the stage by some 19.2sec as Reeves struggled with a lack of power from the rebuilt Mazda engine. Two-time Targa Tasmania winner Tony Sullens and co-driver Julia Barkley were third in their Citroen DS3, another 25.8sec further back. It was a good result for Sullens, who had engine issues in heat one.
Reeves took the following stage by 5.7sec from the Renault, Steve and Brent Mackenzie taking third in their new G2-spec Ford Fiesta ST after teething problems earlier, mainly due to overheating with the new turbocharged engine and a gearbox issue.
Pedder lost 40.5sec to Reeves on the final morning test, due to a broken engine mount, something team manager Rob Davis said would be "expected" on such a long event. His time was only good enough for seventh.
On the way to service, the power steering also blew, but after lunchtime service the little Clio was back on-song; Pedder once more leading the field through Shipmans with a time 9.6sec faster than Reeves.
With the penultimate stage cancelled due to a crash in the WRC2 category, the ARC teams returned to the 9.23km Wedding Bells to complete Rally Australia. Pedder was once more beset with mechanical problems and lost 1min 37sec to the Reeves Mazda, but Pedder's final day woes did little to prevent him from taking the overall round victory from a consistent Mick Patton (who was later excluded for not having an operational catalytic converter) and Adrian Coppin. The hitherto well-placed Polo of Boaden succumbed to engine failure on the final day. Coppin's team-mate Sullens suffered from a roll on the final Wedding Bells test, but was able to finish third overall after Patton's disqualification.
Turning to the championship, Pedder leads with 390 points. Reeves, on 367 points, did enough over the final two Rally Australia heats to finish fifth for the event and remain in the hunt going into the last round, Rally Victoria, held from November 14-15.
Image courtesy of Stuart Bowes
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Written byAdam Davis
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