RallySport Magazine - Issue #2, June 2016

Dedicated coverage of rallying in Australia and New Zealand

Issue #2 - June 2016

S ’ U R A B U S C I G O L N Gp Rally NZ update

rallysportmag.com.au

REEVES WINS NAT CAP RALLY JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 1

6 1 0 2 L A I C I OFF R U O T R O T A SPECT BROUGHT TO YOU BY

The tour includes: ➜ Return airport transfers from Coffs Harbour Airport ➜ Five nights twin share hotel room at Aanuka Beach Resort ➜ Cooked breakfast each day ➜ Boxed lunches on 3 rally days ➜ Tours and transfers by private coach with driver ➜ A RallySport Magazine representative for the duration of the tour ➜ Exclusive tour activity pre-event ➜ Welcome dinner function on Wednesday evening ➜ 3-day Rally Super Pass ➜ Official RallySport Magazine tour merchandise ➜ Priority viewing at Ceremonial Finish and/or Power Stage (To be confirmed) ➜ Pre-event Shakedown, Rally Show and Ceremonial Start ➜ Farewell dinner on Sunday night

Tour price: AUD$1949 per person twin share

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CONTENTS - #2 JUNE 2016 FEATURES

EVENT REPORTS

10 IN THE HOT SEAT

RIDING WITH 4X AUSTRALIAN CHAMPION SIMON EVANS

13 RALLY NEW ZEALAND FOLLOW US ON:

THE KIWIS ARE READY FOR A 2018 RETURN TO THE WRC

26 ALADDIN’S CAVE INSIDE TOYOTA’S SECRET MOTORSPORT MUSEUM

36 QUATTRO-PHOBIA

AN AUDI S1 REPLICA IN AUSTRALIA

42 1996 ASIA-PACIFIC

MARTIN HOLMES REMEMBERS A MEMORABLE RALLYING YEAR

THE LANCER WAS A RALLY WINNER

CONTRIBUTORS

SENIOR WRITER

TOM SMITH

Martin Holmes, Luke Whitten, Blair Bartels, Jeff Whitten, Dallas Dogger, Matthew Whitten, Geoff Ridder, John Doutch, Tim Allott, Craig O’Brien

04 EDITORIAL

ROUND 2 OF THE 2016 ARC

GIRL POWER IS EMPOWERING IN LOCAL RALLYING AT PRESENT

32 CANTERBURY RALLY

EMMA GILMOUR FINALLY WON HER FIRST NZRC ROUND

06 RALLY ROUND-UP

48 RALLY OF PORTUGAL

53 RALLY PROMOTION

PORTUGAL PRODUCED THE THIRD WRC WINNER IN THREE EVENTS

TIPS ON HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR RALLY TEAM

62 TARGA SOUTH WEST

54 WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

NEWS FROM AROUND THE SPORT

WET AND WILD IN THE WEST

FORMER ARC CHAMP ED ORDYNSKI

63 LAKE MOUNTAIN SPRINT

WHAT’S FOR SALE THIS MONTH?

72 RALLY CLASSIFIEDS

RAIN, SLEET, SNOW AND FOG MADE CONDITIONS DIFFICULT

66 WOWAN RALLY

SEE THIS?

70 MITTA MOUNTAIN RALLY

WINDUS TOO GOOD IN VICTORIA

60 GREAT SCOTT

PETER WHITTEN

16 NATIONAL CAPITAL RALLY

BROTHERS WIN QRC ROUND

46 FORGOTTEN LANCER

MANAGING EDITOR

REGULARS

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Dominic Corkeron, 0499 981 188, dominic@rallysportmag.com.au

PUBLISHED BY:

Peter Whitten RallySport Magazine peter@rallysportmag.com.au www.rallysportmag.com.au

COPYRIGHT:

No material, artwork or photos may be reproduced in whole or in part without the written permission of the publishers. RallySport Magazine takes care in compiling specifications, prices and details but cannot accept responsibility for any errors. The opinions expressed by columnists and contributors to this magazine are not necessarily those of RallySport Magazine.

JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 3

EDITORIAL

Girl power gains momentum

By PETER WHITTEN

T

he great Michele Mouton forged the path in the 1980s, and Emma Gilmour and Molly Taylor are continuing the trend in our part of the world, both achieving incredible success in a male-dominated sport.

Gilmour’s victory in the third round of the New Zealand Rally Championship last weekend follows on from Taylor’s victory in Canberra last year, and proves once and for all that gender has nothing to do with success behind a steering wheel.

Ladies may not dominate the results like their male counterparts, but pound for pound they punch well above their weight.

After 12 years of trying, the Dunedinbased Gilmour finally had luck on her side and took a dominant victory against a hugely competitive field, while Taylor continues to achieve results in a Group N Subaru that is competing against cars with much more power, and hundreds of kilograms less in weight.

Championship organisers in both countries should be promoting their leading ladies for all they’re worth, as success in the rough and tumble of rallying is surely something that will grab headlines across all media forms.

The girls are achieving results on their own merits, and all power to them.

4 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

T

he response to the first digital issue of RallySport Magazine has been great, with readers lapping up the content that the first issue provided.

To date, the May 2016 issue has been viewed by over 30,000 people, reaching all corners of the globe, but we still need the support of advertisers to ensure the long-term viability of the magazine.

If you’re a business owner, we’re confident that your business will benefit from being a part of RallySport Magazine, and we encourage you to contact us ASAP for more information.

Or, if you know of someone who’ll benefit from an involvement, please pass their details on to us to follow up.

Rallying in Australia and New Zealand has a story to tell – let us continue to provide that outlet.

R

allySport Magazine is thrilled to feature a brilliant new rally cartoon by the legendary John “Stonie” Stoneham in this issue.

Based on the current Hyundai i20 World Rally Car, we think the cartoon really captures the spirit of rallying, and is something that we plan to use on some merchandise down the track.

Emma Gilmour broke through for her first win.

Even more exciting is that we’ll be featuring some of Stonie’s classic rally cartoons over the coming issues, which we’re sure you’ll enjoy.

Until next issue, enjoy your rallying, and spread the word about RallySport Magazine.

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NEWS@RALLYSPORTMAG.COM.AU

SUBARU BACK GROU

Round 2 of the ARC promises to ubaru Australia Managing Direcbetor,aNick cracker in Senior, has explained the reasons behind running Molly the WRX forests around Taylor’s STi as a standard Group N car in the wake of another stirring drive Canberra. from the 27-year-old in Canberra.

By PETER WHITTEN

S

Many have questioned Subaru’s reasoning for entering a car that is an incredible 280kg heavier than Harry Bates’ Super 2000 Corolla, and up to 180 horsepower down on some of its other rivals.

However, Senior believes that Subaru is heading down the right path, and that Taylor’s stock standard WRX is showing just how competitive Group N cars can still be.

“Look at East West – 17km and Molly was 20 seconds off Brendan Reeves and 13 seconds off Harry Bates the first time through – and 52 seconds quicker than her time last year,” Senior told RallySport Magazine.

“The second run she was 18 behind Brendan and 11 behind Harry. Now a lot of that is Molly’s talent, but here’s a production car that is running third in the championship and consistently

Photos: Subaru Australia 6 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

around 1-1.5 seconds a kilometre behind lighter, more powerful machinery. A bit more time in the car and Molly will consistently have the gap down to a second.

“For sure, we could spend more money on the car and increase the power and reduce the weight, but the

“I think we – indeed the sport - has a responsibility to all the stakeholders to contain costs.”

days of throwing endless money at a rally program are gone,” Senior said.

“I think we – indeed the sport - has a responsibility to all the stakeholders to contain costs, and one of the best ways to do it is to restrict freedoms.

I am also a great believer in having a very close link between motorsport and showroom floor, hence another reason we went with Group N. “The glory days of the ARC were probably 10 to 15 years ago when we had Subaru, Toyota and Mitsubishi all spending big money. The world has

UP N LOGIC IN ARC changed and that level of spending will never be repeated, but if we want to attract more people let’s cap costs and be brutal about it.”

Senior admitted that they could easily up-spec Taylor’s car to compete on equal terms with their main rivals, including Simon Evans, but questions whether that’s the best way forward for the championship.

“Les (Walkden) and myself set a goal of trying to build a competitive car for $100,000.

“We’ve built Molly’s current car,

including the purchase price , for just over $100,000, and it’s proving to be a very competitive package,” he added.

“Les reckons the next one he builds will be under $100,000.

“Simon has taken full advantage of the current rules, but I’m not sure whether having 17-year-old Subarus win events is the right thing for the championship, but that’s for the series organisers to decide.

“Personally, and for the sport in the immediate future, I’d love to see the ARC contested by the top 20 drivers in identical cars. We could build 20 identical Group N Subarus WRX STIs, run a control tyre, control suspension, dog box, seal everything you could, and we would bring 20 identical ECUs to every event and hand them out randomly.

“At $100,000 or so depending on currency – try buying an R5 for that sort of money – what do people want for them, 180,000 Euros or 150,000 pounds? That’s too much money for Australia and as we have seen for the past few years, they are largely irrelevant in our market.

“If we did that one make ARC then the brand becomes a lesser part of the equation – the driver becomes the ultimate hero.

“Of course, people are going to say, ‘Well that’s great for Subaru, but what if another manufacturer wants to enter?’

“Let’s be realistic - do we see a whole lot of manufacturers lining up wanting to take part in the ARC? And the risk is, if someone comes in a factory R5 they will make a one make series anyhow – with one competitor.”

That may seem as though he’s trying to corner the market, but Subaru’s long-time boss firmly believes that if the WRX STI is the car that best fits the bill at the time, then so be it. Further down the track it may be another car that could be chosen.

“I would be quite happy to go to tender every three years. That’s a reasonable timeframe for a $100,000 purchase,” Senior says.

“Sell the cars for, say $40K, and people have had three years of top flight rallying for perhaps $20K a year depreciation. Those cars would then be fed into state championships.

“I’m also sure that the winner of an ARC against 20 top drivers in a NR4 car would be highly regarded overseas.”

Subaru ran a one-make series for non-turbocharged Impreza RS’ in the early 2000s, a series that gave drivers such as Eli Evans and Steve Glenney the head-start in rallying that has enabled them to go on to bigger and better things.

“As I said, the days are gone of having massive budgets to run teams.

“If we could come up with a package that was affordable and reliable for competitors, then I think that would be great for the championship,” he said.

A close look at Molly Taylor’s stage times from the National Capital Rally show just how competitive the Group N car is.

Subaru has committed to a two-year ARC program (2016 and 2017), with a second WRX currently being built by Les Walkden Rallying in Tasmania.

Taylor is likely to debut this car at Rally Australia in November, with the current car likely to be made available as a customer car in future events.

JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 7

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RALLY ROUND-UP Gilmour back for more Following their successful selection in the FIA Women in Motorsport and QMMF cross country rally project, and their debut in April’s Sealine Cross Country Rally, New Zealand’s Emma Gilmour and Sandra Labuscagne have been given the opportunity to contest the Italian Baja (2326 June), the fourth round of the FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies.

Nasser Al Attiyah, multiple rally and cross country champion, as well as double Dakar Rally victor, has invited the rookie cross country crew to become part of his winning team for this event and will support the duo as they continue to hone their skills in the world of cross country rallying.

The crew will drive a T2 production class Mitsubishi Pajero run by Ralliart Italy on the event, with the support of the Italian Baja organiser who is also providing a free entry for the all-female crew.

Even though Gilmour and Labuscagne were not paired together for the Sealine Cross Country Rally, FIA Women in Motorsport cross

country project mentors Jutta Kleinschmidt and Fabrizia Pons considered them to be the best allround performers in the deserts of Qatar, hence their selection for the Italian Baja.

“I’m really excited to have the opportunity to continue following my cross country rallying dream,” Emma said.

“It will be great to team up with Sandra and see what we can achieve.

“I am extremely grateful to Nasser for giving us this chance and to the Italian Baja event organisers for supporting our entry.”

Michèle Mouton, President of the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission, was equally enthusiastic of this unexpected opportunity: “This is an incredibly generous offer

by Nasser and something we never dreamed could happen. For Emma and Sandra to have the chance to learn from one of the greatest drivers in this discipline really is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

The Italian Baja takes in 334.34km competitive in a total distance of 560.21km.

Fierce storms create havoc The Bega Rally, which was due to be held on the long weekend in June, has been postponed due to the rain and storms that have lashed the east coast of Australia.

The damage to the region the rally was to run in has been significant, with several

bridges on the route of the rally washed away, and extensive road damage on other stages.

The event is a round of the NSW and Victorian Rally Championships, and will be re-scheduled for later in the year.

Proudly announcing the

Southern Cross Gold Anniversary Rally November 8 to 19, 2016

Re-trace the 1966 route through Victoria and then via Canberra to Sydney to enjoy the classic roads of the later Southern Cross Rallies around Port Macquarie.

The rally finishes in Coffs Harbour where you’ll join the field of WRC cars competing in the final round of the 2016 World Rally Championship and compete on some of the WRC route..

Another Classic HRA re-run www.hra.org.au

Daily competitive sections including: • • •

Closed road stages Hillclimbs

Timed track sections

Each day finishes in time to enjoy a meal and lots of socialising!

Head to the website for more information

www.southerncrossanniversaryrally.com.au Emma Gilmour will compete in the Italian Baja.

Albury Mansfield Sale Jindabyne Canberra Parramatta Taree Port Macquarie Coffs Harbour JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 9

IN THE HOT SEAT

!

E D I R A T WHA otgun with h s s e id r n te Luke Whit hampion C y ll a R n a li a str four-time Au erra. b n a C in s n a Simon Ev

T

he anticipation for the National Capital Rally was high for many, but I can guarantee you, no-one’s anticipation was higher than mine.

I was set to go for a ride with four-time Australian Champion, Simon Evans, on board ‘The Beast’ – something that had been a dream of mine for a long time, and I simply couldn’t wait to get strapped in.

The voices of the likes of Julien Ingrassia and John Kennard are common soundtracks in our lounge room, but despite watching hours and hours of footage, I knew that nothing could prepare me for what the real experience of ‘being in 10 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

the hot seat’ would be like.

But as I stepped out of the car on arrival at shakedown, there wasn’t much ‘hot’ about anything. My hands were shaking uncontrollably… it was freezing! The blustery weather looked like it was here to stay for the weekend.

The icicle characteristics of my fingers were soon a distant memory, as within five minutes, I was collecting my helmet, and making my way over towards the Evans Motorsport camp.

Mr. Evans was sitting casually behind the wheel, and I was welcomed with open arms by the team.

A hello, a shake of the hand from Simon, a photo, and I was already squeezing my way into the Impreza.

Ben Searcy (the man whose seat I was occupying) said a quick hello, and helped me with my belts, as well as giving me instructions on how to operate the on-board cameras.

All we needed to do was press the button, and my experience of a lifetime was recorded forever. The joys of modern technology.

New for this year’s shakedown, the stage itself was a short two-kilometre blast around an old pine plantation beside the National Arboretum, south of Canberra.

Once everything was sorted, we got the car running and rolled on up towards the start line. As we were doing this, I quizzed Simon on a couple of things regarding the car. I wanted to learn as much as I could.

He then had a question for me: “Have you ever been in a 4WD before?”

“No,” I said. “The only car I’ve gone for a ride in is my Dad’s Escort.”

“Okay,” he replied, and looked to have a little chuckle, as I pulled on my belts one last time.

We sat on the start line for about 30 seconds or so before

I gave the countdown from five. As there was no intercom, I found myself almost to the point of yelling over the top of the revving engine as I made it down to the last couple of calls.

We were off … and immediately, the whine of the straight cut gearbox, and sound of the mighty GC8 were music to my ears. This was the first time I’d heard the car ‘live’, and I was inside!

The forces pushing me back against my seat were greater than I expected. Much more than the 2WD Escort I mentioned before. This thing was a beast!

The speed off the line was incredible. The car was thrown

Simon Evans prepares to give Luke Whitten the ride of his life.

into the first corner, with the ultimate trust I’d need to become accustomed to in this short 90-second blast.

The tyres gripped up on the exit of the corner, and the acceleration still astonished me. It’s got so much grunt.

I wasn’t surprised, but impressed more than anything by Simon’s commitment in the car. His ability to trust the tyres, suspension, and his own skill set to get through the stage in the fastest possible way was incredible.

After a series of flowing, and 90-degree corners, the ride was almost over, and coming down the hill to the last corner, I finally remembered what I wanted to do prior to jumping in with Simon – to watch a professional at work.

The final corner was executed with absolute precision, and in the blink of an eye, it was all over. I don’t think the smile was wiped off my face for the rest of the day.

After my ride was finished, Simon gave another lucky VIP a ride, but regretfully had to put ‘The Beast’ away.

He said, “They’re not letting me drive it anymore, or else I’ll break it! It’s so cool. I love this thing!”

I have to agree with him. What a car, and what a ride! ➜ Luke and RallySport Magazine would like to thank Simon, Ben and all the Evans Motorsport team for this amazing experience, and wish them the best of luck for the remainder of the season.

JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 11

NEWS@RALLYSPORTMAG.COM.AU

HOLDEN FOR NZRC AP4 CLASS

F

ormer V8 Supercar driver, Greg Murphy, and experienced rally driver, Josh Marston, will drive a pair of Holden backed AP4 (NZ spec) cars in the 2017 New Zealand Rally Championship.

Two Holden Barinas will be prepared during 2016 and will be debuted in the first round of the championship in April next year.

“I have to be part of it,” Murphy said at the launch of the program. “The new AP4 class is so exciting, it’s not hard to make the decision to be involved.

“I’m not expecting top results, but want to be part of it, being involved at the top end of this exciting category of motorsport.”

Josh Marston (31) from Christchurch, won the national two-wheel drive title in 2013 in a Ford Fiesta R2, having finished runner-up the previous year.

“The team has been considering for a while where we want to go next in rallying,” Marston said.

“At that time the AP4 class was in its infancy and we started looking at how we could get involved, and it has now eventuated in to what we will do in 2017.”

The NZ spec AP4 class has evolved out of an ageing fleet of Group N 4WD Mitsubishis and Subaru rally cars. After much discussion and review, it was established that a new and affordable class was needed.

Josh Marston (left) and Greg Murphy will drive AP4 Holden Barinas.

A decision was made by Motorsport NZ to follow the principles and specifications of the new FIA R5 car, but at a much more affordable cost, ensuring it could be locally constructed from locally sourced components.

The starting point for new cars is still a series production car. Suspension arms, uprights, hubs and turrets are all common control components, while shocks and dampers may be freely sourced. Engines must be from the same manufacturer as the model represented and the transmissions must be approved.

The newly formed team will shortly take possession of two production

Holden Barinas that will be stripped down at the RDL Performance workshop in Christchurch. The bare body shells will then be sent north to Force Motorsport for completion of fabrication work and sign-off from Motorsport New Zealand.

From there the two cars will come back to the team’s Christchurch workshop and the rest of the work will be carried out.

“At this stage we are working on sourcing an engine from the GM range,” Marston explained. “It looks like it will be an Ecotech 2.0-litre turbo out of an Astra VXR that will end up in the car as a 1.8-litre turbo.”

HOLMES HONOURED

R

enowned rally journalist and former co-driver, Martin Holmes, was recognised at the recent Rally of Portugal in honour of his 500th WRC rally.

World Rally Championship Commission chairman, Carlos Barbosa, presented Martin with a desk clock designed in the fashion of the time clocks used in historic rally cars.

Martin made a short speech, highlighting his fond memories of the Portuguese event over the years, both as a competitor and a journalist.

The FIA announced that Portugal was the 550th WRC event, although Martin believes the number to be 563.

“By my calculation Portugal was 563, including Sanremo 1986 and 2-litre world rallies. I did not know when to stop counting,” he said.

Whatever the number, it’s a magnificent effort,

12 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

Martin Holmes (left) receives his award from Carlos Barbosa.

and RallySport Magazine congratulates Martin on his achievement, and looks forward to many more Holmes stories.

WRC Radio’s Colin Clark interviewed Martin before Rally Portugal. CLICK HERE to listen to the interview.

RALLY NEW ZEALAND FUTURE

RALLY NZ PLANS ON TRACK Rally NZ Chairman, PJ Johnson, explains the event’s push to get back into the WRC calendar in 2018

R

ally New Zealand continues to push towards a return to the World Rally Championship, despite having been out of the WRC since 2012, and without any certainty that they’ll get their coveted place in the calendar back again.

After the year-on, year-off scheduling was shelved after 2012 because of the difficulties that it brought about, New Zealand has been in the WRC wilderness ever since.

With the emergence of Hayden Paddon as one of the world’s fastest drivers, and with a concerted effort by Rally New Zealand to build a new event from the ground up, their chances of regaining a round of the WRC seem to be increasing.

After their last event in 2012, a so-called three-year agreement was supposed to see Australia host a round for three years, before New Zealand took their turn for the following three years. But that hasn’t happened, and it turns out the agreement wasn’t worth the paper it was never written on.

“There was never a contract in place, it was simply a gentleman’s agreement between myself, Morrie Chandler and the WRC promoter, Oliver Ciesla,” Rally New Zealand chairman, PJ Johnson, told RallySport Magazine.

“We were under the impression that

By PETER WHITTEN

“There was never a contract in place, it was simply a gentleman’s agreement.”

- PJ Johnson

Rally New Zealand Chairman, PJ Johnson. (Photo: Geoff Ridder)

it was a three-year deal, but I’m not going to harp on about it, except to say that Australia has had a good crack at it, we’re ready to go now, and we think it’s time for us to have a turn.”

Johnson says Rally New Zealand has taken a fresh approach to their new event, and have the roads, the infrastructure, the organising team, and Hayden Paddon, to make it a success.

“Neither New Zealand or Australia could operate on a yearly cycle with an event every second year. It was too hard as you were putting staff on, then laying them off, then having to reemploy staff.

“We made a suggestion to the promoter that we have a three-year deal for the event to run in Australia, and then for three years in New Zealand. It was all about retaining staff and making sure we could run a better event,” he said.

Unfortunately for the Kiwis, the agreement was never honoured, and was something that current Rally Australia Clerk of Course, Wayne Kenny, knows nothing about.

“I have no idea about any agreement that New Zealand had,” Kenny said.

“We have a contract until the end of 2017, and we’ll be putting in a JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 13

RALLY NEW ZEALAND FUTURE Nine-time World Champion Sebastien Loeb on the Whaanga coast stage.

Hayden Paddon is pushing hard for a Rally NZ return - WATCH HERE

“I don’t want to knock Australia, because they’ve done a good job, but we feel it’s our turn now.” submission to the FIA to run an event in 2018, 2019 and 2020. It’s then up to the promoters to decide which events get in the championship.”

Kenny agreed that it would be great to have two events ‘down under’, and that he’d love to see Rally New Zealand

back in the championship – but not at the expense of Rally Australia.

Johnson and the Rally New Zealand team will head to Sardinia in mid-June (as this issue is published) to meet with Oliver Ciesla to go through the proper process of trying to get the WRC back to New Zealand. There is plenty of interest in returning, but negotiations are ongoing.

“Having Hayden doing so well is great for us, but nothing is a given,” Johnson stressed.

“There are other countries vying for a round of the WRC as well, but at the end of the day, we think Australia has had its run. We’ve got better roads,

better infrastructure and we believe we can put on a better show for the world.

“I don’t want to knock Australia, because they’ve done a good job, but we feel it’s our turn now. We have backing from local and federal government and we have two or three very big corporates who have said they will stand behind us, so we have a naming rights sponsor lined up.”

There has been some talk that New Zealand’s grey vehicle import rules are putting the teams off from coming down under for a WRC round, but Johnson says that is “absolute bullsh@#”.

“We have got manufacturer support Jari-Matti Latvala on one of NZ’s magnificent gravel stages.

14 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

from all five marques locally – Hyundai, Volkswagen, Ford, Toyota and Citroen – who have all got behind the event and want to see it back in New Zealand,” he added.

“We’re pushing forward to get a slot in the calendar. We’ve had very, very good feedback from people within the FIA who think it’s time the event came back to New Zealand. Hayden has made a big difference, and we have a hugely strong national championship at present, with more than 40 cars in each round.

“As I said, I don’t want to be seen to be knocking Australia because I think

they’ve done a really good job, but I think it’s time New Zealand had its turn.”

The ‘new’ Rally New Zealand will be based in Tauranga, on the east coast of the North Island, about 90 minutes south of Auckland. With a population of over 117,000 people, the city has a major airport and shipping port.

The event will use a state-of-theart events centre as its base, which includes an 18,000-seat speedway track within 100 metres of the facility that would be used for an exciting Super Special Stage.

The rally will be run as a round of

the New Zealand Rally Championship in 2017, with the proposed WRC round spending the first day in the Coromandel region on some rally stages made famous in the 1970s.

The second day would be based around nearby Rotorua and include the famous Motu stage, while the third and final day would use stages around Tauranga.

Rally New Zealand organisers are well on track to see a return of the WRC to their shores. All they need now is for the FIA and the series promoter to look favourably on their application.

- Peter Whitten

“Talk that NZ’s grey vehicle import rules are putting the teams off from coming down under for a WRC round is ‘absolute bullsh@#’.”

Carlos Sainz on the famous Hella jump in the 2002 Rally of New Zealand.

BIGGER AND BETTER IN ‘16 - KENNY

In brief .....

R

ally Australia Clerk of Course, Wayne Kenny, is confident that this year’s round of the WRC will be the best yet in Coffs Harbour, with a number of changes set to make the event bigger and better.

A new Super Special Stage and some other innovations to the route will provide spectators with some exciting new viewing options, and will hopefully impress the teams and series promoter.

“We have a contract until the end of 2017, but we’re competing against all countries for a spot in the championship, not just New Zealand,”

Kenny said. “The promoters want a lot out of rallies, not just nice roads, so if you fall off your perch by dropping your standards, you won’t have a rally.

“Rally Australia has always set high standards, but the events cost more to run these days. There was more money available in the 90s, and we’re finding that we have to try and do more with less.

“Last year’s event was a step up from the previous year, and we’re confident this year’s Rally Australia will be much better than last year’s,” he added.

- Peter Whitten JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 15

NATIONAL CAPITAL RALLY - ARC 2

BRENDO’S BACK

In only his third event in nearly two years, Brendan Reeves drove his Subaru to victory in the National Capital Rally, the second round of the Kumho Tyre Australian Rally Championship, from May 27 to 29.

Report: PETER WHITTEN

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Victorious siblin

gs Brendan Reev

es and Rhianon

Gelsomino.

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NATIONAL CAPITAL RALLY - ARC 2

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ith sister Rhianon Gelsomino calling the pacenotes, Reeves finished second on the opening day, before winning day two and finishing ahead of Nathan Quinn and David Calder in the overall standings.

Championship leaders, Simon Evans and Ben Searcy, convincingly won the first heat, but an off-road excursion saw them drop to 10th on day two. Their overall result still gave them sufficient points to retain their ARC lead.

Equal fourth place for the weekend went to the Subarus of Tom Wilde/Sam Hill, and Molly Taylor/Bill Hayes.

The Canberra-based event once again proved to be a survival of the fittest, with bent panels and mechanical problems a feature of the three-day, 14 stage event.

Cars gathered for the start on the banks of Lake Burley Griffin.

Photo: John Doutch Craig Brooks’ weekend started badly and got worse from then on.

Photo: Luke Whitten

PRE-EVENT

The pre-event media day and shakedown was held at the National Arboretum on the site where the Greenhills plantation used to host Rally of Canberra stages.

The location was suggested by local Adrian Coppin, and proved to be the perfect spot to watch the action, as well as getting up close to the cars and crews.

Most of the leading crews had a story to tell, starting with road-sweeper Nathan Quinn whose Lancer Evo 9 was suffering from a mis-fire when they drove the car off the trailer. His team quickly had this sorted.

With a new engine fitted to his Peugeot since WA, Mark Pedder had more dramas in testing with a power steering issue that the Race Torque team were quickly on top of. They changed the power steering pump and the steering rack, and the little Pug was ready to go.

Brendan Reeves had to abandon his test day when a centre diff problem surfaced in his Subaru, but with that fixed, he did as many shakedown runs as possible to get some time in the car and make minor changes to his suspension.

Lots of changes had been made to Harry Bates’ Corolla S2000 since WA in order to get more grip. The young Bates was looking forward to his home event,

particularly the Sunday stages that he felt suited his car better, being tighter and twistier than Saturday’s Kowen Forest tests.

“I need to go out and push to see what our pace is,” Bates said. “Pushing against Simon and finding our limits is part of the plan, but we were a little surprised by our speed in WA, so we need to keep that in mind and be realistic about our goals.”

Series leader Simon Evans was finetuning his Subaru, but many hours work from his team hand-making a new intercooler proved to be in vain as it actually made the car run hotter.

“I’m absolutely shattered,” Evans said. “We’re calling it the inter-warmer!

I know now why Subaru spent so much

time and effort engineering their cars.”

The team fitted a standard WRX intercooler for the event, and they suffered no problems in the cooler weather.

Despite having a car that was heavier and with less power than her rivals, Molly Taylor was getting into the groove of driving Subaru’s Group N WRX, and was impressing everyone, including codriver Bill Hayes.

“I’ve never seen anyone work harder,” Hayes told RallySport Magazine before the event. “She would have watched in-car footage from last year’s stages at least 50 or 60 times, and she knows every corner.

“I’ve co-driven for a lot of great drivers, and her preparation is second

Find us at: www.chicane.co.nz 18 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

Call us o

to none,” he said.

Tasmanian Craig Brooks was looking forward to his 2016 ARC campaign, but his pretty Impreza tripped and fell on the final corner of the shakedown stage in what was an incredibly unlucky crash.

A bank on the inside of the corner saw many cars getting onto two wheels, and Brooks must have been asking “why me?”.

Unfortunately his luck was to go from bad to worse the following morning.

Harry Bates again impressed and remains second in the championship.

Photo: Peter Whitten

HEAT 1

In front of a good crowd who braved cold and windy conditions, the rally got underway on the banks of Lake Burley Griffin with a short 1.54km tarmac stage on Friday night.

On his ARC return, Brendan Reeves took the stage victory, just 0.1 of a second clear of Simon Evans, with Harry Bates a further second and a half back.

Justin Dowel’s Hyundai i20 failed to leave the start line when it broke a propshaft, temporarily retiring on the spot, while Michael Harding (Subaru) added some extra distance to his stage after getting confused midway through the twisty tarmac test.

With times relatively tight, it was clear that the super special stage results would count for little when the gravel stages got underway the following morning.

Saturday began with three stages in the Kowen Forest totalling a distance

“I’ve never seen anyone work harder.

I’ve co-driven for some great drivers and her preparation is second to none.”

- Bill Hayes of 55km, under cloudy skies that threatened rain. By the time Nathan Quinn left the start line of the 4.56km Settlement 1 test the light rain was already falling, making road conditions even grippier.

Almost immediately, Brendan Reeves

Nathan Quinn finished a fine second after a controlled drive.

Photo: John Doutch

was in trouble in his Subaru. A little over a kilometre into the stage, at the end of a long straight, he went from fifth gear to fourth, grabbed second by mistake, and would subsequently spend the rest of the day without first and second gears.

“It was a simple mistake and one that came from getting used to the ‘H’ pattern gearbox again,” Reeves admitted. “We’ll try and replace the gearbox at service, but it could be a long afternoon if we can’t.”

The rain continued to fall over parts of the stages, but it didn’t slow Simon Evans. When he reached the service after the opening three gravel stages his lead was already 31.2 seconds over the struggling Reeves, with a bent rim and a loose gearbox cross-member mount Evans’ only problems.

“We’re pushing hard,” he admitted.

“The plan was to attack on the long stages this morning and try and build an advantage, which we’ve managed to do. The stages are very grippy and the car’s going really well.”

Nathan Quinn was a further 43 seconds behind Reeves, but with problems of his own.

“We had a rear suspension arm come adrift which cost us some time, and we’ve also had a puncture,” Quinn lamented. “It looks like we’ll need to weld the suspension arm at service. My poor luck in Canberra continues!”

Harry Bates’ chances of victory on his home event had already, literally, turned upside down. Running wide on a slow corner on stage five, the Corolla

HJC MOTORSPORTS

on: AU 1800 CHICANE or NZ 0800 CHICANE JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 19

NATIONAL CAPITAL RALLY - ARC 2

It was an event Justin Dowel would rather forget.

Photo: John Doutch

tripped up and ended up on its roof.

It was mechanically undamaged, but upside down.

Initially, co-driver John McCarthy told Bates to stay in the car while he pushed the car back onto its wheels, but that proved impossible. It took the pair nearly 25 minutes to jack up the car by the roof, then put more and more rocks under the roof, until they were able to push it back onto its wheels.

“We were glad to get the car upright again and moving before Neal (Bates) came along,” McCarthy said. “That wasn’t something we wanted to wait around for!”

Tom Wilde had quietly moved into fourth place in his Subaru, with Mark Pedder fifth, despite an overshoot on SS3, a fogging windscreen and admitting to “not driving fast enough”.

After repairing his car after his roll on shakedown, Craig Brooks’ rally went from terrible to heartbreaking on stage four. The Tasmanian failed to take a 90 degree left hander after a long, fast crest, jumped over a fence and landed some 100 metres off the road. The car landed on its wheels, but it immediately caught fire and burnt to the ground.

Neither Brooks nor co-driver Reubecca Sheldrick were injured, but the next car on the road – ironically, Brad Markovic, whose own Subaru had burnt to the ground in similar circumstances in WA – saw only smoke and flames and he was quite concerned until he saw that Brooks and Sheldrick were out of the car and okay.

“After what happened in WA, it was probably the worst possible thing to come across, and it took a while to get the confidence back,” Markovic said.

After a service break back in Canberra, Evans set about further blitzing his ailing competitors over the afternoon’s three repeated gravel stages, and the tarmac super stage back in Canberra.

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He won all the day’s stages, including setting the equal fastest time with Quinn on SS8, and ended the day 1m18.7s in front of Reeves.

“It’s been pretty much the perfect day, and ‘The Beast’ has gone brilliantly,” Evans said at day’s end.

“We were glad to get the car upright and moving before Neal came along. That wasn’t something we wanted to wait around for.” - John McCarthy “This afternoon’s stages were rougher than this morning, but everything has worked well.”

Reeves’ crew were unable to change

his gearbox at service, yet he completed the day in an amazing second place, 49 seconds ahead of Quinn, despite struggling badly off the start line of stages and over the tight and tricky tarmac stage that concluded the day.

“It’s been an interesting day,” he admitted. “We had the turbo boost pipe come off on the first two stages this afternoon and that cost us some time, but other than that it’s just been a case of driving around the gearbox problem and getting the car home.”

The team replaced the gearbox at the end of day service, giving the young Victorian a healthy Subaru to tackle Sunday’s stages.

Coffs Harbour’s favourite son, Nathan Quinn, maintained his third place throughout the afternoon, but it wasn’t without its dramas, an exhaust falling off and burning the rear bumper just one of his concerns. He also clipped a kangaroo, but fortunately without damage to car or ‘roo.

Tom Wilde’s day was uneventful, but netted a brilliant fourth place for the West Australian, with new co-driver Sam Hill calling the pacenotes. It was a great result for Dean Herridge’s exBathurst 12 Hour car.

Fifth place went to the factory Subaru of Molly Taylor and Bill Hayes, but only after struggling through the last stage and a half with only rear-wheel drive.

The WRX broke a front diff on the final gravel stage, something that Subaru boss, Nick Senior, admitted was a rarity, even in the days when Subaru dominated the ARC in the 1990s and 2000s.

“The front diff was the main problem, but we suspect there could also be a rear diff problem,” co-driver Bill Hayes said. “When checking the tyre pressures before the final tarmac stage, one

Dean Herridge talks tactics with Tom Wilde and Sam Hill on Day 1. Photo: Luke Whitten

It was a weekend of highs and lows for Simon Evans, but he still leads the Australian Rally Championship .

of the rear wheels was red hot, so we’ll have to investigate that before tomorrow.”

Former Rally Australia ‘prize drive’ winner, Mick Patton, finished the day a brilliant sixth in his Lancer Evo X, with the top 10 rounded out by Michael Harding (Subaru), JJ Hatton (Mitsubishi), Brad Markovic (Subaru) and Tom Clarke’s Mitsubishi.

Markovic’s co-driver, Glenn Macneall, finished the day with a sore back after continuous front suspension problems hampered their efforts.

“The front suspension was way too hard all day,” Markovic explained. “It’s the same Reiger suspension that was in the car that burnt out, which was tested, but not pulled apart after it was found to be okay.

“However, there’s obviously a problem there somewhere, so we’ll install the Ohlins struts that came with the car, and hope that improves

the handling for tomorrow.”

Harry Bates had a better afternoon, setting two second fastest stage times in his slightly battered, but mechanically sound Corolla, and stressing that “getting back on the horse” was the best thing he could do for his confidence.

“It’s disappointing, because I’m the first person to put a mark on this car, and it’s won an ARC title before, but I guess that’s the way it goes,” Bates said.

“By the end of the day I had the same feeling in the car as I had in WA, so I’m pleased that we’ve been able to set

Thomas Dermody was a popular attraction in his Escort RS1800, while Neal Bates once again showed his class to win the Classics.

Photos: John Doutch, Luke Whitten

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NATIONAL CAPITAL RALLY - ARC 2 some good times and build on that confidence ahead of heat two.”

Bates ended the day in 13th place.

Justin Dowel had a heat he’d rather forget, starting with a broken propshaft on the first stage. He had a spin and stalled the car on stage five, had a gearbox temperature light distracting him on stage seven, and generally had a day where nothing really went right.

He finished the heat in 14th place.

Still, his day finished better than either Mark Pedder or Adrian Coppin’s.

Pedder broke a rear suspension arm on the first stage after service, repaired it with a screwdriver, only to have it fail for good on the following stage.

Coppin had a similarly frustrating day, which eventually ended when the car stopped with a fluid leak prior to stage seven.

But problems aside, there was no doubting Simon Evans’ dominance on the first heat, and it was clear that it would take a super-human effort (and a slice of luck) for anyone to challenge the four-time champion for the heat two win.

In the Classics, Neal Bates took a dominant victory of nearly two and a half minutes, in front of the similar Toyota Celica RA40 of Clay Badenoch, with Mal Keough third in his Audi Quattro S1 replica.

2016 National Capital Rally - Heat 1 1. Evans/Searcy 2. Reeves/Gelsomino 3. Quinn/Calder 4. Wilde/Hill 5. Taylor/Hayes 6. Patton/Webb 7. Harding/Thornburn 8. Hatton/Allen 9. Markovic/Macneall 10. Clarke/Preston

Subaru Impreza WRX, Subaru Impreza WRX STI Spec C Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX Subaru Impreza WRX STI Subaru WRX STI Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X Subaru Impreza WRX Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX Subaru Impreza WRX Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX

1h07m35.2s +1:18.7 +2:07.0 +2:58.8 +3:53.1 +4.00.9s +5.21.1 +6.04.7 +6.52.1 +7.29.3

Molly Taylor was neat and tidy yet again, taking fourth place for Subaru.

Photo: John Doutch

HEAT 2

As Sunday morning dawned, parts of Canberra were blanketed in a thick fog as competitors made their way west of the city for the day’s three stages – each to be repeated twice.

Once the fog lifted it revealed frosty conditions, with the temperature Mick Patton has emerged into one of the championship’s most consistent performers.

Photo: Luke Whitten

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dropping to as low as minus two degrees, masking the hot competition that would soon be underway.

Victory on the opening three stages of the day quickly saw Brendan Reeves open up a decisive 46.9 second lead over Nathan Quinn, with his Subaru now running on-song after the previous day’s gearbox woes.

When Simon Evans went off the road on the second stage, it eased the pressure on Reeves, his only problem being when he ripped most of the rear spoiler of the Impreza on the long 30km Cottage 5 Ways stage.

“I just threw the car into a tight corner and there was a low hanging branch which ripped the spoiler off,” he said later. The team borrowed a spare from fellow competitor Michael Harding, and the car was soon looking like new again.

Evans had started the day as aggressively as he’d finished the first, but soon paid a big price, spearing off the road on the final corner of SS10, doing extensive damage to his Subaru and getting stuck in a ditch for over 11 minutes.

Mechanical problems hampered Mark Pedder’s chances of a top result.

Photo: Matt Whitten

Broken front and rear control arms, and front and rear driveshafts were some of the problems the Evans Motorsport team needed to fix, and after he and Searcy lost another four and a half minutes crawling through SS11, they were now nearly 16 minutes from the lead.

“It was a corner I know well, and a corner I’ve always been able to drive flat out through – but obviously not in this car,” Evans said later.

“We got really good grip coming out of the corner, but we ran wide into the ditch and from then I was just a passenger and ran out of talent!”

Quinn was again going well, despite admitting to “driving slowly” on the East West stage, where he’d crashed before.

Nevertheless, he was 18 seconds clear of third placed Molly Taylor, with Harry Bates a further five seconds behind after a spin on the long stage cost him some time.

Tom Wilde had again slipped into a top five place in his Subaru, but others were already striking problems.

Justin Dowel retired his Hyundai i20 after clouting a big rock and rearranging the right rear suspension on the opening stage (he would restart again after service), while JJ Hatton had transmission failure in his Lancer. Mal Keough also retired his crowd-pleasing Audi Quattro with gearbox woes.

Brad Markovic decided to park his Subaru after the first stage.

After changing the front suspension overnight, it was discovered that there was no pre-load on the diffs and the car neither wanted to turn in, or drive out of corners. Markovic nearly crashed the car twice on the first stage, so wisely decided to quit while he was ahead, and preserve the car for the next round in Queensland.

“It was a corner I know well, and a corner I’ve always been able to drive flat out through - but obviously not in this car!”

- Simon Evans The morning’s three stages were repeated again after a service back in Canberra, and when Reeves won the repeat of Hyles Block, his victory was getting closer. He admitted to simply driving in the middle of the road to avoid problems and finishing the event with two second fastest stage times secured a one minute and 6.5 second victory for he and sister Rhianon Gelsomino.

“It’s a fantastic result and we’re

thrilled,” Reeves said. “We had a sticking throttle on the last stage, but just drove through carefully to get the car home.”

Quinn also spent the afternoon driving with plenty in reserve and was pleased to finally get a result in Canberra – something that had eluded him previously. He’s a driver that the ARC needs to see more of.

With neither Reeves nor Quinn registered for ARC points, the Heat 2 series victory went to Harry Bates and John McCarthy, who took third place, some 1m44.2s behind the rally winner.

A slight brake problem on the first stage of the afternoon loop was soon sorted, before a minor scrape against an earth bank on the final test cost no time, but ripped a third of the front bumper bar from the car – much to Bates’ dismay.

“We’ve had a good day,” he said back in Canberra. “The team changed the gearbox overnight, and the taller ratios weren’t ideally suited to today’s

Tom Clarke rolled his Lancer on Day 2, but still managed two top 10 finishes.

Photo: Matt Whitten

JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 23

NATIONAL CAPITAL RALLY - ARC 2 twistier stages, but we’ve got through and secured some good points in the championship.

“We’re already looking forward to Queensland.”

For the second event in a row, Molly Taylor brought the works Subaru home without a scratch on it, securing fourth place in the process and further enhancing her reputation.

“We had a really good battle with Tom (Wilde) today, and it was great to finish in front.”

The margin between the two was just 0.6 of a second after the day’s six stages.

“It was a pretty trouble free rally, and I learnt lots for the future,” Wilde reported.

“We had no pacenotes from previous years, so after the running of this morning’s stages we went back to service and watched some of the in-car

footage, then made some changes to the notes for the afternoon. It seemed to help.”

Another neat and tidy drive netted Mick Patton and Bernie Webb sixth place, ahead of a frustrated Mark Pedder, whose day was challenging to say the least.

His Peugeot 208 Maxi mis-fired its way through the first long stage, then on SS13 he encountered intermittent centre diff problems that made the car difficult to drive.

Then, to cap it off, on the final stage of the rally the turbo started to fall off the manifold and he and Dale Moscatt only just made it home.

Despite a small off-road excursion on SS11, Michael Harding brought his Subaru home in eighth place, Tom Clarke survived a roll in his Lancer to take ninth (finishing the event with no front or rear windscreen), while Simon

Evans rounded out the top 10 in his Subaru, gaining enough points to retain his lead in the championship.

Once again, Canberra had proved a tough nut to crack, and Sunday’s attrition rate once again showed that conquering the National Capital Rally is no easy task.

Brendan Reeves’ second win in three years proved that he’s a driver who loves the challenge, and is more than up for it.

Neal Bates took another comprehensive Classics win, driving his Celica to a victory of just under five minutes. Second place went to the consistent Thomas Dermody in a Ford Escort RS1800, with Brett Stephens’ well-rallied Nissan Bluebird rounding out the top three.

The battle for the championship will now move to the International Rally of Queensland from June 17 to 19.

DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS DAY 2 HIGHLIGHTS GO-PRO FOOTAGE

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It was a disappointing home event for Canberra’s Adrian Coppin.

Photo: Luke Whitten

Driver turned mechanic, Brendan Reeves.

Photo: Peter Whitten

JJ Hatton two wheels his Lancer at the pre-event shakedown.

Photo: John Doutch

2016 National Capital Rally - Heat 2 1. Reeves/Gelsomino 2. Quinn/Calder 3. Bates/McCarthy 4. Taylor/Hayes 5. Wilde/Hill 6. Patton/Webb 7. Pedder/Moscatt 8. Harding/Thornburn 9. Clarke/Preston 10. Evans/Searcy

Subaru Impreza WRX STI Spec C Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX Toyota Corolla S2000 Subaru WRX STi Subaru Impreza WRX STI Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X Peugeot 208 Maxi Subaru Impreza WRX STi Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX Subaru Impreza WRX

1h15m54.1s +01:06.5 +01:44.2 +02:01.2 +02:01.8 +04:41.3 +05:37.0 +05:47.5 +09:34.7 +15:43.1

For more details call Dominic on 0499 981 188 or email dominic@rallysportmag.com.au JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 25

FEATURE: TOYOTA’S MOTORSPORT MUSEUM

ALADDIN

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Story and Photos: PETER WHITTEN

Story and Photos : PETER WHITTEN

N’S CAVE

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FEATURE: TOYOTA’S MOTORSPORT MUSEUM

Deep in the bowels of Toyota Motorsport in suburban Cologne, Germany, lies a treasure chest of cars that most motorsport fans would give their right arm to walk amongst and touch.

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Peter Whitten was like a kid in a lolly shop as he took in some of the cars that have made Toyota one of world rallying’s most successful brands, and cars he has seen on the world’s rally stages.

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hen I took a short business trip to Germany in late 2014, I spent three nights in Cologne, which just happens to be the European home of Toyota. Naturally, a visit to Toyota Motorsport seemed like too good an opportunity to miss out on.

With my German language skills limited to Volkswagen, Audi, Mercedes and Guten Tag, I bumbled my way from central Cologne to Marsdorf, the suburb where Toyota Motorsport resides.

A short walk from the train station

had me in ‘Toyota Allee’, and I was soon at the security gate for Toyota Motorsport, where I met up with my guide, Robin D’Alquen. A friendly guy with six months’ experience on the job, Robin was nearly as excited as I was to be heading into the museum – not only to get out of the office for an hour or so, but to take a walk through Toyota’s motorsport history.

With security cleared, Robin led me through office complexes and corridors until, eventually, we reached a set of big double doors that are usually off limits.

When the doors opened and the lights went on, I’m certain my heart skipped a beat. There, before my very eyes, were some of the fastest cars ever built, worth literally millions and millions of dollars, if you could put a value on them.

But while most museum pieces are behind glass or annoying barriers and ropes, the vast array of rally, Formula 1 and Le Mans cars sit unobstructed, and ready to be admired.

This is a museum like no other.

Situated on the ground floor, it is, for all intents and purposes, the

Celicas, Corollas, Group B, Group A, World Rally Cars and Formula 1 the Toyota Motorsport Museum in Cologne, Germany, is an Aladdin’s Cave of motorsport history.

Paddon’s office has already proved a successful testing ground for WRC success.

JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 29

FEATURE: TOYOTA’S MOTORSPORT MUSEUM basement of the building. The roof is a mishmash of air conditioning ducts, water pipes and electrical wiring, and concrete pillars make the floor area a real jigsaw. When the air conditioning suddenly, and unexpectedly, turns on, the noise is almost deafening and gives you quite a fright.

However, it’s all these features that make it so unique, and all the more surprising that some of the world’s most technologically advanced cars grace the floor.

Robin had been in here a few times before, and while he looked at the cars himself, he was happy to let me take my time, photograph what I wanted, and sit in the cars that have made Toyota one of the most respected brands in motorsport.

Eleven Formula 1 cars, four Sportscars, seven rally cars and a few ‘other’ Toyota specials sat before me.

Before I’d arrived at the museum it was the Group B Celica Twin Cam Turbo (TA64) that I was most looking Toyota Formula 1 cars galore, and literally hanging from the ceiliing.

Inset: Sainz’s Group A Celica in tarmac spec, complete with front brake cooling discs.

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forward to seeing. I saw the car in action in the 1984 Rally of New Zealand, and seeing it again brought back a lot of memories. Sitting behind the steering wheel was a surreal feeling.

However, it was Carlos Sainz’s gorgeous Group A Celica ST185 that I kept being drawn back to. Sitting in its tarmac-spec Tour de Corse livery, the car looked fast just sitting there.

It was one of the best sounding rally cars ever, and was the car that took the Spaniard to two World Rally Championship titles.

It was also the model of Celica that Sainz spectacularly crashed three times in the 1991 Rally Australia – the final time dramatically when he rolled seven or eight times in the Bunnings plantation.

There were Corolla World Rally Cars from the late 1990s, and a couple of early Celicas driven by Ove Andersson, the man who would eventually be the head of Toyota Team Europe.

Perhaps the most unique car, however, was the mid-80s MR2 that was built for the Group S regulations that never saw the light of day, following the outlawing of Group B. Fitted with a Toyota 503E 2140cc, turbocharged in-line four cylinder, water-cooled 16 valve engine, it reportedly produced 600 horsepower at 8500rpm, with 640 Nm of torque.

Painted in jet black, the car looked decidedly beastly, and one wonders just how fast it would have been. or anyone with an eye for Formula 1 history and technology, the museum offers just about all you could wish to see.

The manufacturer’s range of F1 machines sit idle (and hanging from the roof), including the car that Toyota never raced – the 2010 model that many in the company believed was going to be their best yet.

Despite competing in 140 races and taking 13 podium finishes, Toyota never won a Grand Prix.

F

Above: the Editor with Carlos Sainz’s Group A Celica ST185.

Right: Toyota’s Le Mans Sportscar, the Group B MR2 that never rallied, and (below) the interior of Toyota’s Group B Celica Twin Cam Turbo.

While I was there, a return to the World Rally Championship for Toyota had long been rumoured, although nobody within the Toyota Motorsport complex was giving anything away.

I could talk for hours about the cars that appear in the museum, their history, their results and their place in world motorsport folklore, but a picture is worth a thousand words, and I took plenty.

You may never get the opportunity to go deep into the bowels of Toyota Motorsport yourself, but the photos on these pages help to give you a tour through the museum and relive some of motorsport’s finest machines.

My thanks to Toyota’s Alastair Moffitt, Robin D’Alquen and Mike Breen for making the tour possible.

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CANTERBURY RALLY - NZRC 3

GILMOUR WINS DRAMA FILLED CANTERBURY RALLY Story: BLAIR BARTELS Photos: GEOFF RIDDER Dunedin’s Emma Gilmour has taken her first ever victoy at the third round of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship, the Joe’s Garage/Lonestar Rally Canterbury, held in the forests north of Christchurch.

Gilmour’s Suzuki Swift led home the

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were plenty of surprises in store for the 36 national championship entries, of which only 16 made the finish, many after battling through the day.

With as many as 15 combinations realistically fighting for the podium, there was pressure a plenty on all the front runners to make a strong start. The expected challenge from Mazda 2 of Andrew Hawkeswood, and local driver Matt Summerfield saw Carl Davies’ Subaru. him set the fastest time through the While Gilmour and co-driver Anthony opening stage, with Gilmour second McLoughlin took the lead on the second and Hawkeswood third fastest, despite stage and never relinquished it, there a spin.

It was a ford 12km It was another event to forget for into the 19km stage that NZ Champion Ben Hunt. would provide most of the early drama, with defending champion Ben Hunt suffering a fogged windscreen in his Subaru, as did Sloan Cox’s Mitsubishi, while ingesting water cost championship leader David Holder, Richard Baddock, Lance Williams and Glenn Inkster, the latter losing close to half an hour.

Also in trouble was Chris West, the 2004 champion’s return to the series cut short by a split intercooler on the Ralliart Mitsubishi Mirage.

The second stage

After 12 years of trying, Emma Gilmour has finally won her first NZRC round

saw further drama when Summerfield’s engine failed, later traced to a broken exhaust cam wheel. Hunt also stopped in the stage with overheating, while Darren Galbraith, runner up at the event in 2015, also had engine failure.

On top of that, Richard Baddock left the road after a misunderstanding in his pacenotes, destroying his Subaru and ending up a long, long way from the road.

That left stage winner Gilmour to move into the lead, ahead of Hawkeswood and Phil Campbell, whose clean start was paying dividends. Two others having a Andrew Hawkeswood took clean run were Clint Cunningham second place in his Mazda 2, and Carl Davies, claiming fourth despite this spin. and fifth respectively.

The bruising opening loop of stages also hit the class battles. Marcus van Klink led historics, but the challenge from Jeff Judd ended when he left the road and rolled on the sixth corner of the rally. Tony Gosling’s similar Ford Escort RS1800 suffered bent rear suspension in stage two, leaving Regan Ross second to uphold Escort honours, and John Silcock third in a Mazda RX-7 almost identical to van Klink’s.

Anthony Jones’s run at the front of after hitting a rock, leaving Strong to the open two-wheel drive class came to take the class win for the day, despite an end when a propshaft failed in the losing 25 minutes changing a fan belt in opening stage, leaving Dave Strong to stage three. lead the class ahead of Dylan Thomson.

A loop of two more stages further Thomson would retire in stage three

“Baddock left the road, destroying his Subaru and ending up a long, long way from the road”

north awaited the teams, the first of which was won by Cox, showing what may have been without the stage one delay. Gilmour was second fastest to extend her lead, with Inkster setting the third fastest time.

Further drama hit in stage four, Williams losing 18 minutes with a damaged wheel rim, while Campbell’s engine expired at the stage end, moving Cunningham into third by just six-tenths of a second over Davies, but worried about noises coming from the gearbox. Hot on their heels were the recovering Holder and Cox. A tough morning also hit the Gull

Spectators brave the freezing conditions as Phil Campbell slides his Lancer through an early morning stage.

JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 33

CANTERBURY RALLY - NZRC 3 Rally Challenge. When stage one winner Galbraith retired, Lee Robson assumed the lead on his first visit to the event, ahead of Richard Bateman and Kingsley Jones, who delayed himself with a couple of spins.

Other potential front runners, Warwick Redfern and Wayne Pittams, went off the road in stage two, and when Bateman broke his rear suspension, Jason Clark moved into third place, the podium positions that would stand to the end of the event, with Bryn Smith claiming fourth.

Greg Murphy was the only two-wheel drive car in the challenge, overcoming head gasket problems to claim the class win.

Stage five was a repeat of one and the ford would once again play a crucial role in the outcome of the event.

Holder, Gilmour and Cox all suffered in the water crossing, the latter having to stop and replace an alternator belt, ending his charge.

Worse was to come when the VW Polo of Shannon Chambers drowned in the crossing, causing mass confusion.

Next into the stage, Clint Cunningham, stopped in the middle of the road to avoid further cars getting stuck in the ford, which was deeper than the morning pass.

However, a later inquiry found the road was passable and while the other dozen cars that stopped were given an assessed time, Cunningham wasn’t as he was deemed the cause of the blockage.

That moved Davies into third with Holder hard on his heels, although the championship leader would roll out of the rally on the following stage, promoting the ever-consistent Graham Featherstone to fourth.

The final three stages saw little change in the running order with the stage wins being shared between Gilmour, Cox and Hawkeswood, Gilmour also claiming the five bonus

points for the Power Stage.

So it was that Gilmour took her first NZRC round win after 12 years of trying, one minute and 15 seconds ahead of Hawkeswood, with Davies a further two minutes and 15 seconds back.

Featherstone, Robson, van Klink, Jones, FIA two-wheel drive class winner Max Bayley, Cox and Clark rounded out the top 10.

Silcock came home second historic and 11th overall after drivetrain failure for Regan Ross, ahead of Bryn Smith, a fuming Cunningham, Williams, Murphy and Strong rounding out the NZRC finishers.

While Holder failed to score, he still leads the championship, but Gilmour has now closed the gap to just six points. Although he will contest no further rounds, Hayden Paddon still holds third, ahead of van Klink and Hawkeswood.

The series now heads for Rally Gisborne on July 2. e in his Fiesta.

ok eighth plac

Max Bayley to

Marcus van Klink led the historic field once again in his crowdpleasing Mazda RX7.

Find us at: www.chicane.co.nz 34 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

Call us o

Once the frost melted it was a beautiful Canterbury day. Sloan Cox hits a water crossing in his Lancer.

2016 Canterbury Rally - June 5 1. Emma Gilmour / Anthony McLoughlin Suzuki Swift AP4 2. Andrew Hawkeswood / Jeff Cress Mazda 2 AP4 3. Carl Davies / Tracey Miller Subaru Impreza WRX 4. G. Featherstone / D. Devonport Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 7 5. Lee Robson / Glenn Goldring Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 4 6. Marcus van Klink / Dave Neill Mazda RX7 7. Kingsley Jones / Waverley Jones Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 7 8. Max Bayley / Lisa Hudson Ford Fiesta 9. Sloan Cox / Malcolm Read Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10 10. Jason Clark / Tracey Clark Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 5 Fingers crossed for Emma Gilmour with one stage to go.

1h54m31.4s +1m15.0s +3.30.4 +4.05.0 +5.39.8 +6.31.9 +6.554 +7.22.2 +10.13.8 +11.06.5

Morning highlights - CLICK HERE Afternoon highlights - CLICK HERE

HJC MOTORSPORTS

on: AU 1800 CHICANE or NZ 0800 CHICANE JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 35

FEATURE: AUDI QUATTRO S1 REPLICA

QUATTROP The ultimate Group B rally cars of the 80s were the epitome of the sport’s cutting-edge technology, with wild wings, belching flames and almost unfathomable acceleration and speed.

Tom Smith takes a close look at Stewart Reid’s incredible Audi Quattro S1 replica.

Story: TOM SMITH Photos: PETE JOHNSON 36 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

T

he ultimate Group were, for most ent the sport’s cutting wild wings, belching flam able acceleration and spe For competitors, these desirable rally machinery indeed for most, complet

PHOBIA

p B rally cars of the 80s thusiasts, the epitome of g-edge technology, with mes and almost unfathomeed. cars were the most y on the planet, and tely unaffordable.

Whilst these vehicles naturally held their specific appeal to those who supported either Peugeot, Lancia, Ford or Toyota, it was Audi’s S1 Quattro that was perhaps the most identifiable and most wildly modified of the era.

The ‘short’ Quattro proved unbelievably fast in the hands of some of the most talented drivers of the time. Think Walter Rohrl in his prime.

Such is the popularity of classic rallying in the modern era, the improvements in technology and the ambition of some ‘artists’ to re-create Group B rally cars, it has enabled such re-births to occur much more readily than ever before.

With this in mind, just how did an Audi Sport Quattro S1 end up safely tucked away in a workshop in Redcliffe to the north of Brisbane?

JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 37

FEATURE: AUDI QUATTRO S1 REPLICA

S

tewart Reid is one of Australia’s best known rally drivers, having competed at all levels over the last 30 years since making the move from his native Scotland to Queensland.

He has experience in a range of rally machinery from his early Gemini debut, through Starion, Mitsubishi Evos, Celica GT4, Gp N(P) Toyota Corolla and a range of BDG Mk 2 Escorts.

Focussing on his very successful business, SR Automotive, in recent years has not dulled his passion for the sport, nor his abilities behind the wheel.

While the rally workshop contains some incredible customer cars (more on that later), Stewie has finally achieved what he once only dreamed about – an Audi Quattro S1 replica which looks, feels and sounds like the real thing!

“Sometimes when I’ve not had such a great day at work, I just come out to the rally workshop and spend time with the car,” confesses Reid, owner of one of two Audi Quattro S1 replica rally cars in Australia.

Such is the appeal of this magnificent hand-made creation that the RallySport Magazine team jumped at the chance to visit the SR Automotive workshop to profile man and machine.

Of course the special thing about this car – and the other vehicle owned by Mal Keough from Coffs Harbour – is that both men are not scared to put

38 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

their beautiful machines on the line.

“Sometimes I pinch myself,” he says.

“As a teenager, I saw Ari Vatanen’s black Shell BDG Escort and Hannu Mikkola’s Eaton Yale car in the UK. “Now, I own my dream cars – a 2-litre BDG Mk 2 Escort and the S1 Quattro.”

Much has been written about this particular Quattro, and it’s no secret that it was originally the Andrew Hawkeswood car built in a North Island workshop in New Zealand.

After competing in the car for a couple of years after construction, Hawkeswood’s rallying strategy took a new direction to focus his support on NZ rallying with his first Mazda 2 AP4 rally weapon.

Local Australian driver and businessman, Dave Thompson, acquired the Audi and brought it across the ditch.

Stewie recalls the conversation when the sale of the unique Quattro was discussed.

“I told Dave I’d happily sell my Mk 2 Escort to buy the Audi,” Reid remembers. “Dave looked at me and said ‘Too late mate, I just bought it!’”

Thankfully, as history now has it, Stewie became the trusted mechanic for the Quattro and Dave Thompson’s Metro 6R4, which still occupies a hoist at the SR Automotive workshop.

After turning spanners on the car for

a couple of years, the inevitable change of hands occurred and a very amicable deal saw Reid take ownership.

Stewie explains that the Audi is essentially the same specification as it was when built.

Since taking delivery of the car, he has continually aimed to subtly improve it and with some careful fettling, the car makes about 100 horsepower more than it previously did.

One of the key ‘restorations’ on the car is a new factory inlet manifold, located and imported to replace the previous version that was reasonably effective, but not original.

Such items do not come cheaply, and Stewie let go of one of his toys (a BMW bike) to re-invest the funds in this rare manifold.

Readers may recall that this Audi has Subaru running gear, with a floorpan basically stitched into the Quattro body.

While maintaining the practical Subaru equipment, Reid has upgraded the components with a range of Modena bits. The car now sports a sequential 6-speed gearbox, upgraded diffs front and rear, and unbreakable WRC-spec driveshafts. The drivetrain is designed to take more power than the car currently makes, and reliability has not been an issue.

At the time of RallySport Magazine’s tour of the workshop, the car looked

Watch in-car and drone footage of the Audi at Baskerville Raceway during an Audi press day.

JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 39

FEATURE: AUDI QUATTRO S1 REPLICA

magnificent in its tarmac specification, featuring 6-pot Alcon calipers on the front over the biggest discs that will fit inside the 18” tarmac wheels. Four-pot Alcon calipers occupy the rear, similarly over enormous discs.

As one might expect, MCA suspension from his old Redcliffe mate, Murray Coote, does the job nicely, and Stewie has a gravel brake and suspension setup for dirt events.

The car currently sits at an incredibly light 1208 kilograms, but with plans to replace some of the fibreglass components with carbon-fibre, the weight will reduce further.

When still owned by Dave Thompson, the Quattro was driven by the legendary Ari Vatanen during a visit

40 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

to Australia a few years ago, with a number of special guests enjoying the experience of sitting beside the Finnish master.

With the attitude and response of the Quattro typically aggressive and sometimes unreadable, it is only the tremendous reflexes and ability of these drivers that mean the powerful Audi can be controlled and driven to win.

During Ari’s visit the Quattro earned a nickname of ‘The Beast’ by mutual agreement.

“Dave Thompson took a group of people to dinner while Ari and his wife were here,” explained Stewie.

“When the wine list was presented, Ari saw a local Australian red labelled

‘The Beast’ ... that was the first of many bottles that night!!”

Stewie’s impressive and successful business enables him to build a great local customer base, but also maintain one of the most impressive rally workshops around.

At the time of our visit, the workshop also hosted Dave Thompson’s genuine Metro 6R4 in Rothmans colours, a Toyota Celica rally car from Thompson’s collection, Stewie’s own recently acquired Escort BDG (which he ran for the first time at Rally Otago 2016) and his restored Toyota Corolla Gp N(P) rally car … amongst other gems.

One thing is obvious, this very special car brings smiles to the faces of enthusiasts and spectators alike, and Reid is genuine in his willingness to ensure this car is seen and enjoyed.

This is definitely no museum piece.

There is no doubt that the Quattro S1 will see action again this year, with invitations to the World Time Attack Challenge in Sydney, and Classic Adelaide Rally on the calendar.

The car will return to New Zealand for the Waimate 50 weekend of motosport in October, and Reid has confirmed his intention to contest perhaps the best modern long-distance classic rally in the world – the Silver Fern Rally – but will use his Escort Mk 2 BDG. He has not confirmed a co-driver

for the Silver Fern and can be contacted by interested parties at SR Automotive.

With the interview ending with the expected question: “Will you ever sell the car?” Stewie replies with a gleam in his eye.

“I can’t imagine it ... I thought about that wish where you get buried in the car when you pass on, but I’m too selfish!! I couldn’t take it out of circulation. It needs to be driven and seen.”

FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS ...

New Zealand businessman and miner, Andrew Hawkeswood, had this car built in 2008 at his North Island workshop in Auckland.

After driving an incredibly powerful Lancer Evo, he wanted an S1 Quattro rally car, and set about building one for himself.

Similar to the original factory ‘design’,

Hawkeswood’s car was cobbled together from components bought locally and based on a $23,000 2WD Audi GT. The S1 body kit came from Sweden.

Only one engine was ever going to do, and that’s an Audi in-line-five cylinder with a DOHC 20V head. Finding an ‘RR’ engine in New Zealand was not

easy, with only three 20V Quattros sold new in New Zealand. To get his hands on this engine, Andrew had to purchase a complete car.

Hawkeswood was offered an original gearbox for a reputed $150,000, but decided to use the more modern option of a 2007 Subaru driveline to avoid the massive expense.

JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 41

FEATURE: 1996 APRC Story & Photos MARTIN HOLMES

1996, A GOLDEN YEAR O

ne of the worst decisions made by the FIA and its predecessors, which was imposed on the World Rally Championship, was the Event Rotation system between 1994 and 1996, ostensibly to reduce the costs of contesting an ailing championship.

The deal was that each WRC event would be asked to forego their championship status for one of the three years concerned (the FIA would decide which year …), and instead the organisers would be awarded a place in the World 2-litre Championship for Makes.

Clockwise from top: Drama at the flooded Bunnings creek crossing at Rally Australia; Japan’s Kenjiro Shinozuka in Malaysia, and the 1996 APRC Champion, Kenneth Eriksson.

42 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

This was catastrophic for organisers who found the rhythm of their event, its public appeal, the commercial support and the human resources support were all disrupted.

By 1996 the WRC was at one of its lowest levels in recent times, not helped by the exclusion from the WRC of Toyota. There were only three active manufacturers (Subaru, Mitsubishi and Ford).

Gradually attention was drawn to the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) as a support championship for the WRC. APRC was convenient, as two of the six events were the same events as in the WRC. Things have moved on since then!

Nowadays the APRC is one of six regional championships run by the

FIA. The first was the European series that started in 1953, at that time the only centrally run championship (the WRC only started in 1973), followed by the African series in 1982 and the Middle East series in 1984.

The concept of the APRC originated from the initiative of Yoong Yin Fah, then organiser of the Malaysian Rally and the father of racing driver Alex Yoong. He launched a local series called the Far East Challenge, the success of which led to the decision to launch the APRC in 1988.

The APRC was immediately welcomed by the various Japanese manufacturers active in international rallying, leading to the ascendancy of the series into the middle ‘90s, helped because the Rotation System gave regular WRC drivers time on

their hands, and various Japanese manufacturers had budgets to spare.

The APRC brought together many major motorsport leaders in the Far East. The first event was Morrie Chandler’s New Zealand Rally in 1988, won by Josef Haider’s Opel Kadett GSi (incidentally the only two-wheeldrive car to be an APRC winner), the second event was Yin Fah’s Malaysian Rally, and third was Nazir Hossein’s ambitious Himalayan Rally in India.

Apart from the regular WRC events in the region, other major events were soon brought into the series, such as Indonesia, Thailand, and for several years, the Hong Kong-Beijing Rally.

Participating manufacturers included Mazda, Mitsubishi and Suzuki and shortly afterwards came Subaru, and Mitsubishi’s Kenjiro Shinozuka became the first Japanese

“By 1996 the WRC was at one of its lowest levels in recent times, not helped by the exclusion from the WRC of Toyota.”

Ford’s Carlos Sainz on a slippery Rally of Indonesia.

JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 43

FEATURE: 1996 APRC driver to be an FIA rally champion.

By the mid ‘90s European drivers were competing regularly on these events and the first European driver to gain the APRC title through regular success on the non-WRC events was Kenneth Eriksson. By 1996 the whole scene had really gelled.

The first event in 1996 was Thailand, based at the upcountry town of Phrae. The top five seeded drivers were Tommi Makinen (Mitsubishi), Eriksson (Subaru), Richard Burns (Mitsubishi), Piero Liatti and Colin McRae (Subarus).

For me, every visit to the APRC was memorable, but somehow Thailand was special.

Walking through the streets of Phrae on a balmy evening, looking for somewhere to eat and finding world famous drivers in most unexpected places, was unforgettable.

The APRC then switched to the torrid humidity of Indonesia where even main roads were amazingly narrow. In 1996 Indonesia was also a WRC qualifier. This turned out to be Ford’s first major win in two years, but only six hours after the finish was this confirmed after officials finished arguing with the organisers about whether the Ford team had fallen foul of servicing regulations.

Malaysia came next and stage security was high on the agenda after countless “Monster” Tajima’s Suzuki Baleno Wagon was 7th on the Hong KongBeijing Rally.

44 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

Kenneth Eriksson, Colin McRae and Piero Liatti take a rickshaw ride in Asia.

“The APRC then switched to the torrid humidity of Indonesia, where even main roads were narrow.”

reports of non-competing vehicles entering live stages in the plantations.

Stage cancellations were inevitable and teams “donated” personnel to help the organisers man the remaining stages.

Then came New Zealand, this year a “2-litre” event and the scene of the first rally win for Richard Burns outside Britain (his first WRC win would not be for another two years).

Jimmy McRae pushes son, Colin, out of the Bunnings water crossing at Rally Australia in 1996.

Photo: Peter Whitten

Entries by the Skoda and SEAT teams, contenders in the WRC’s 2-litre series, provided strong opposition to the regular two-wheel-drive teams from Suzuki, Hyundai and now Kia as well.

Australia was the penultimate round of the 1996 APRC season, an event immortalised by a suddenly swollen deep water crossing which, in full view of hundreds of spectators, the top cars Richard Burns took victory on the Rally of New Zealand in his Mitsubishi Lancer.

found to be impassable.

Finally came the Hong Kong-Beijing where Ari Vatanen made a guest appearance for the Mitsubishi team and won the six-day event, and where Liatti, Eriksson and Yoshio Fujimoto retired off the road.

Every rally was its own adventure, and it was impossible to come home without countless stories from the

events to tell.

Kenneth Eriksson won the Drivers’ title in 1996, for the second successive time, going on to his third title in 1997. Subaru scored more points than Mitsubishi, but because of the best of four scores rule it was Mitsubishi that took the Manufacturers’ title, while the ebullient Suzuki driver, Nobuhiro Tajima, won the APRC’s ’F2’ title.

1996 was the end of an era in many ways, not the least because this was the final year that Group A was the premier formula in the sport, as the World Rally Cars were going to arrive in 1997.

The event rotation system was about to end, meaning that the world’s top rally drivers were no longer to be found strolling through the streets of unheard-of Asian towns, or having to contend with the intense humidity of the Oriental plantations.

The Japanese manufacturers were coming under serious pressure from the renewed activities of European manufacturers. Much of the global glamour of the APRC was lost when the FIA ordered that WRC events should not also qualify for regional championships, and the FIA also ordered that World Rally Cars should be banned from regional events as well.

1996 was an unforgettable year.

JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 45

MITSUBISHI LANCER

THE FORGOTTEN ONE? Story: JEFF WHITTEN

S

can the entry list of any classic rallies these days and you’ll find an abundance of different makes and models.

It’s a safe bet that the list will be dominated by Datsun 1600s, Stanzas, 200Bs, Silvias and the like, Escorts of the 2-litre and BDA/BDG configuration, Toyotas, Galants, the odd Cortina, Torana, 260Z – and the list goes on.

When you consider that all these makes and models were around in the “good old days” of the Southern Cross Rally, it’s surprising that today’s list is unlikely to include one of the world’s most successful Japanese cars, a vehicle that is now rarely seen in club and major events.

That car is the A73 Mitsubishi Lancer, a car that was almost invincible in the days of the famous Southern Cross.

Plenty of Datsun 1600s still exist, as do a new wave of Escorts, still competitive even 40 years on, but the Lancer seems to be non-existent.

When you take into account the fact that Lancers (and we’re not talking about the later 4WD turbocharged

version) swept all before them in the ‘Cross between 1972 to 1977, plus other major events all over the world, you have to ask why.

Lightweight, compact, strong and ultra-competitive, the Lancer LA and LB models were introduced to the world in February 1973 as a successor to the also-rallied Colt Fastback and Galant Scotsman Andrew Cowan was Mitsubishi’s hero, taking five Southern Cross Rally wins, from 1972 to 1976.

that had been the company’s rallying mainstays until then.

At that stage Mitsubishi were keen to break into the Australian market and chose to promote the Lancer in Australia as a tough family car that would be on the average family motorist’s shopping list.

At the time it offered almost everything that Australian motorists were looking for, and showroom sales before (and certainly after) major events like the ‘Cross, and also the East African Safari, shot through the roof.

Thanks to its engineering simplicity, the Lancer cut a swathe through the road-going family car market.

While the earlier versions were powered by a 1400cc powerplant, the “rally-ised” 1600 GSR was the Japanese company’s secret weapon as far as performance was concerned.

Mitsubishi made certain that they obtained the maximum benefit from their Southern Cross Rally entries, signing up the canny Scot, Andrew Cowan, as its lead driver in 1972, with Australia’s leading navigator at the time, John Bryson, calling the shots.

So successful were the pair that not only did they win the event outright, but went on to take victory in 1973, ’74, ’75 and ’76, plus a fifth in 1977, all in 1600 GSR models.

PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS 46 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

S

The Singh / Connelly Lancer was second on the 1974 Southern Cross Rally.

1974 Southern Cross Rally Also featuring on the leaderboard in those years were Joginder Singh/Garry Connelly, Doug Chivas/Peter Meyer, Barry Ferguson/Wayne Gregson and Japan’s ever-consistent driver, Kenjiro Shinozuka, all of whom tasted victory during Mitsubishi’s whitewash of the major placings.

So popular had the hot little Mitsubishi Lancers become, of the 90 crews entered for the 1976 event, nearly 25 per cent of the entry list (20 cars) were Lancers.

Even the might of overseas factory teams such as Ford, who entered several RS1800 BDA Escorts, and Nissan with their Datsun 710s, failed to blunt the Mitsubishi steamroller’s attempts at victory.

But the pace was moving on and it got decidedly more difficult for Mitsubishi to maintain that winning edge. Of course Australia was not the only country to see Lancers continue their winning streak.

Victories in the East African Safari, one of the roughest and toughest events in the world in 1975 and 1976, confirmed the competitiveness of the 1600 GSR, as well as its strength and durability.

By the time Andrew Cowan had won the Southern Cross yet again in 1976, Lancers had clocked up seven major overall victories, proving that they were masters of their game.

But the question remains – why are

there so few two-wheel drive Mitsubishi Lancers rallying today?

It’s not as though they would not be competitive against the hordes of Datsuns and the proliferation of Escorts, for it’s relatively easy to slot a 2-litre or 2.4-litre Sigma motor into their accommodating body shell. And there should be no shortage of parts and panels available.

You would think that auto dismantlers would also be a good

source of two or four door shells, not to mention gearboxes and running gear.

Compared to a good 2-litre Escort, there should be little difference in their relative performance and handling.

We’d like to be proved wrong when we say that the Lancer is no more than a forgotten breed. If you have a good photo of your LA or LB Lancer taken either today or in times past, we’d love to see it.

SOUTHERN CROSS RALLY FESTIVAL

The 2016 Southern Cross Rally Festival starts in Melbourne on Friday, October 21 and runs through to the finale celebrations in Sydney during the weekend of Saturday and Sunday, October 29 and 30.

The Festival program offers a selection of special events and social activities from which to choose, along with a choice of a fully-sealed route or a mix of bitumen and gravel on the touring event. Five days of driving will take crews over memorable rally roads of old, from Healesville to Jenolan Caves House.

The 2016 Southern Cross Rally Festival will also be on show during Melbourne’s ‘MotorClassica’ weekend at the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton from Friday, October 21 to Sunday, October 23.

Promoted by RACV, Motorclassica is the Australian International Concours d’Elegance and Classic Motor Show.

The Southern Cross Rally Festival will be represented at with a display of memorabilia depicting the Southern Cross Rally era from 1966 up to 1980.

Vehicles that are of particular significance regarding the history of the event can be made available for display at Motorclassica, and any current car owners are invited to contact Dan White at southerncrossrally.com.au The event is classified as a National event with ‘non-speed’ skill tests.

The 2016 event will wrap up with a Twilight Dinner Cruise on Sydney Harbour on Saturday, October 29.

- Tom Smith

For more details call Dominic on 0499 981 188 or email dominic@rallysportmag.com.au JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 47

RALLY OF PORTUGAL - WRC 5

MASTERFUL ME Kris Meeke held the lead through three full days, impressively withstanding the pressure of the battling Volkswagen drivers Andreas Mikkelsen and Sebastien Ogier.Â

Story: MARTIN HOLMES 48 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

EEKE

JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 49

RALLY OF PORTUGAL - WRC 5

The Hyundais flew high, but it was an event to forget, while for the third event in a row, Sebastien Ogier didn’t win.

H

is unregistered Citroen provided the third different winning make of car in successive WRC rallies, and he drove a four year old DS3 WRC, chassis 17, in earlier years rallied

by Sebastien Loeb, scoring its 11th outright WRC win.

Obliterating the many moments of disappointment earlier in his career, 36year old Meeke drove a faultless event, taking full advantage of his favourable running order position, to which he was entitled by lack of earlier results this season.

It was a disappointing event for Hyundai with only Dani Sordo’s fourth place to savour, but M-Sport’s fifth placed Eric Camilli finally showed his long anticipated promise, while his teammate, Mads Ostberg, was troubled by transmission and gearshifting trouble.

Ostberg, however, retained his third place in the Drivers’ championship, behind Ogier and now Mikkelsen.

It was great to see Citroen back again for the first time since Sweden.

This time they had Meeke, Stephane Lefebvre and the team’s patron Khalid Al Qassimi driving.

His recent championship absence had served Meeke well. Noticeable was a new demeanour for Meeke. It was the first time he had been through a WRC event with an even mind, open to enjoying the occasion, not complaining about the misfortunes of his career.

It was a disappointing occasion for 50 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

sixth placed Lefebvre. Just as soon as the real action started for the second day he was off the road, while Al Qassimi went off himself a little while afterwards. But all the while Meeke drove in a most professional and competent style. It was a real pleasure to see his success.

It was also a pleasure that we were not treated to the usual tirade of the problems of the life of a multi-world champion from Sebastien Ogier.

Once again running two full days as first car on the road was no pleasure, but true to his talent he held second place from the middle of Day 1, once he had shaken off the challenge of Dani Sordo, until he came under

pressure from fellow VW driver Andreas Mikkelsen.

So Ogier finished third overall which was unusual, and even then he was extremely fortunate. On the final morning he had a slow puncture when he only had one spare, which demanded caution until the end of the event, and then he had another slow puncture. He was able to reach the finish.

Mikkelsen started the rally in his usual measured pace, but when his VW teammate, Jari-Matti Latvala, had power steering problems on the Friday afternoon and fell back, Mikkelsen was given the order to attack, ultimately

ending up overtaking Ogier! Mikkelsen: “I was sick and tired of going slow!”

Hyundai came away from South America believing they were genuinely capable of challenging VW. They entered four cars, Hayden Paddon and Sordo in the main team, with Thierry Neuville as the second team driver.

The team also tried to register Kevin Abbring as a second driver in the lower level team, which the Stewards refused to allow because Abbring was driving an old 2015 designed car.

This was a rally Hyundai will wish to forget. Abbring was allowed to start as a non-championship driver, but went off the road in similar circumstances on two days. While Sordo was lying third at the end of Day 1, Neuville was two places behind, but then on Day 2 Neuville ran out of fuel in what was described as “human error”.

Hyundai’s major disaster, however, was the loss on only its second event of Paddon’s car, which caught fire and was destroyed after going off the road on Friday morning. This left Sordo to uphold the team’s honour, which he did splendidly, but he was unable to resist the attack of the newly charging Mikkelsen.

Encouraging for M-Sport was the result for Eric Camilli after disappointments on earlier events.

Unwelcome news was renewed downshifting problems for Mads Ostberg, which was then followed by a driveshaft failure on Day 2, followed by differential failure.

Unfortunately all this dropped him from sixth, behind Latvala. But by the end of the rally, far too late to recover, Ostberg was going better and ended

up seventh. M-Sport was also running the DMack team Fiesta WRC of Ott Tanak who crashed at the same place on stage 5 as Paddon, and only quick reactions from the crews of these cars and spectators saved it from also being destroyed.

Tanak’s car was too badly damaged to continue. Henning Solberg also

Scott Pedder shows his national pride. Photo: Colin Clark

PEDDER IN PORTUGAL

Aussies Scott Pedder and Dale Moscatt, Skoda Fabia R5.

In brief .....

F

ormer Australian Rally Champion, Scott Pedder, showed that at age 39, he’s lost none of his confidence nor speed with a fantastic drive at the Rally de Portugal last month.

Running in the eye catching Pedders Suspension colour scheme more familiar to Australian crowds, Pedder and co-driver, Dale Moscatt, set a cracking pace in a brand new Skoda Fabia R5, after an early upset when the car suffered a light roll in the shakedown.

The Auto Tek Motorsports team had the crew back in action for the event, with Pedder still showing great confidence in the rapid little weapon.

In an amazing effort, Pedder banked his first WRC2 outright stage win, becoming the first Australian to take a stage win in a WRC event since Chris Atkinson.

Finishing day 1 in fourth place in WRC2 was rewarding, and with overnight rain and the field showing extreme caution about road conditions, Pedder used his experience growing up on red clay

roads in Victoria to great advantage Despite his WRC2 CV only including a total driving distance of about 400 competitive kilometres in R5 cars, Pedder showed he was serious, despite missing out on a podium position by only 0.2 of a second.

While disappointing to come so close, the result showed that Pedder can push hard and be competitive with the top drivers in the WRC2 category.

The Pedders team continues their WRC2 challenge with the Rally of Poland next on the calendar, on a fast, flat-out style event where traditionally Scott has shown maturity and strength.

While no longer a regular competitor in the ARC series, Scott Pedder is arguably driving as well as ever and has taken the step that so many drivers fear to tread – he has taken the plunge into the international arena and shown that success on the world stage cannot help but be noticed!

- Tom Smith JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 51

RALLY OF PORTUGAL - WRC 5 went off the road and again narrowly escaped serious fire damage.

WRC2 was a runaway success for Skoda, whose cars took five of the top six places. M-Sport placed their trust in Elfyn Evans, but all through Day 1 he was struggling with power loss and on Day 2 he went off the road.

Pontus Tidemand was unbeatable, his only misfortune being a puncture on the afternoon of Day 2 when Nicolas Fuchs momentarily took the lead.

Tidemand changed the tyre on the stage within two minutes, restarting on the dusty stage in front of Fuchs. The top Fiesta was Marius Aasen in third place.

Australian Scott Pedder (Skoda Fabia R5) had made his way into third place after earlier rolling lightly on the shakedown stage, but a spin on the final stage saw him surrender that place to Aasen’s Fiesta.

An early casualty was Teemu Suninen with suspension failure, incurring heavy Rally2 penalties, but returning later to demonstrate his undoubted speed.

Despite finishing outside the points, Evans retained his lead in the series, seven points ahead of Fuchs with Tidemand holding third place.

Jari-Matti Latvala is having a season to forget, with more problems in Portugal.

52 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

Simone Tempestini eventually won the WRC3 category. Sebastien Loeb’s protégé, Terry Folb, finished third.

There was heartbreak on this the opening round of the 2016 Drive DMack Fiesta Trophy series for Portuguese driver, Bernardo Sousa, who had been leading for over half the event when he rolled his car on the final stage, which allowed Osian Pryce to win.

Fellow British driver, Gus Greensmith, had led earlier, but punctured and had driveshaft trouble.

2016 YPF Rally of Argentina - WRC round 4 1. K. Meeke / P. Nagle 2. A. Mikkelsen / A. Jaeger 3. S. Ogier / J. Ingrassia 4. D. Sordo / M. Marti 5. E. Camilli / B. Veillas 6. J-M. Latvala / M. Anttila 7. M. Østberg / O. Floene 8. M. Prokop / J. Tomanek 9. P. Tidemand / J. Andersson 10. N. Fuchs / F. Mussano 13. S. Pedder / D. Moscatt

Citroën DS3 WRC Volkswagen Polo R WRC Volkswagen Polo R WRC Hyundai New Generation i20 WRC Ford Fiesta RS WRC Volkswagen Polo R WRC Ford Fiesta RS WRC Ford Fiesta RS WRC Skoda WRC2 Skoda WRC2 Skoda WRC2

3:59.01.0 +29.7s +34.5s +1m37.1s +4m01.6s +4m06.9s +6m53.6s +10m24.1s +11m45.2s +13m14.0s +15m05.1s

PROMOTE YOUR RALLY TEAM

5 STEP PROMOTION PLAN Story: DALLAS DOGGER

R

allying is one of the most extreme sports on earth.

Very few sports enjoy the fulfilment that rallying delivers.

We all know it’s a secret though. Generally, rallying only receives coverage due to a mishap – a car crashing off the road, or worse, into a crowd.

Traditionally, rallying got media coverage because events either bought coverage or paid for TV coverage.

Media managers would slave over a hot computer, churning out story after story, diligently sending them out to anyone who would take them. The occasional story was published.

With massive change in media ownership and new low cost ways to deliver fast content, the methods to promote rallying and the teams who compete in it have changed markedly.

Social media now plays a pivotal role in rally marketing, and for any team or event, building a profile on social media platforms is something everyone involved can be part of.

The first round of the ARC had over 160,000 Facebook views. This is much more coverage than a TV show can deliver and importantly, teams and crews can leverage off this exposure.

Interestingly, rallying as a marketing medium is highly under-utilised. The sport enjoys a diverse demographic with concentration on males, but there is solid interest by females and the sport is well represented by women, Coral and Molly Taylor, and Emma Gilmour being shining examples.

Many businesses need a cut through message – one that is clear and one that may not be challenged by competition. Rallying offers advertisers a unique medium to get to potential customers at very affordable prices.

A company looking to sponsor a major ARC team could get major promotional value for far less than the cost of a bonnet in Supercars.

So how do you help make your team sparkle in this new era of promotion?

• Ensure you and your team look the part at events.

Link your pages to events you compete in, take advantage of the supporters that most events have. That will increase your reach Link your team with your sponsor Your sponsor might have very good social media presence, but if they don’t, your team activity will help build interest in their products.

Steve Mackenzie is a good example of a driver with good links to his business – Opticoat. Link the business to the team.

• Introduce yourself to the Media Manager of the event Make the time to go and see the Media Manager of the event. Hand him some press kits that you can make up easily. He can give them to visiting media.

Media exposure and profile building is your responsibility. If the A team Facebook page, like this one for Evans Motorsport, media team have your is essential for team promotion. information, then they will use it.

Whilst you may only be competing for fun, very few can compete without financial help. Give back to those who dip into their pockets to help you by promoting them.

Media teams at events don’t have crystal balls – they scrabble every rally for information and so do the commentary team, updating them will Team clothing and a good clear get you coverage that others complain message on your vehicle are critical to about. building your profile. Top teams all look At Rally Australia last year, I heard good, so invest in team clothing many mumbles about Haydon • Fill out the event media Paddon’s supporters. He is a shining information sheet example of a guy with a huge Many crews fail to fill out the ‘Media social media following. He was the Information” forms for events. Media competitor with his own busload of managers are always looking for supporters. content, they need your information so You can do it too! they can promote you. Commentators And three last tips: need your information,. That 1. Drive fast, that always works information comes from those forms.

2. Be outspoken – don’t be afraid to • Create a team page on Facebook say what’s on your mind.

Facebook has the best reach for 3. Be available and friendly to the competitors. Having a team page media, and give them something means you can post photos of your to report on. car in events, and others can too.

“Rallying offers advertisers a unique medium to reach customers.”

JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 53

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

?

WHERE

are they now

2 T R A P . . .

I K S N Y D R O D E A ‘mild-mannered’ school teacher by profession, Ed Ordynski was the consummate rally professional – fast, reliable, presentable, articulate and a champion many times over.

Tom Smith asks the questions .....

Story: TOM SMITH 54 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

Ordynski’s original Galant VR4 saw him win the 1990 Australian Rally Championship.

What’s your perception of the next generation of competitors like Molly Taylor and Harry Bates, for instance?

I think they showcase the future of the sport exceptionally well and it’s great to see the opportunities they have at a much younger age than the drivers of my era were able to achieve. They’re not bogged down with building and preparing their own cars and are media savvy in all of the areas required of a sportsperson these days. They are free to concentrate on the elements that make you a champion over and above being a fast driver in a fast car.

Is there a young Australian driver you have identified as our next potential champion (and why?)

No, I’m not close enough to the sport to answer with accuracy. One thing I would say is that there are a large number of candidates throughout Australia who are clearly addressing the full package requirements to be a champion.

However, you do still have to be the fastest to make it to the top. Being fast is your basic, turn-up-for-work responsibility. If you’re not the fastest in the category you’re in, it’s probably not going to happen as a works driver unless you pay to be there. You have to be fast in whatever you drive and a master of the top six or eight things that make a champion. That applies to all levels of the sport.

Do you still try to spend some time visiting local or international rallies?

Not as a spectator. I was never a good spectator even before starting

rallying. I‘ve had a close association with Targa events, fulfilling numerous roles since I retired. I’ve done the odd road closure or course car driving on gravel events. I quite like the involvement with the tarmac events because it’s something fresh to me and the events are more like the rallies I was brought up on, with long stages, multi-days, servicing in different towns and so on.

For the last two years or so I worked as an advisor to CAMS, the Tasmania Police and the Dept of Justice in Tasmania on an inquiry into a Targa fatality that resulted in a full inquest. It was a very difficult experience, but the outcome has been incredibly positive for tarmac rallying and indeed, rallying in general.

Many said the inquest will end Targa, but it just had its biggest entry by far and many of the on-going safety issues have finally been addressed. The inquest outcome has helped make Targa sustainable.

Communications is Shayna Welsh, daughter of long-term Victorian rally competitor, Mike Welsh. The CEO, Mutsuhiro Oshikiri, was first here at Mitsubishi as a young executive in my Galant VR4 days when we won the ARC outright in a Group N car.

I have worked with Mitsubishi on a number of projects, especially involving energy efficient vehicles. For example, I did some initial testing of the Outlander PHEV (plug-in hybrid) and designed a drive program to showcase the vehicle at its media launch. I was then involved with the initial planning on that vehicle

Do you still have professional alignments with Mitsubishi – and on what level?

Yes, occasionally, on one-off projects. Most of the people I worked closely with at Mitsubishi are long gone and it’s very special to see that the new, younger generation still know about the past and value motorsport history.

The Head of Corporate

JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 55

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? being in a motorsport activity and when the budget was approved, I was invited to drive the Outlander PHEV on the Australasian Safari.

I don’t even have a competition licence anymore and didn’t want to trigger all of the things in which you need to be absolutely on top of your game, to drive for a manufacturer, so I assisted Mitsubishi in finding the best crew and team for the job.

I thought that’d be the extent of my involvement, but Mitsubishi then asked me to come along on the actual event for two weeks, to help ensure the best possible return on investment. It was an outstanding project and a great example of how motorsport can assist with the single-most important area for a manufacturer, these days – energy efficiency.

The Safari organisers were really supportive and understood the need to do far more than simply provide a class for the vehicle. Steve Glenney, Bernie Webb and Alan Heaphy’s crew were the professionals you’d expect and did absolutely everything required.

Do you find yourself in demand locally as a mentor for up-and-coming drivers?

Very rarely these days, and usually just over the phone or meeting for a chat over a coffee. I’ve had a phone conference with Molly Taylor about pacenoting and Neal Bates sent me some of Harry’s in-car vision to provide some feedback, and I’ve discussed a few things with motoring journalist, Paul Gover, who’s helping Harry as he Group N was Ordynski’s domain, and he won multiple times at World Championship level.

Photo: Stuart Bowes

56 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

ultimately the person responsible for the writing and delivery of the notes in the best manner for them.

It’s something I’m very proud of – having a small role with so many competitors. I remember meeting Steve Glenney for the first time for a chat over a coffee and seeing immediately the understanding he had of being across the whole package required for success.

Some of my peers said I was crazy to assist others, but I never failed to learn something myself each time and I saw it as helping the sport to be stronger and more competitive, which was better for us as works drivers.

Are you still active in the rally scene at home in South Australia? did Neal, in hopefully getting some of the breaks he deserves.

During my career I did provide training to competitors, many of whom have gone on to much bigger and better things – Cody Crocker, Katsu Taguchi, Brendan Reeves, Steven Shepheard, Scott Pedder, Mark Pedder, Justin Dowel, David West, Marty Beckton, and co-drivers like Greg Foletta, Dale Moscatt, Rhianon Gelsomino, and Matt Lee, to name just a few as there were many more.

It usually centred on pacenoting and, in particular, how to relate and deliver pacenotes to best position the car on the road, not just following the shape of the road, and to ensure the driver is

No, almost no involvement other than the occasional chat to Ivar Stanelis about items related to the SA ARC event. I helped Walkerville All Cars Club obtain sanctioning for its club track and have provided a small level of guidance to SA champs James Rodda, Russell Marker and co-driver Karien Heimsohn.

It sounds odd when I say it, but I feel least knowledgeable about SA rallying, as it’s actually the state I competed in least during my career. My home of rallying at the professional level has been based mainly in Tasmania, with Les Walkden, or NSW with Ralliart.

Do you think the current rally formula in the Australian Championship is working?

The season is only just beginning

“A manufacturer needs to see consistency and stability in the regulations, a level playing field for all involved.” so impossible to say with all the recent rule changes. There needs to be time to monitor the outcome. As far as factory involvement goes, a manufacturer needs to see consistency and stability in the regulations, a level playing field for all involved, and most of all, a large number of competitive teams.

Manufacturers have to take a 5 to 10 year view of their involvement to maximise the return on the initial investment. They need the confidence in the sport to know the rules won’t change next year or through something out of left field.

The same probably applies to privateers, because to contest the ARC properly, it’s an enormous commitment, virtually requiring you to give up everything else in life.

There needs to be a confident and stable vision for the ARC and a commitment to that vision over a 5 to 10 year window that realistically attracts investors and openly encourages state competitors to events, as equals.

What are your thoughts on the success of classic rally cars?

It’s great to see it starting to happen in Australia. The stand-alone events like the Alpine are showing the way

Ordynski and the Les Walkden Rallying Lancer Evo 3 in the Rally of Canberra.

(Spook Photographics)

and anything the HRA in Victoria does seems to be very well thought out and planned to inspire competitors. I think that’s part of the key – the events themselves need to allow competitors to not only experience the cars, but the style of rally of the era – e.g. long stages, some night-time, no pacenotes, everyone in the event on an equal footing when you enter, etc.

What would be your choice of rally car in the classic category?

It’s hard to say as part of me would want to study all the regulations out there at the moment and build something that makes the most of the Driving Ralliart Australia’s Group A Lancer in the Rally of Melbourne.

freedoms, like Neal Bates has done – a 2016 version of a classic car.

However, I think mainly I’d like to revisit what it felt like to rally in the era I remember as classic rallying and therefore do HRA style events in, say, a Datsun 1600 built to the simple spec I used to run. It’d be slow for sure, but great to experience again.

I think for me personally, classic rallying needs to be a car in the spec it was run in the era, in an event that most replicates that style of rallying, but I recognise that’s not necessarily for everyone. Maybe a fairly basic Datsun, two litre, Webers, good gearbox, and LSD in, say, the Silver Fern in NZ, would be good or indeed, some night-time navigation events.

Will we see Ed Ordynski in a classic rally car at any time?

There’s nothing to prevent me running one – it’s purely finding the time while doing all the things I’ve mentioned about life after rallying.

Many who compete in classics had around 15 or 20 years out of the sport before returning, so its very different for me having had such a long, continuous career.

It’s not on my list of things to do at the moment and probably receding into the distance. But I still have a good Datsun shell and all the parts to replicate the one I used to run, just in case.

- Tom Smith JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 57

INTERVIEW: CARLOS BARBOSA

THE CHANGING FACE OF THE WRC

C

arlos Barbosa is a rally chief with two hats. At home he is the President of the Automobile Club of Portugal, internationally he is the FIA’s President of the World Rally Championship Commission.

Portugal’s premier rally has been changing its face these days. Their world championship qualifying event is again based back in the north of the country, the region considered its spiritual home, for the second year, after a decade of being held in the south of the country.

Before this year’s event took to the streets, we asked Carlos why the rally ever went down to the Algarve, when it had been so popular in the north.

Carlos Barbosa: When the rally came back to the world championship in 2007 we didn’t have the commercial support of the authorities in the centre of the country. We had to go to the south because we had the support of the Tourism of Portugal to do that.

They wanted to promote the south because it is a much more popular tourist part of Portugal where there are beaches, the golf courses and everything. So we went there and were very well received.

It was ideal for us because the stages were fantastic and the local authorities ensured the work was very well done.

We had good hotels, we had everything.

Then, after seven years, the FIA said they wanted the rally to be seen by more spectators than was possible in the Algarve. The north is the “home” of rallying in Portugal, like we saw last year when the event attracted 1.5 million people over the weekend. It was fantastic.

So we came back to the home of the rally. We are already working on developing the theme for 2017.

Where will the rally be based in the future?

CB: We are thinking of starting the 2017 rally in Arganil, then use the stages up to Porto. If we use the Arganil area just for the first day of the rally, there will be no available infrastructure problem. There is now good support for this concept.

Two or three years ago, Portuguese Tourism said they didn’t want to 58 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

support rallying any longer as they only wanted to support golf and beaches. That was worrying, but our new government is now studying again the situation. The new Secretary of State said the support of the rally had worked very well in the previous governments. She well knows the

power and the money the rally brings.

And she’s hoping to revive their official support again next year.

Putting on your FIA hat, things are

changing internationally as well. How happy are you with the way the 2017 new WRC formula, is developing?

CB: I’m very happy, because I know that the new cars have been tested for some time. I think the new cars will be very impressive. They will be much faster, beautiful, stronger. For the fans they will be more like the old Group B. We are very happy with the return of Toyota. It will be a very good championship

MH: A lot of people are very nervous about the increased performance, particularly when thinking about security.

CB: I think there is no reason for that. Look at how the experiences in Argentina were handled, for example. Last year it was an example of bad security. This year they made a fantastic job.

Michele Mouton (FIA’s safety delegate) is making a very good job. She often goes two or three weeks before each rally to make sure everything works. This was done in Argentina to help overcome their

problem controlling the crowds, now we are working with Poland, which is the next one we must check. So I’m not worried on this aspect.

The arrival of the 2017 cars means there

will in effect be one more formula of rally cars in the sport. What will happen for the then redundant 2016 World Rally Cars? Is there an opportunity for a new championship, maybe for example a Privateers’ Cup, for the present generation cars?

CB: We are studying this because I think that the world rally championship should not only be for the manufacturers. We want to give privateers the chance of winning a title so they can be recognised like the manufacturers are. The (World Rally Championship) Commission can see there are now so many privateers in the championship appearing in the championship events with R5 cars.

We are seeing what we can do for the privateers.

Regarding the future of 2016 specification World Rally Cars, we are studying this with our technical department. We do not want these cars to be left behind in the garage.

It is not our proposal to abandon these cars, we want to see more and more cars on the rallies, more people making rallies.

What is going to happen about all these new rallies wanting to be in the WRC? Can we expect the FIA to go back to a rotation system for events?

CB: Yes, there is a lot of enthusiasm from new countries. Jordan, Brazil, even at one time Iran. There are many countries that want to have a rally in the world championship.

We are studying proposals. Of course we cannot have them all in the series!

Many countries want to enter the WRC because they see how our television coverage has changed completely in the last two years, and they know their countries can be seen by millions and millions of people.

Finally, are there any other new initiatives, new ideas which you hope will come to fruition in the future?

CB: Yes, we have some, but I cannot tell you. We will discuss them at the Commission to see what is going to do to make the championship more exciting next year.

- Martin Holmes

BE PREPARED

PREPARATION 101

14-year old Matthew Whitten on the job at the recent Mitta Mountain Rally in Victoria.

Officials need to be just as prepared as competitors when heading into the bush

N

o matter what type of rallying you are into - WRC, ARC, NZRC, club rallying or any other - I think there are two types of rally fans.

I’m not talking about if you volunteer for controls, road closures, or anything like that, I am talking about your preparation.

To my knowledge, I think that one type are people who are VERY well prepared. As a confession (and I’m not sure if it is bad or good), my family is the type that is always very well prepared.

We always have a big Esky (or Chilly Bin) - no, not full of beer, but full of food. Burgers and sausages, pre-cut rolls for the burgers, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, carrot, beetroot, and whatever other salads that go with burgers (all packed into their own special containers, of course). To cook the meat, we have the trusty butane stove.

And not forgetting the deck chairs, packed for maximum comfort.

Sometimes, we even go to the extent to buying the most expensive toilet paper for the ‘rally roll’, to make your bush

Story: MATTHEW WHITTEN toilet experience the best possible (don’t forget the spade!).

As you can see, we are well prepared.

We always seem to pack way too much food!

The other type of people, in my opinion, are usually a group of two or three mates doing a road closure. They only take the bare minimum: sausages, bread, and tomato sauce. A grill to cook the sausages on, some matches to start the fire, and of course, the tongs.

Their ‘rally roll’ looks like it has been in the back of the car for about seven years.

And, sometimes, if they remember,

the trusty portable radio (which is only trusty when it has battery).

Don’t get me wrong, I love the excess food, it is like an all-you-can-eat buffet. On the other hand, sometimes I would rather Mum and Dad employed the simpler strategy, or the bare minimums strategy.

I think when you are on the bare minimums strategy, you get more of the rallying experience.

Nevertheless, neither way is better or worse. The main thing is that you are out there, helping out, showing support, and enjoying some time in the bush, watching the sport we all love, rallying.

JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 59

RETROSPECTIVE: JIM SCOTT

GREAT SCOTT!

Story: JEFF WHITTEN

The fastest, most accident-prone rally driver in the world is coming to New Zealand for a major rally and is looking for someone to occupy the co-driver’s hot seat.

Y

ou are New Zealand’s top co-driver, mid-forties, married with children. You contemplate his world championship record – seven starts, seven retirements, four through crashes – and decline the chance. Right?

Wrong.

You call Masport boss Doug Benefield (the owner of the car to be used), ask for the job, and get it.”

So reports David Thomson and Martin Holmes in the book “The New Zealand Rally” about Jim Scott, well known team manager, competitor relations officer, co-driver and walking storehouse of rally knowledge.

In 1977 Jim Scott was one of New Zealand’s best, if not the best, navigator/co-driver, having won the New Zealand Rally twice previously with Scot Andrew Cowan – in 1972 in a Mini Clubman GT and in 1976 in a Hillman Avenger.

So who better suited to sit beside the world’s fastest (albeit most desperate) rally driver, Ari Vatanen, than Scott himself?

It wasn’t a job that anyone would have taken on lightly, but Scott was

prepared to take the risk. His input could have given Vatanen an outright win in the event (and it almost did), as well as giving them both their first world championship win.

With a reputation like Vatanen’s, Scott’s family were naturally very concerned about his well-being and the story goes that he rang home after every leg of the rally to let his family

know that he was okay.

“Mother was very interested, but with all those reports coming in over the radio along the lines of ‘Vatanen’s been off again’, I could understand the concern. I used to ring up and let people know we were still in one piece,” Scott is reported to have said at the time.

1977 was the year that Ari Vatanen and Jim Scott so nearly won the Rally of New Zealand, in a brilliant drive that ended with the pair in second spot. Had the rally lasted one more stage, the 25 yearold Finn, and the New Zealander 25 years his senior, might have snatched victory from the works Fiat 131 Abarth driven by Fulvio Bacchelli and Francesco Rossetti.

In 1977 Fiat came to New Zealand with three works-entered 131 Abarths in a bid to gain a lead over Ford in the World Manufacturers Championship.

So keen were Fiat to turn the tables on Ford that they shipped three cars to the Shaky Isles, along with nearly 500 tyres and truckloads of spares, the whole assault rumoured to have cost $400,000, a figure unheard of in 1977.

The plan was for one vehicle to win the event, while the other two would be foils to prevent Ford from picking up points. Along with Bacchelli, Fiat had Markku Alen in the second car and Simo Lampinen in the third, collectively a highly experienced trio.

The Vatanen/Scott Escort RS1800, prepared by Masport in NZ, was the only real challenger to the Fiats, apart from a similar Masport Escort driven by Blair Robson.

V

The Masport Escort Team (left to right): Blair Robson, Chris Potter, Ari Vatanen and Jim Scott.

(Photos: Martin Holmes) 60 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

atanen, with the innocent Scott alongside, was expected to be the equal of the Fiat steamroller, despite his reputation for being astonishingly quick but likely to have huge accidents. Fiat weren’t looking forward to the 2000 kilometre event, for it was almost twice as long as most European rallies of the era.

Right from the start the Fiats battled it out with Vatanen, but once the longer stages commenced, the Finn opened the Escort up and took the

WATCH HIGHLIGHTS

The 1977 South Pacific Rally in New Zealand was Ari Vatanen’s first World Rally Championship finish.

lead. As many people had predicted, Vatanen put the Escort off the road and lost 23 minutes getting the car out of a paddock and back onto the road, seemingly putting himself and Scott into an unwinnable position.

Bacchelli, then in front, extended his lead to nearly six minutes over teammate Lampinen. Alen had overheating problems and dropped back, but was still ahead of Vatanen and Scott, who were back in 32nd position.

Putting their accident behind them, Vatanen and Scott showed what they were capable of by winning nine of the following 10 stages to take them from 32nd to 8th outright.

Of course it was too good to be true and on the next (overnight) leg, Vatanen tipped the Escort up on two wheels on the first stage, breaking the suspension as it landed. His string of fastest times from the previous night were lost there and then. Nevertheless, they continued to mix it with the Fiats and by the end of the leg they were back to within 21 minutes of Bacchelli and, amazingly, in fifth position.

However, there were legal wrangles going on in the Fiat camp – Lampinen was found to be carrying a two-way radio in his car in contravention of the regulations, and Alen was clocked by the police doing 132km/h on a public road.

Vatanen and Scott put all that behind them and concentrated on the job at hand. Winning nine of the next 11 stages, they were beginning to open up a chink in the Fiat’s armour and by the end of the leg, both Bacchelli and Alen’s 131s were leaking copius quantities of oil.

T

he marathon fourth leg of the rally, all 22 hours of it from Gisborne to Rotorua, was where Vatanen was to make his mark. Crashing yet again in an early night stage, it all came together for the pairing on the 102 kilometre Pehiri-Rakauroa stage.

Starting behind the Fiats, Vatanen blitzed the field, overtaking all three Fiats in the stage. “Rally New Zealand” reports that Jim Scott recounted after the rally that the Finn’s performance was pure artistry.

“We caught the first set of tail lights about halfway through and this just seemed to set Ari alight to a level of expertise even higher than he’d been before. It wasn’t long before we caught the second car and passed it, and as we passed Bacchelli, Ari just said ‘Now I die happy’.”

The famous Motu stage was next and Bacchelli won that after the Escort holed an oil tank. But the Italian left the road a little later, putting Vatanen and Scott up into third place, less than 10 minutes behind the leading Fiat, a minute behind Lampinen and half a minute ahead of Alen.

With just one leg left in which to catch Bacchelli, Vatanen won six of the next nine stages and looked set for victory when the leading Fiat lost its oil pressure and Bacchelli took a wrong turn. The gap between the Ford and the

Fiat was down to just over two minutes, but the leading Fiat required major work on its engine so that it could make the start of the final stage in Auckland.

Bacchelli crawled through the stage to win, admitting afterwards that had there been one more stage in the event, there was no way they would have completed the stage with the engine in such a poor condition. Alen took third place, 20 minutes behind Vatanen with Lampinen fourth.

Vatanen, the Finn, and Scott, the New Zealander, had so nearly won the event after a mighty drive through the field, comprehensively splitting the Fiat’s 1-34 finishing result.

It might not have been Jim Scott’s finest hour, but it was undoubtedly the most exciting ride in his rallying career.

The next time Vatanen appeared in Rally New Zealand, he had enlisted the aid of the legendary David Richards as his co-driver. Jim Scott had groomed Vatanen well, that pairing going on to bigger and better things in the future.

Not too many people can claim to have co-driven Ari Vatanen in a major international event, but Jim Scott was one of them. It must have been one hell of a ride!

Source: “The New Zealand Rally – Celebrating 25 Years”, by David Thomson and Martin Holmes.

NEXT MONTH: The 1977 South Pacific Rally from Ari Vatanen’s perspective.

JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 61

TARGA SOUTH WEST

WET AND WILD IN THE WEST U

nfavourable weather conditions in WA may have put the brakes on Quit Targa South West entrant’s competitive spirit, but not the enjoyment of tarmac rallying on some of Pemberton and Manjimup’s most picturesque roads.

In a first for this year, sixteen out of the twenty one special stages were competitive and attracted points for the WA Targa Cup. Going into the event, Will White was leading the points table for the WA Targa Cup and was looking to further extend his lead. However, the weather conditions Simon Gunson had a smooth quickly shifted his and weekend in the Capri Perana other competitors’ focus to win the Classic trophy. towards preservation mode, not wanting to risk any damage before the Quit Targa West event in August.

It was a smart strategy as the slippery road conditions quickly took their toll on several teams - none in more spectacular style than the R33 Nissan Skyline of Denver Parker and Lachlan Beresford who found themselves upside down in a creek bed.

“It was just a slippery road. We came into a corner and just pinched the front brakes, from there we found ourselves very quickly skating across the road.

“Denver tried to grab the handbrake and turn it in but the car wouldn’t cooperate. We caught the edge of the bridge, cleared the creek and it then rolled onto its lid,” said Beresford.

In what seemed like a theme ‘Skylines on their lids’, Bruce Hawley and Mark McEwen’s event was going smoothly until their R34 Skyline GTR left the road on SS7 and rolled.

The end of first day saw Mark Greenham and Mandy Lister leading the Competition Modern category in the Mitsubishi Evo 7, almost two minutes in front of the Mitsubishi Evo 9 driven by Will White and Matthew Thompson.

If keeping a car on the road with the assistance of modern technology was hard enough, a thought needed to be spared for the guys and girls in the Classic category, whose pre-

62 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

Mark Greenham conquered the conditions to win Targa South West in his Mitsubishi Lancer.

Photos: Tim Allott

1986 cars are light on technology, often lucky to have power steering.

Long-time Targa Classic category competitor Frank Huber also had the weather cause them some drama when his 1964 Ford Falcon Sprint hit a puddle and left the road.

Simon Gunson and Murray Armenti in the Capri Perana were leading the Competition Classic at the end of the first day, with last year’s Quit Targa West winner Peter Major and Kim Screigh in a Porsche 911RS very close behind with a 12 second gap.

Will White was on a stage winning streak at the beginning of Day Two, until SS17 when a rotor on his Mitsubishi Evo shattered.

White’s exit from the event left Mark Greenham and Mandy Lister with a comfortable lead of almost five minutes over the now second placed Brendan Templemann and Peter Howlett in the Mitsubishi Evo 8.

Mark Greenham and Mandy Lister managed to hang onto their lead to cross the finish line as outright winners and the winners of the Competition Modern category, with Greenham also accruing points for the WA Targa Cup. “Today was just about driving really steady and consolidating the lead we built up from the first day,” said Greenham. “We really couldn’t do much more than lose the rally so it was just about keeping it on the road, off the kerbs, and bringing it home for the win.”

Simon Gunson and Murray Armenti also managed to keep hold of the lead they created on Day One, despite Peter Major and Kim Screigh using Day Two to consistently chip away at the gap between themselves and the leaders.

Gunson’s win will also accrue him points for his WA Targa Cup total.

He is currently leading the Early Classic category.

The next event in the WA Targa Cup calendar will be the first running of the Bunbury City Sprint on June 26, before Quit Targa West in Perth from August 11-14.

LAKE MOUNTAIN SPRINT Adam Kaplan mastered rain, sleet, snow and fog in his Mazda RX7.

KAPLAN CONQUERS S

ydney businessman Adam Kaplan has taken outright victory in the second round of the 2016 Australian Tarmac Rally Championship, doing battle with rain, fog, sleet and snow on the way to the achievement.

Kaplan and co-driver Mary Hughes brought their 1985 Mazda RX 7 home in first place in the Lake Mountain Sprint, despite their gearbox almost giving up the ghost on the final stage. They came home ahead of Canberra’s Max Williams and Bruce Bush in an Audi TT RS while Hobart’s Tim O’Connor and Steve Glenney (2006 Subaru WRX STi) finished third in the battle for outright honours.

In the classic division, victory (and eighth outright) went to Melbourne’s Rob Devenish and Nick Du Plessis and their 1970 Datsun 240Z. They finished ahead of Mark Hammond from the NSW Central West and Lisa Dunkerton in their 1980 Jaguar XJS. The event in Victoria’s Yarra Ranges National Park was run in mixed conditions on May 28-29, with rain, fog, sleet and some snow forcing the downgrading of several stages on Saturday, before conditions became much drier for Sunday.

The route was made up of 16 closed road special stages.

“It was definitely an event with the most challenging road conditions I have ever seen,” Kaplan said.

“Very scary, because you literally didn’t know what was around the next corner, but the car got through.

Rob Devenish, who took the honours in the classic category, says finishing a rally is always good, so finishing first is even better.

“We had a good event, aside from

a spin on the mountain on Saturday where we knocked the front of the car around a bit,” Devenish said.

It was a difficult weekend for the 2015 ATRC champions Craig Dean and Jenny Cole, who finished sixth outright in their Mustang which struggled in the slippery conditions, while last year’s classic stars Laurie Burton and Russell Hannah had an offroad excursion in their Datsun 260Z in Saturday’s treacherous weather.

Four events make up the ATRC title battle, all of which are run through alpine country. The next round is not until the weekend of September 24-25 – the Snowy River Sprint, based at Lakes Entrance.

Eighteen ‘rookies’ tested their tarmac rallying potential in the event’s ‘touring category’, in which would-be competitors can enter their road car and enjoy the safety of the closed roads at a ‘spirited speed’, following an experienced rally driver across the course.

Hayley Galea (above) keeps dry in the miserable weather, while Craig Dean battles the treacherous conditions in his powerful Ford Mustang. (Photos: Ivan Glavas)

JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 63

TARGA ROTORUA Leigh Hopper won Targa Rotorua for the fourth time.

HOPPER’S LUCK HOLDS

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uck was with the winners of this year’s Targa Rotorua tarmac rally, Leigh Hopper and co-driver Michael Goudie. At least it was for all but the last few metres of the twoday/320km event, held in and around the southern and eastern Waikato and Rotorua regions of New Zealand.

Where number one seeds Jason Gill and Mark Robinson had a gearbox problem with their Mitsubishi Evo 9 - literally - just after the start at on Saturday morning, Hopper and Goudie had a dream run in their earlier model Mitsubishi Evo 3- until the last two stages on Sunday.

On Saturday the pair, from Orewa north of Auckland, won all six timed stages to lead their class and the event outright.

After repairing his car, Gill was back in the event, and won five of the six stages on Sunday. But by always finishing just a place or two behind, Hopper and Goudie were able to maintain their class and outright leads and win the event by just over a minute from multi Targa New Zealand event winners, Tony Quinn and Naomi Tillett (Nissan GT-R35), and gravel rally star Chris West

and co-driver Chris Cobham (Mitsubishi Mirage Evo).

“We blew a head gasket on the second to last stage,” Hopper told the crowd of well-wishers at the finish.

“Fortunately we had a service stop between it and the last stage, so we flushed what was left of the coolant in the system, put some Bars Leaks in it, and backed off the boost and the pace to hopefully get us home.”

It was a strategy that worked - just.

The car got to the ceremonial Targa arch and was flagged home for a finish, but would not restart and had to be pushed to its pit bay in the hotel car park.

For five-time Targa NZ winner, Tony Quinn, and four-time winning co-driver, Naomi Tillett, the event was a case of ‘close but no cigar.’

“Look, I enjoyed it,” said Quinn, “but you know, maybe I started my run too late? If this was a main Targa look where I’d be on the third day. Leigh would be out, Jason would have too big a deficit to make up and I’d be in the box seat. But I don’t know, I just felt awkward in the car on the first day. The stages were good but perhaps some of Winners first time out in 2WD Modern was Martin Dippie in his new Porsche GT3 RS. Photos: Fast Company/ProShotz.

64 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

them were not appropriate for a car as big as the GT-R.” The annual two-day Targa Rotorua event attracted 59 starters across three competitive classes, plus 25 entries in the allied Targa Tour category.

Dunedin pair Martin Dippie and Jona Grant made the long trip north worthwhile with a dominant win in the Modern 2WD class and fourth place overall in Dippie’s new Porsche GT3 RS. Dippie and Grant topped their class in three of the six stages on Saturday and all six on Sunday to claim a comprehensive class win from fellow stage class winner, Tauranga ace Simon Clark and co-driver Richard Raglan in Clark’s own new car, a 2015 BMW M3 Turbo, and a hard driving Clark Proctor and co-driver Sue O’Neill in Proctor’s old-skool Nissan V6-turbo engined Ford Escort.

Meanwhile, long-time Targa event supporters Andy Mygind and Anthony Baker from Auckland claimed a popular win in their Datsun 240Z in the Metalman Classic 2WD class after a three-way battle with the BMW 325i of Rex McDonald and late-call co-driver David Dixon, and the Peugeot 205 GTi of Paul McCulla and Andrew McLean.

Early on in the event the Metalman class was the closest and most competitive it has been in years, with at least three other pairings - Taranaki duo Michael Jury and Steve Hildred in Jury’s Holden VL Commodore, Rick Finucane and Derek White from Whakatane in a Toyota MR2, and Pat and Toni Dillon from Wanganui in Dillon’s low-line Ford Anglia - buying into the fight for a spot on the class podium.

All, however, struck mechanical problems of one sort or another.

Leigh Hopper won his first Targa Rotorua event with son Gray co-driving, in 2011, and his second - with Simon Kirkpatrick reading the notes - in 2013.

He and Kirkpatrick also won the three-day Targa North Island event that ended in Rotorua in 2014.

NEWS@RALLYSPORTMAG.COM.AU

COUNTRIES BID WINDUS FURTHERS DEVELOPMEMT FOR WRC STATUS Y

Up to 13 countries are hoping to host a round of the World Rally Championship in the coming years.

The list is believed to include Abu Dhabi, Canada, Chile, Croatia, India, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Russia and Turkey.

All are reported to be at various stages of readiness to run a WRC round.

oung Victorian Arron Windus, has pulled out of his drive in the Vauxhall Junior Rally Team for the remainder of this year’s British Rally Championship to concentrate on his driver development in Australia.

In a team statement, Windus said: “This year is a development year, so trying to win a championship was my last priority over there, and to solely develop my driving and noting skills. A joint decision made by myself and the team, with the objective of cost savings, was to pull out of the remainder of this year’s BRC and compete at home

in Australia to focus on a full attack on next year’s BRC with the Vauxhall Motorsport Junior Rally Team.”

Windus will get further experience in the remaining rounds of the Victorian Rally Championship, with the possibility of some ARC rounds later in the year.

MOURA WINS ERC AZORES RALLY

Reliability helped Azores resident driver, Ricardo Moura, win the Azores Rally, fourth round of the 2016 FIA European Rally Championship, an event in which the lead changed six times in 16 stages.

Moura was the first local driver to win the event since 1971. Ford Fiesta R5 cars took the top three places.

For most of the event the lead was fought out between the ERC champion Kajetan Kajetanowicz from Poland, who had a broken driveshaft

three stages from the end, and the Russian Alexey Lukyanuk, who was slowed on the final morning by a loose turbo pipe, a problem he had also suffered on the previous ERC round.

An early challenger was the round three (Acropolis Rally) winner Ralfs Sirmacis from Latvia, who retired on the final day when lying third, with broken steering.

Best non-Fiesta driver was the Hungarian David Botka’s Citroen DS3

R5, which snatched fourth place when another Fiesta driver, Jaroslav Orsak from Czech Republic, was delayed on a road section before the final stage changing a flat tyre.

The overall championship is led

by Kajetanowicz with 92 points, ahead of Lukyanuk’s 77 points.

The championship now returns to mainland Europe for the next round, the Ypres Rally in Belgium at the end of June.

- Martin Holmes JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 65

WOWAN RALLY - QRC 2

CARRIGAN BROTHERS DOMINATE Story & Photos: SAM TICKELL

Kent Lawrence’s Lancer powers through the dust in the Wowan Rally, while Jason Holding was 10th in his Toyota Supra (below).

Competitors travelled to the small rural town of Wowan, west of Rockhampton on Queensland’s central coast, for a warm welcome at round two of the MRF Tyres Queensland Rally Championship.

The Pedders Suspension Rockhampton Wowan Rally was held on fast shire and farming roads and welcomed an impressive 39 starters who faced 13 special stages and almost 140 competitive kilometres. Numbers were significantly up on 2015, with more than 15 new entries to this rally.

Of note coming into the rally was the newly acquired Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 of Ian Menzies and Bob McGowan, running for the first time at Wowan and sweeping the roads for the rest of the field.

The rally kicked off with a nine kilometre blast through Honimans - the stage to the north of the service park was the only one to be used just once for the event.

It was an unfortunate start for Rob Bishop/Neill Woolley who were late out of the service park, receiving a 1m55s penalty before the rally had even started.

Worse was to come for Ross Cox/ Arnold Sluce whose Mitsubishi VR4 would not make the start line, pulling up within two kilometres of the stage

start. Engine problems would sideline him, where electrical problems plagued the Nissan 200SX of Darren Baker and Mikayla MacDonald. The final victim of stage 1 was Allan Arney/Mat Rowe, whose Holden Torana would experience engine trouble.

The challenging stages continued, with Russell’s Run (20.37km), Bundy Road (7.96km), Villa Mossa (13.79km) and Showgrounds (1.4km) seeing a great fight at the front emerge between the Evos of Menzies/McGowan, Kent Lawrence/James Wilson and Tristan Carrigan/Andrew Carrigan. Bishop/ Woolley were pushing hard to make up time from their early problems.

The warm and dry conditions ensured there was plenty of dust around, but that didn’t stop the Carrigan brothers opening up a 30 second lead, completing the 52km in a time of just 25m23s.

Other retirees in the first leg included Kim Acworth/Ian Swinbourne (Subaru) after clutch issues, David Kayess/ Peter Kayess (Datsun), Martin Penfold/ Annette Thompson (Nissan Silvia) and Bruce McCarthy/Chris Harrison

(Mitsubishi Starion).

Mechanical issues would hit Menzies/ McGowan and while they completed leg one, they would not start leg two.

This would promote Marius Swart/ Peta Davies’ Volkswagen Polo S2000 to real contention for the podium, despite being at quite a disadvantage compared to the Production class cars.

Top speeds were a contributing factor and on such a fast rally the cars did hit their top speeds, with the VW topping out at 161km/h, and the Mitsubishis hit a genuine 200km/h.

The Carrigans put their stamp on the rally in the second leg, extending their 30 second lead to 1min 35sec over Lawrence/Wilson.

Over the third and final loop, Carrigan held his nerve and the lead,

PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS 66 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

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even pulling out an additional 42 seconds on any other car, and 60 seconds on Lawrence/Wilson.

The rally had one sting in the tail, with the final stage - the final run around the showgrounds unfortunately cancelled as the hanging dust made it impossible for the drivers to see where they were going. Even worse, the spectators could barely see the cars from the sidelines.

The Carrigan brothers took a comprehensive win, but were not registered for QRC points.

It was particularly cruel for Wayne Menzies/Matthew Davidson who made the end of the final completed stage, but did not make it to the start of the cancelled showgrounds stage.

Overall the Carrigans won by more than 2min30sec from Lawrence/ Wilson in second, and Bishop/Woolley rounding out the top three.

The Carrigans were not registered for QRC points, elevating the VW of Swart/Davies to the championship podium.

Shaun and Annette Dragona (Subaru) won the Clubman class, Jason and David Holding (Toyota) won the Multi-club 2WD class, Keith Fackrell/ Tony Best (Ford Escort) won Classics,

and Morgan Douglas/Jennifer Garth (Hyundai) won the Novice class.

Overall 21 competitors finished, with no cars retiring through accident damage.

Round three of the MRF Tyres Queensland Rally Championship takes place at the International Rally of Queensland in the Sunshine Coast hinterland on June 17-19.

GOOD FIELD FOR RALLY OF QLD Drivers representing five countries headline a top-flight entry list for the annual International Rally of Queensland on the Sunshine Coast on June 17-19.

Hosting rounds of the FIA Asia Pacific, Australian and State Rally Championships, Queensland’s only international motorsport event has attracted more than 40 entries to tackle 240 kilometres of challenging forest stages around Imbil, in the Coast’s northern hinterland.

The entry list is headed by India’s MRF Tyres team, winner of five of the past six events and of every APRC driver and manufacturer title since 2012.

Their factory-backed Skoda Fabia R5 cars will be driven by 2010 Queensland winner and 2013 champion Gaurav Gill of India and 24-year-old German Fabian Kreim (pictured right).

Gill leads the championship after winning Round 1 in New Zealand last month. Other drivers entered for

Queensland this year are from Japan, New Zealand and Australia.

Starting his sixth season of international rallying, New Zealand’s Mike Young, 25, showed he will be the defending champions’ strongest rival after claiming several stage wins aboard his Subaru in his home event.

Australia’s challenge will be led by Coffs Harbour-based Nathan Quinn.

The Mitsubishi driver has had extensive international experience from China to New Zealand.

Round 3 of the Kumho Tyres Australian Rally Championship will be equally hard-fought, with the season invigorated by new rules allowing the return of all-wheel drive cars.

The field features Australia’s fastest gravel drivers, including four-time champion Simon Evans (Subaru), junior star Harry Bates (Toyota), Tom Wilde, Molly Taylor and Brad Marcovich (all Subarus), Mark Pedder (Peugeot) and Queenslander Ryan Smart (Mitsubishi).

Major attractions among Classic-car entrants will be Neal Bates, in a 1980 Toyota Celica RA40, and Mal Keough in a replica of the infamous Group B Audi Quattro S1 world rally car.

Twenty cars are entered for the MRF Tyres Queensland Rally Championship third round.

For spectator information visit the Rally of Queensland website.

For more details call Dominic on 0499 981 188 or email dominic@rallysportmag.com.au JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 67

KARRI RALLY - WARC

DYLAN IS KING OF THE WET D

ylan King and Abbey Hayes overcame the slippery conditions at the Trade Hire Karri Rally round of the Onslow Contracting Western Australian Rally Championship to claim a convincing win over last year’s champions Garry Whittle and Stephen Vass.

The course, situated in the Wheatley Forest near Manjimup, comprised of two stages - one borrowed from previous years and a completely new stage. The recent rains on the new stage made conditions slippery, giving headaches to those who weren’t driving four wheel drives. Even one of the recovery trucks needed assistance exiting the stage.

The first two stage wins were claimed

by John Macara (Pickering Brook) and Lee Tierney (Hillarys), but their luck unfortunately turned in SS3 when their Asiat Instruments Mitsubish Evo lost a turbo hose putting the rally stalwarts out of the lead.

Dylan King and Abbey Hayes, who had been close behind Macara and Tierney in the first two stages, went on to win the remaining four in their Subaru STI to become overall winner.

King said it was a combination of luck and focus that clinched the win for the DK Earthworkx team.

“We were lucky that John Macara dropped out. We had a bit of drama ourselves when a kilometre into the second stage we lost fifth gear, but we managed to get to the end and win the rally,” said King.

“We’ve had a fairly bad streak the past two years now and more recently when we blew an engine at the Forest Rally and had to basically rebuild it by the side of road, so we wanted to get back on track. The aim was to win and 68 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

that’s what we did – we are more than happy with the result!”

Outright second went to last year’s winner Garry Whittle and co-driver Stephen Vass in the Rezolt Subaru WRX, coming almost 2 and half minutes behind the leaders.

There were three teams battling it out for third, Michael Steele and Alex Butler, Doug Tostevin and Tammy Adams, and John O’Dowd and Ben Searcy. Third place was held by Tostevin and Adams until the penultimate stage when the driveshaft broke on their S-Technic Subaru STI, leaving them to complete the rest of the event in three wheel drive.

In the end it was the duo of Steele and Butler in the Japline Subaru STI that clinched third, just over a minute behind Whittle and Vass.

The conditions quickly reduced the amount of competitors in the two wheel drive category, with both the Onslow Contracting team of Shane Harmer and Nicholas Anyan, and Mike Top: Victors Dylan King and Abbey Hayes splash their way to victory, while Raz Vlad won the 2WD category in his Fiesta.

Joss Racing Team of Mike Joss and Megan Logue leaving the road to hug the trees.

After battling gearbox issues for the past two years, Raz Vlad and Daymon Niccoli made a triumphant return to WA rallying in their MAXYrally Ford Fiesta, winning the round in the 2WD category.

“This year is going a bit better than last year for us – we were able to complete a rally with almost no issues, this is the first time in a long time,” said Vlad.

Second place was a battle between David Farnworth and Alexandra Martin in the Allout Towing Services Toyota Corolla FX-GT and 17-year old newcomer Kody Reynolds and Anthony Staltari in the Trade Hire Subaru Impreza – with both of them completing SS3 in equal time. Reynolds and Staltari ended up the victors for second place managing to put a 20 second buffer between themselves and Farnworth and Martin.

Photos: Tim Allott

HIGGINS SMASHES RECORD

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Story & Photos: TIM ALLOTT

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anx rally driver Mark Higgins has smashed his own Isle of Man record for cars, completing the 37.73-mile course in a blistering 17m35s, an average speed of 128.73 mph.

That beats the 17m49.75s time he clocked during a practice run, as well as the previous official record of 19m15.88d he set in 2014.

Higgins’ new record was set in a highlymodified Subaru WRX STI, whereas the previous official record was set using a WRX STI that was virtually stock.

His latest car is thought to be developing close to 600 horsepower. It’s also shod with racing slicks and a drag reduction system.

Higgins is a former British Rally Champ.

Doug Tostevin took victory in his Subaru, while Greg Flood (below) took the top 2WD honours in his Lancer.

TOSTEVIN BOUNCES BACK

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oug Tostevin and Tammy Adams have won the MRF Tyres Boddington Rally, held on June 4.

Driving a Subaru WRX STI, the pair trailed the Subaru of Dylan King and Abbey Hayes by a minute after stage two, but mechanical failure robbed King of back-to-back wins when his car stopped on the following stage.

Greg and Dean Flood were the first two-wheel drive competitors home in their Mitsubishi Lancer, while Carl and Tracey Rattenbury took out the Clubman Cup component of the event in their Ford Escort.

Garry Whittle and Stephen Vass were leading the Western Australian Rally Championship

heading into the event, but failed to finish in their Subaru.

The Boddington Rally used a new location in 2016, with stages ranging from a 1km town stage around the local football ground, to a 26km test in the forest.

JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 69

MITTA MOUNTAIN RALLY

Y T I L A U STR Q WATCH Story: CRAIG O’BRIEN

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arren Windus and Joe Brick obliterated the competition to take victory by an incredible four minutes in their Subaru Impreza WRX at the Border Oils and Batteries Mitta Mountain Rally on May 14.

The Mitsubishi of Warren Lee/David Lethlean was second, with birthday boy Viv Dilkes-Frayne/Tracey Dewhurst (Subaru) rounding out the podium places a further 31 seconds behind.

Round two of the Focus on Furniture

Neil Schey was the leading 2WD finisher in his Escort, while Darren Windus (top) used all the road on his way to victory. (Photos: Luke Whitten) 70 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

Victorian Rally Championship was held deep in the state’s high country near Mitta Mitta. A solid field of 43 presented at the local recreation reserve for the unique 8am start under the rolling fog of the region.

The rally, which is a new addition to the calendar, consisted of four ‘endurance’ like stages for a total competitive distance of 145 kilometres, with a combination of tight, twisty and open sections.

Windus and Brick set up victory with blistering times on the first two stages to win the opening heat by almost three minutes, while Dilkes-Frayne, after a scare into the scenery, edged out Lee/Lethlean, who were slowed with a puncture by five seconds, before the latter got the upper hand in heat two.

There were plenty of dramas with the slippery conditions created by heavy rains in the days prior, catching out a handful of crews in the opening heat, and it quickly became apparent it would be a battle of survival.

Andrew Murchdoch/Steven MacKenzie’s (Subaru) podium aspirations were dealt an early blow with engine dramas and a snapped gear shift, while Ivan Regester/ Paul Humm’s (Subaru) charge into the top three was halted with a mechanical retirement with one stage to go.

In an ever-competitive 2WD class, a titanic battle would ultimately be fought between three Escorts. After heat one, a mere 10 seconds covered Neil Schey/ Scott Middleton (RS2000), Grant Walker/ Bianca Lowe (RS1800) and Michael Conway/Jenny Cole. The order would remain the same come rally end, with Schey taking victory by 21 seconds.

Two times Australian Rally Champion and all round motorsport legend, ‘Farmer’ George Fury, made a guest appearance as event patron and took particular interest in the Datsun Stanza of Andrew Daniell as he reminded the young charger of Australian rallying’s golden years.

Unfortunately for Daniell, he spent much of the day chasing set up issues before a gearbox drama further hampered his running.

Meanwhile, leading Hyundai crew, Stephen Eccles and Simon Pilepich, took class honours over the returning Blaise McNamara/ Russell Woollard in the Our Auto Rally Series for Hyundai Excels.

The next round sees the Victorian Rally Championship return to the popular roads in southern NSW for the iconic Bega Valley Rally on June 12.

Stephen Eccles won the Excel class, and George Fury was a popular event patron.

Photos: Craig O’Brien

Warren Lee had little time to admire the beautiful Mitta Mitta scenery in his Lancer Evo. Photos: Ivan Glavas

IMPROVED WRC GAME UPDATE COMING SOON

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RC 6, the official video game of the FIA World Rally Championship, will be released in the second half of 2016.

The 2016 edition will contain major improvements, including enhanced graphics and audio, exciting fresh features and new and longer special stages.

It will be the only game to present authentic and current car liveries, with Volkswagen Motorsport, Abu Dhabi Total World Rally Team, Hyundai Motorsport and M-Sport World Rally Team represented with their World Rally Cars in 2016 colours.

Rally China, which returns to WRC in September for the first time since 1999, will be added to the game, increasing the number of rallies to 14.

Gamers will be able to select from all the sport’s leading World Rally Car drivers, including New Zealand’s Hayden Paddon, along with a wide selection of WRC 2 and Junior WRC competitors.

WRC 6 will be published by Bigben Interactive and developed by French development studio Kylotonn Racing Games.

“The experience gained from WRC 5 helped the team to completely understand rallying fans’ expectations,” said game director Alain Jarniou.

“Roads were too wide in WRC 5. They will be narrower and bumpier in WRC 6. Stages were sometimes too short. We created new longer stages

and reworked everything to make them more challenging.”

WRC Promoter managing director Oliver Ciesla said WRC 6 would provide an even more realistic challenge for gamers.

“If you enjoyed WRC 5, then you will love WRC 6. The developers have introduced significant improvements to make the playing experience even more exciting and true to life,” he said.

WRC 6 will be available for PlayStation®4, Xbox One, and PC/Steam.

JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 71

RALLY CLASSIFIEDS

RALLY CLASSIFIEDS Subaru Impreza WRX STI Spec C FIA spec roll cage, Kevlar underbody.

New engine with forged pistons, Manly rods, ARP head studs, Nitrated crank, new clutch, Spec C headers. Modena 6-speed dog box with flat shift knob. Spec C R180 rear diff, quick rack steering, all alloy rims. Carbon cold air intake box and silicone intake tube. Motel engine and centre diff ECUs, fire bomb, Cobra wing seats, Coralba, carbon door trims and foot trays. AP brakes front and rear, new Endless pads. Complete repaint just completed. DMS 5-way suspension (fitted recently). 5 WORK rims (white or gold).

New horror flaps and mudflats. Restrictor not fitted, have 36mm MMS made ready to fit when engine is run in. Will need a retune if fitting restrictor. Professionally built and maintained, done very little work.

Any further info required is available from Darren on Ph 0477 559 267 or email darren@wvct.com.au Price: $58,000 as is, or negotiable without gearbox

1971 Datsun 1600 99% complete Datsun 1600 club rally car, very near ready to log book. Basically I want to get into a 4WD, so want to move the 1600 on to make this happen. Shell - 1971 Datsun 1600, yellow - full welded in Bond roll cage (registered/stickered with CAMS) - No rust as far as I can see.

Driveline – - Nissan CA18DE (twin cam 1809cc naturally aspirated) - Xtreme clutch - Silvia 5speed - Locked 4.6 R180 Suspension – Front, 180B struts (larger stubs), Koni adjustable inserts, 175lb 65mm i.d King Springs, height adjustment, camber adjustment, Stewart Wilkins adjustable caster rods. Rear, 700lb King Springs, brand new Bilstein shocks from Quadrant, Datsport reconditioned arms.

Brakes – Front, 276mm vented and slotted rotors, Commodore calipers. - Rear, 260mm solid disc, R31 calipers (Datsport conversion). Stewart Wilkins hydraulic handbrake. Wilwood proportioning valve - ALL lines front to back, left to right replaced with braided lines and run through the cabin (over $1500 in that alone). Other – Braided fuel lines through cabin, all others replaced with new rubber ones - new surge tank - tie rod ends, ball joints, track rod and steering idler replaced with new 555 parts - a lot of rewiring done with old wires, relays etc, replaced - New clutch master and slave cylinder with braided line.Contact Jay anytime, Phone 0409 010 763, Email: jayquirk83@gmail. com - or check out more details on the car on the RallySport Mag website HERE.

Stilo WRC Des helmet size XL 1 year old - used a handful of times.

Includes Tinted Visor. Has Hans Posts.

Brand new condition. Can throw in a sheepskin carry bag. $1100, Perth. Phone Ashley on 0400 249 407.

ROH Fireball rims Five rims and Yokohama tyres, 6” x 14”.

4x 110mm & 4x 114.3mm stud patterns.

25ET offset (approx). Located Northside Brisbane. Can ship interstate if you want to organise. $250. Phone Ben 0402 349100.

Ben Atkinson pacenote books exclusive to RallySport Mag.

Box trailer. Measures 4.1m L x 2m h x 1.85m w. Hydraulic brakes, LED lights, near new light truck tyres, recent maintenance underneath. Previously used as service trailer, tows great and is only being sold as upgraded to a truck. $3000.

Warragul, Victoria. Phone Glen on 0407 805702.

72 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

Ben’s pacenote books have been refined over many years, and have helped him to successfully call the notes for Cody Crocker in their successful APRC campaigns. Books are $19 each, postage of $15 (Express Post) applies to orders up to 3 books.

To order CLICK HERE.

RALLY CLASSIFIEDS FORD FIESTA S2000 Manufactured to FIA Regulations 2000R, FIA Homoglation #61 - 00322, MSNZ Log Book #16533, Roll Cage Homoglation # NZ 7801, LSTA Registration #2000R Car Specifications: Engine: 2.0Ltr Ford Duratech, Cast Alloy Sump, Cosworth Crank, Arrow Rods JE Pistons, Motec ECU, Carbon Inlet Manifold Transmission: SADEV 6 Speed Sequintal, Flat Shift Up Change, Load Cell on Gearlever, Remote oil cooler, Differential: SADEV 4.3, Oil Pump + Cooler, Hydraulic Drive Release Brakes: 4 Piston Brembo Caliper, 300mm Coleman Rotors, TITON Floor Mounted Pedal Box, Pressure Display on Dash Bodywork: Chrome Moly Extensive Cage,

Chrome Moly Seat Tubes, RACETECH Seat Willian Belts, Monit TC 100 Trip Meter, Carbon Roof Vents, Kelvar Under Body, Carbon Fiber Co-Driver Foot Rest, Flocked Dash, Welded Jack Point Suspension: Drummond 5 way Adjustable, Triple Poistion Sway Bars, Compression Struts, Minebea Rod Ends Wheels: 16 X 15” Braid Rims Fuel Tank: 75 Ltr A.T.L. Fuel Cell, Dry Brake Refuel Couplers

Wiring: Air Grade Multi Plugs & Loom, Motec Dash to Laptop Pluglead, Motec Dash Display Addtional Notes: As MSNZ National Championship no longer require homoglated vehicles to compete, several sensible upgrades have been made, beyond the S2000 rules - the bonnet & rear hatch are now fiberglass, All parts required to revert to S2000 are supplied within the spares, package, Complete set of C.A.D. drawings for manufacture of components, Motec E.C.U. Addtional Software allowing for Tuning to 2000R Regulations, Launch control + Traction Control. Priced at $AU100k FOB to Auckland sea port.

Get more info by CLICKING HERE. Contact Andrew Keighley for further details: NZ +64 021 994545 or refrigeration@xtra.co.nz

SELL YOUR RALLY CAR ✸ Rally Cars ✸ Road Cars ✸ Trailers ✸ Tyres ✸ Memorabilia

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$9.90 per month

CLICK HERE to place your ad JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 73

PHOTO OF THE MONTH

Hyundai team members pick through the remains of Hayden Paddon’s burnt-out i20 World Rally Car after its firey end to the Rally of Portugal.

Photo: WRC Media 74 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016

JUNE 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 75

READER PRAISE Fantastic effort with the new RSM! If that isn’t a winner, I don’t know what is!!

Looks really good. It’s great to see a magazine Australasian Issuecovering #2 - June 2016 rallying again. - John Crouch Wow, can it BE any better? Thanks all.

- Alan Baker I really missed this! Well done! - Alan Marshall Great to see and read, thanks to all who made it. - Ken Curtis Welcome back, RSM!! You have been missed! It was a case of “you don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone”. Let’s make sure it stays this time! - John Doutch Just lost the last 2 hours at work, thanks very much for an awesome magazine. – David Kirk Extremely excited that the @ RallySportMag is back. This was always one of my favourite magazines in its time. Happy to see it’s back! - Rhianon Gelsomino Good to check out your #1 edition.

Proud to have been part of it! What a professional presentation. - Martin Holmes

Thanks to our readers for their compliments from our first issue.

Here’s some of their comments.

Hot off the digital press, this is as exciting as your first coffee of the day! Actually it will go well with that! What a great read!

Well done all!

- @rallylivenz Just a quick email to say the new magazine fantastic, had a quick look through this morning and the variety of content has left me counting down the minutes (although there are still quite a few to go!) until I can get home and read the whole lot! - Blair Bartels Even from Italy we read this amazing #1 issue ! Congrats to the editor !

Antonio Liberato Congratulations RallySport Mag. Great to have you back. - Classic Outback Trial Just a quick note to say what an awesome job you have done on this first edition of your new magazine.

- Dave Neill

Great layout, excellent pics and writing.

Here’s hoping the advertisers can’t resist the opportunity you are offering.

- Greg Quinn Where there was once the Speedsport and NZ Racer, it’s great to see Peter and Rallysport Mag have filled the empty space and started producing this great free online magazine covering NZ and Australia rallying! - Hayden Paddon Just stole the kids IPad and read it from cover to cover! Just like I remember and lots of awesome pictures! Well done on a great publication! - Craig Lee Awesome job on the online magazine.

Great to see it back. - Glenn Macneall I just wanted to drop you a quick note to congratulate you on the awesome job you have done on the magazine.

Everything from the mix of content to the layout is spot on and i wish you every success with it going forward.

- Justin Keogh Congratulations, your new magazine is FANTASTIC!!!! What a great read! Well done to all of the team at RallySport Mag. Long may it continue in its new format.

- Martin Warneke

NEXT H MONT

 Rally of QLD  Pikes Peak  Gisborne Rally  WRC reports  Features  And much more

JIM RICHARDS INTERVIEW

AVAILABLE JULY 13 at www.rallysportmag.com.au

76 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - JUNE 2016