MOTORSPORT: Vatanen Touch for Oz rally driver

A brilliant performance by Australian rally driver Brendan Reeves has won him and his sister a place in the Vatanen Touch – a shootout among young stars that could win them a drive in a World Rally Championship event next year.

Volkswagen’s dominance of this year’s WRC continued at Catalunya in Spain at the weekend, but this time it was the German brand’s number three driver, Andreas Mikkelsen, scoring his maiden victory after triple world champion Sebastien Ogier crashed within 4km of the finish.

Eli Evans snared his third Australian Rally Championship ahead of Molly Taylor in Rally South Australia, while Tasmanian Marcus Walkem snatched the Four-Wheel-Drive Series title there from Mick Patton.

Reeves, 27, of Wedderburn in Victoria, and his American-based older sister, Rhiannon Gelsomino, finished second in the Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy as part of Rally Catalunya.

They finished about one and a half minutes behind Norway’s series champion Marius Aasen and his co-driver Veronica Engan in similar Ford Fiesta R2 EcoBoosts – and more than seven minutes ahead of the third-placed crew.

“What a weekend,” exclaimed Reeves, who mid-year won – again with his sister – the 2WD class at the New England Forest Rally in the US in the American competition debut of the latest Fiesta R2.

The latest result has won Reeves and Gelsomino a wildcard into the Vatanen Touch shootout to be held later this year.

The prize in that six-car shootout – named after the legendary 1981 world rally champion and multiple Dakar winner Ari Vatanen – will be a drive in an M-Sport Fiesta R5 at a WRC round next year.

The final stage of the Fiesta Trophy was cancelled, with cars at the start line ready to go, after Ogier crashed his VW Polo R in the run-off among the outright contenders.

That handed 26-year-old Norwegian Mikkelsen and his co-driver Ola Floene a surprise first WRC victory in 64 events.

Ogier smashed into a roadside barrier on the Power Stage south of Barcelona, ripping the right rear wheel from his Polo.

The Frenchman, who secured his third straight world title at Rally Australia on NSW’s Coffs Coast last month, had been headed for his eighth win of the season with a lead of more than 50 seconds.

“It’s a big surprise (to win) because Ogier never makes mistakes,” said Mikkelsen, who finished 3.1 seconds ahead of VW’s regular number two driver, Finn Jari-Matti Latvala.

Mikkelsen could yet overtake Latvala for second in the championship with just one event remaining, Rally Great Britain in Wales on November 12-15.

Citroen remains narrowly ahead of Hyundai in the battle for second in the manufacturer championship already won by VW after the French company’s Norwegian Mads Ostberg and Northern Irishman Kris Meeke finished fourth and fifth in Spain in their DS3s, ahead of New Zealander Hayden Paddon in one of the Korean company’s i20s.

Eli Evans, also driving a Citroen DS3, wrapped up his third Australian title on the second day of the three-day Rally South Australia in the Adelaide Hills.

Evans ended up winning all three heats to add this championship crown to the two he won driving a Honda Jazz in 2012 and ’13.

Molly Taylor, 27, of Sydney and driving the Renault Clio in which Scott Pedder won last year’s title, finished runner-up at the SA event and for the season.

Taylor became the first woman to win a heat of the ARC at WA’s Forest Rally this year and  then won the National Capital Rally in Canberra overall with her co-driver Bill Hayes.

However, Evans and his co-driver Glen Weston won the last six heats of the championship.

Evans, younger brother of four-time national champion Simon Evans, said he and Weston had conquered “a whole new challenge” as they had not driven the Citroen before the start of this year.

Taylor said Evans had given her “a master class in how to get the job done – it’s been great to have him as a benchmark”.

“We’ve had a lot of runners-up finishes … hopefully we’ll change that next year,” Taylor said.

“We’re really happy with our season. I came back to the ARC from overseas, in a new car, with a new team and we did everything on an absolute shoestring.

Marcus Walkhem’s 4WD victory in SA driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX ahead of Harry Bates in a Toyota Corolla S2000 gave Tasmanian Walkem the title in that national series ahead of Mick Patton, who had led it in his Lancer Evo X.