RallySport Magazine September 2016

Issue #5 - September 2016

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Yaris AP4 for Bates in 2017?

EVENT REPORTS

Rally SA Coromandel

5 MINUTES WITH

Markovic Kennard

FEATURES

INTERVIEW

Renault Clio Rob Herridge Bunnings ‘96 Mads Ostberg

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SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 1

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CONTENTS - #5 SEPTEMBER 2016 FEATURES

EVENT REPORTS

30 FAMOUS STAGES

BUNNINGS IN 1996 WAS WET AND WILD AS THE WRC HIT WA

42 PLAYING IT SAFE FOLLOW US ON:

AN AUSTRALIAN INVENTION IS NOW ON THE WORLD STAGE

52 F1 PEDIGREE

THIS RENAULT CLIO IS PERFECT FOR TARMAC RALLYING

58 KIWI ON THE RISE

ARI PETTIGREW HAS THE NAME AND THE TALENT TO MATCH

59 GET BOGGED

RALLYING IN THE 60S WAS A DIFFERENT SPORT

68 MADS TURNS 100

MADS OSTBERG TALKS ABOUT HIS CAREER IN THE WRC

72 ONLY IN CHINA

CHINA SPORTS A HOST OF RALLY CARS NOT SEEN ANYWHERE ELSE

REGULARS

19 LIGHTFORCE RALLY SA

04 EDITORIAL

24 COROMANDEL RALLY

05 LATEST RALLY NEWS

BRENDAN REEVES WINS

SOCIAL MEDIA IS A POWERFUL TOOL

AN AUSSIE WINS THE FINAL ROUND OF THE 2016 NZ CHAMPIONSHIP

44 RALLY GERMANY

NEWS FROM AROUND THE SPORT

14 5 MINUTES WITH ...

ARC REGULAR BRAD MARKOVIC

SEBASTIEN OGIER WAS BACK TO HIS WINNING WAYS IN GERMANY

16 5 MINUTES WITH ...

50 RALLY OF THE BAY

36 WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

62 BORDER RANGES RALLY

48 HOLMES COLUMN

PETER ROBERTS WAS TOO GOOD FOR THE FIELD IN THE NSWRC

WRC CO-DRIVER JOHN KENNARD FORMER SUBARU FACTORY DRIVER ROB HERRIDGE

THE BRAKES DIRECT SPONSORED EVENT WAS A BIG SUCCESS

MARTIN HOLMES AND HIS MONTHLY RALLY COLUMN

70 PYRENEES RUSH

THIS MONTH’S “TOP SHOT”

YOUNG GUN ARRON WINDUS TAKES A NAIL-BITING VICTORY

✸

74 PHOTO OF THE MONTH

DID YOU KNOW?

You can click on an advert or website address to go directly to an advertiser’s website?

The passion for rallying ....

MANAGING EDITOR

PETER WHITTEN

peter@rallysportmag.com.au

CONTRIBUTORS

SENIOR WRITER

TOM SMITH tom@rallysportmag.com.au

Luke Whitten, Martin Holmes, Blair Bartels, Geoff Ridder, Craig O’Brien, John Doutch, Euan Cameron, Ross Teesdale, Ivan Glavas

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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.

Don’t miss an issue of RallySport Magazine ....

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SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 3

EDITORIAL

KEEPING UP WITH TECHNOLOGY

By PETER WHITTEN

I

t’s now 25 years since the world was introduced to the internet, and email and the world wide web have changed the way we live, and the way we do business.

Back in 1991, Australian Rallysport News (as we were then known) was only a couple of years old, and the highlight each morning was walking into the office and seeing the rolls of paper streaming out of the fax machine.

The day would be spent retyping reports on the WRC, and the reports and columns from our state correspondents.

Going to collect the mail from the post office was just as much fun.

Photographs from recent events would fill the post box and would, literally, be the first time we’d seen images from events in far off locations. They were great times.

But the internet changed all that. 25 years on, greedy consumers need to know results and see images and video as it happens. If Hayden Paddon spins on stage five of the Monte Carlo Rally, millions of rally fans around the world know about it instantly, rather than hours or days later, as was the case in a time past.

Technology has enabled publications like RallySport Magazine to be produced online for free, with readers anywhere in the world able to take in the content 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Long gone are the days when we would finish the magazine on a Monday, send it to the printer on a Tuesday, and it wouldn’t be seen on newsagents’ shelves until the following week (at the earliest).

My family have fond memories of bagging and addressing the 800 or more issues that would be mailed directly to subscribers’ letterboxes each month. While it was tedious work, the extravagant suppers that followed made those Tuesday nights something to look forward to.

Moving forward to 2016, social media has amplified our need for information 100 fold.

“If it’s not on Facebook it can’t be true” may not be a mantra that we should live by, but there’s a good argument that Facebook is ‘the’ place to get your snippets of information – or

4 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

The rally car jumping the dog video went viral on Facebook.

just a place to waste hours of your day.

A recent video we placed on the RallySport Magazine Facebook page is a case in point. The hilarious clip of a dog being jumped over by a rally car was sent directly to us by an overseas rally fan, and within minutes the clip had gone viral.

A couple of hours later it had also been posted by a national betting agency, and the clip then appeared on the Nine Network’s nightly news. It was a perfect example of how something so small can build a life of its own.

In just two days the video had reached 360,000 people, had been viewed 145,000 times, and had

been shared by 2555 people. These incredible figures show just how powerful social media can be.

But despite the pull of social media, dedicated publications like RallySport Magazine still have their place in our ever-evolving world.

Feature articles, event reports and high quality images continue to be a key to the success of magazines the world over and, social media or not, we hope that RallySport Magazine can continue to be an important part of your monthly news feed.

We may not all love the internet with the same passion, but without it, our lives would be very different.

The unsung heros

H

arry Bates’ team did an incredible job repairing his car after his day one accident in South Australia, again highlighting the incredible efforts of rally mechanics around the country.

As can be seen, the damage to the Bates Corolla was extensive, and most workshops would have spent weeks getting the car back in shape.

But the team got stuck in, ripping parts off Adrian Coppin’s Corolla (which was in the team truck) and getting it fixed and ready for the following day’s stages.

That the car ran faultlessly for the duration of the second day is a testament to their efforts. Well done guys, and a big pat on the back for all the dedicated services crews around the country - at all levels of rallying.

NEWS@RALLYSPORTMAG.COM.AU

AP4 GATHERS MOMENTUM

Yaris could be first Aussie AP4

By PETER WHITTEN

I

nterest in the AP4 category is gaining momentum in Australia, with Neal Bates Motorsport seriously looking into the possibilities of a new Toyota Yaris.

Australian Rally Championship front-runner, Harry Bates, is currently campaigning a nine-year old Corolla Super 2000 that is still proving competitive, but is coming to the end of its life span.

Neal Bates said that the team were in the early stages of planning, and that Toyota wouldn’t be involved in the building of a new car, but that an AP4 Yaris was certainly on their radar.

“The S2000 car is still relatively competitive and we have parts lying around the workshop for it, but those parts are getting less and less – especially after incidents like Harry’s crash in Heat 1,” Bates said in South Australia.

If the Bates team wish to continue using a Toyota product in the ARC, then building a new car seems their only option, and a Yaris could be the perfect platform.

Neal Bates wouldn’t be drawn on what engine the proposed AP4 car would use, but it is believed a 1.6-litre turbo motor would be chosen.

Meanwhile, Maximum Motorsport are also looking into what they could build under the AP4 regulations.

With a link to Subaru through their motorsport parts sales, Dean Herridge confirmed that they had considered the possibilities of an XV AP4 car, but that they were still a long way from making any decisions.

“Obviously we’d like to build an AP4 car, but who foots the cost of the build is the first consideration,” Herridge told RallySport Magazine.

Maximum Motorsport have run two WRX’s in this year’s ARC, for Brad Markovic and Tom Wilde.

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SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 5

NEWS@RALLYSPORTMAG.COM.AU

NEW FIESTA SERIES FOR 2017 VRC

T

he 2017 Victorian Rally Championship is set to receive a major boost, with news that a onemake series for Ford Fiestas will be incorporated into next year‘s series.

The Fiesta Rally Series is intended as the next stepping stone up from the highly successful Excel Rally Series, which is now in its 11th year in Victoria.

Whilst the Excel series is a very low cost series, the Fiesta series will be more expensive dependent on the level of modification. Standard cars with all of the required safety equipment can compete, which will allow owners to progressively build the car up to the full-on R2 specification.

The Fiesta Rally Series is intended

21 STAGES INCLUDING 2 STAGES

UNDER LIGHTS IN THE ADELAIDE CITY

Photo: Greg Roslon as a medium cost rally series, with enjoyment and fellowship equally as important as awards. Cars eligible will be Fiestas from 2002 to current, and they will comply to FIA R1 or R2 regulations, or to CAMS PRC rules.

The series will run as part of the Victorian Rally Championship, with the competitors themselves agreeing on the number and type of events included in the 2017 series.

The emphasis will be on the series being run on the same informal basis as the Excel series, with informal pub dinner meetings twice a year.

Brendan Reeves, a driver with many years of Fiesta competition under his belt, has agreed to be Patron of the

Victorian series.

The level of interest has been terrific already, with seven teams indicating expressions of interest in taking part.

A public meeting will be held in Melbourne on September 19 to further discuss the series. The meeting will be held at the Queensberry Hotel, Queensberry Street, Carlton, starting at 6.30pm.

A Fiesta Competitor Relations Officer will be appointed to oversee the series.

Series organisers are actively building a support team to help build the series.

If you are interested and believe you can offer help to the series, please contact John Carney at gunnawyn@ yahoo.com

ENTRIES

OPEN

NOW

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2/09/2016 3:35 PM

ARC TO GET ITS FIRST R5 CAR As his wretched run of bad luck continued in South Australia, Mark Pedder revealed to RallySport Magazine that he’s eyeing an R5 specification Ford Fiesta for next year’s Australian Rally Championship.

Pedder’s current Peugeot 208 Maxi (pictured) has suffered a myriad of mechanical problems this season, culminating in an engine failure in Lightforce Rally SA. While Pedder is still hopeful of driving a Skoda Fabia R5 in Kennards Hire Rally Australia, he says a

Fiesta seems more likely for 2017.

“Our company supplies some product to M-Sport in the UK, so driving a Fiesta next season makes more sense,” Pedder said.

“We need to work out the logistics of it all, as the parts for the Ford are more expensive than for a Skoda R5, but that’s where we are looking at this stage.”

Pedder’s entry would be the first for an R5 car in the Australian Rally Championship, and would be seen as a further boost to a series.

- PETER WHITTEN

Photo: Luke Whitten

A one-make series would give young drivers, like Arron Windus, a clear path to follow in the ARC.

EXCITING ARC PLANS ON TRACK

By PETER WHITTEN

A

ustralian Rally Championship chairman, David Waldon, spoke at length to RallySport Magazine in South Australia, revealing some exciting plans for the series over the coming seasons.

While many of the plans are a work in progress and will hopefully be ratified in due course, among other things, Waldon revealed: zz Strategic direction for the ARC for the next three years will soon be announced by the Australian Rally Commission, with further plans to provide long-term stability in the

regulations until the end of 2025. zz There are plans to support state championship competitors to more easily step into the ARC, by introducing a number of measures designed to remove barriers. This may include a state championship-based points system with prize pool, and a threeevent national series for drivers in older model cars. zz The reduction of the championship registration costs is also being pursued, with Waldon believing that all competitors should enjoy the opportunity to compete against their peers. zz A one-make series is being seriously assessed, as a way of giving

drivers a clear path up the rallying ladder, and a junior development series could again be re-introduced into the ARC, with a sponsor already being courted. zz A continuation of the successful growth of digital media exposure is being expanded, with key partnerships being formalised with national media outlets. zz The new Victorian round of the ARC, based in Ballarat, is likely to be the opening round of next year’s championship. zz There is also strong support for future rounds of the ARC, including Tasmania, and the potential calendar is currently under review.

SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 7

NEWS@RALLYSPORTMAG.COM.AU

SCOTT PEDDER FLAT OUT EXPANDS WRC PLANS

FOR 2017 A

M

ark Pedder has confirmed that his brother, Scott, is hoping to embark on an expanded World Rally Championship campaign next year.

Scott Pedder’s limited program this year has seen him set impressive stage times in a Skoda Fabia R5, but he could contest up to eight events in next year’s WRC2 championship.

Events such as Mexico and Argentina would be included on the program, giving the former Australian Rally Champion a better chance of taking out

a World Rally Championship title.

Meanwhile, the Pedders team are still investigating the chances of Scott driving a Fiesta World Rally Car at Rally Australia in November.

If the plans were to come to fruition, Pedder would drive the Fiesta that Henning Solberg has campaigned in several WRC rounds this season.

Should that drive eventuate, it may mean that Mark Pedder would drive the Fabia R5 that Scott has driven so far this year.

- PETER WHITTEN

round a dozen of the current top level drivers have been actively working on the development of the 2017 specification World Rally Cars.

This is in addition to a number of experienced drivers who have been invited to give teams their personal opinions, and other drivers who are engaged as permanent test drivers for the teams.

At all the teams there is a veil of secrecy over the work of the test teams, with drivers banned from giving meaningful information to the media.

There is little knowledge as to what extent the cars they have tested represent the final technical specification that will be homologated, and the anticipated degree of increase of performance can be expected next year.

It is far from clear exactly who will be allowed, and who the FIA will be forbid from rallying 2017 version cars. It is clear, however, that top drivers who have been engaged in serious test work are those who are expected to continue with the team after the end of the year.

This throws a spotlight on which current team drivers have NOT been allowed to drive the new version cars. Two names are prominent: Neuville has not driven the new Hyundai, or Ostberg the next version Ford.

2017 car drivers so far:

Citroen - Meeke, Breen and Lefebvre; Hyundai - Abbring, Paddon and Sordo; M-Sport - Camilli, Tanak, also Prokop, Malcolm and, mostly, Matthew Wilson; Toyota - Hanninen and Nikara (also Hirvonen and Lappi, with Makinen); VW - Ogier, Latvala and Mikkelsen, with Gronhlm and mainly Depping.

- MARTIN HOLMES 8 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

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Official Rally Australia Tour hosted by RallySport Magazine SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 9

NEWS@RALLYSPORTMAG.COM.AU

Adrian Coppin slides his Corolla through the mud at the Kennards Hire Rally Australia launch last month.

PHOTO: Bruce Thomas

Stanza V8 re-emerges

Proudly announcing the

Southern Cross Gold Anniversary Rally

Long time Queensland competitor and enthusiast, Paul Williamson, has recently revealed that he has acquired the original Tony Masling Nissan Stanza V8 (pictured), which challenged the factory cars in the ARC in the early 80s.

The car moved on to North Queenslander,

Geoff Keys, who continued competing locally and nationally for some years.

Paul says he intends to restore it to its original condition, meaning it may not meet current CAMS safety specifications, but will be eligible to compete elsewhere.

- TOM SMITH

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 Albury Mansfield Sale Jindabyne Canberra Parramatta Taree Port Macquarie Coffs Harbour 10 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

Carrigans selling Evo 9 Toowoomba driver, Tristan Carrigan, has his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 up for sale. Carrigan and brother, Andy, set the Queenland rally scene on fire in the early 2000s, winning a Queensland Championship outright in a Ford Laser Tx3 (2WD).

The young brothers gave rallying away for many years to build families and businesses, but have reemerged in recent years, .

Tristan admitted that he would prefer to get back into a ‘serious’ front-wheel drive car! Stay tuned.

- TOM SMITH

Emma Gilmour will compete in the Italian Baja.

SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 11

NEWS@RALLYSPORTMAG.COM.AU

U P D A T E

NZ news

By BLAIR BARTELS

2

017 sees the return of Rally New Zealand as organisers look to put together a candidate WRC event. The two-day event will run out of the East Coast city of Tauranga, the base for the proposed 2018 WRC round. Teams will also be competing for the Rally New Zealand trophy, which was first presented in 1969 and was last won in 2012, by Sebastien Loeb.

F

our time NZRC historic champion, Marcus van Klink, will step away from the class next year and move into the open two-wheel drive class with a freshly built Mazda RX-8. The new car features a 20B triple rotor engine, six speed sequential gearbox and MCA suspension, all wrapped in a large amount of carbon fibre.

F

or new New Zealand Rally Champion, David Holder (pictured below), the Mahindra Goldrush Rally Coromandel ended an astounding run. It was the first event of his career he had finished without standing on the podium.

R

ally Coromandel saw record crowds out spectating on the day, with several spectators getting to some of the more remote spots via helicopter in a service put together by regular competitor, Shannon Chambers, who missed the event after selling his VW Polo.

R

ally Coromandel also saw the final round of the new Group A Challenge, which was taken out

by Matt Adams, son of former national champion Paul. Not only was Paul on hand to see the win, but Matt’s grandfather and children were also on event, completing a four generation support team. Second place went to Simon Bell, with third going to Phil Collins.

Photo: Geoff Ridder

Photo: Geoff Ridder 12 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

N

ew special stages with excellent viewing choices, worldwide live television coverage, greater local support and a more open fight for the FIA World Rally Championship look set to make the 2016 Kennards Hire Rally Australia the best in the event’s 25-year history.

The event on the New South Wales Coffs Coast from November 17-20 will welcome top manufacturer teams from Europe and the best competitors from around Australia to tackle a 315 kilometre course comprising 23 special stages designed to challenge the world’s fastest rally drivers.

Chairman Ben Rainsford said everything was set for another successful event.

“Every year since we came to the Coffs Coast in 2011, Rally Australia has grown in popularity, partner support and organisational and presentation standards. Last year, it generated a $14.3 million boost to the regional economy,” Mr Rainsford said.

“Our new Destination NSW

Super Special Stage – at the Jetty precinct literally alongside Coffs Harbour – other special stage enhancements including the exciting Flooded Gum spectator point on the final stage, and truly spectacular opening and closing ceremonies will all be highlights for our ticket holders.

“WRC TV’s live coverage of the Friday Jetty super special and two passes through Wedding Bells on Sunday, plus its daily wrap shows and news feeds, will showcase the region to a massive audience.”

While most of the competition roads to the north and south of the Coffs Harbour base are unchanged from 2015, organisers have added a second Super Special Stage at Raleigh, a 1.37km sprint at a multi-motorsports facility 20km south of Coffs Harbour on the Pacific Highway.

Adult tickets to the Raleight stage will be just $10 and sold only at the gate.

At nine spectator points across the course, event ticket holders will see stunning up-close action from the world’s fastest rally drivers.

Two-for-one spectator deal Kennards Hire Rally Australia are offering a fantastic “buy one, get one free” deal for tickets to the Super Special Stage of the World Rally Championship round in November.

The exciting new stage will be held on the Coffs Harbour foreshore on the Friday and Saturday night of the event, featuring the WRC’s biggest stars, including Sebastien Ogier, Jari-Matti Latvala and Hayden Paddon.

Tickets are just $30 per person, with a bonus ticket thrown in free of charge. The offer is available from now until November 1, with tickets available from www.ticketek.com.au

SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 13

FIVE MINUTES WITH ....

5

minutes with ...

BRAD MARKOVIC

New Zealand’s fastest lady rally driver is more than a match for her male rivals.

Name: Brad Markovic Age: 38 Marital status: Married to Joanne Children: 2 daughters Alexis (9) and

Amelie (7)

Occupation: Director of Auto One Australia and Franchise owner Auto One Kalamunda Place of birth: Kalamunda, WA Where do you live: Kalamunda, WA Any other hobbies? Golf and Gym Markovic and Macneall on the charge in a round of the WA Championship.

Photo: Gemma Lucas

14 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

RSM: It’s been a tough start to the year.

Has it been more a mental strain on you, or a financial one?

BM: It’s been both. I’m very fortunate to be surrounded and supported by many commercial partners, family and friends, so the decision to acquire a new car as soon as possible to get us to Canberra was an easy decision to make. Unfortunately, I underestimated the impact the fire was to have on my mental state going forward.

The fire in WA must have been even more

It’s been a tough season for the talented WA driver frustrating given that you showed incredible speed early in the event. Is that the case?

That was the biggest disappoint for us as Glenn (Macneall) and myself had worked so hard last year on refining my driving and the car to showcase our speed against Australia’s best. To come away with no car and no result when we were sitting in second place behind Harry (Bates) and in front of Simon (Evans) was the hardest pill to swallow.

Things didn’t go to plan with the new car in Canberra. Did that further knock your confidence, or was it more the car set-up that frustrated you?

With the short turnaround time of three weeks between events, to even get to Canberra was a huge win for us and the team. Unfortunately, the time taken in transporting the car back and forward across the Nullabor meant that we weren’t able to test or run it in a similar specification as our previous one, so the media day was an interesting drive, to say the least.

As for the confidence, unfortunately the very first real rally stage on the Saturday morning in Canberra, Glenn and myself were the first car on the

scene of Craig Brooks’ Subaru fire, who thankfully they were both unhurt, but knocked me around mentally to the degree that I didn’t want to get back in the car at all that day.

Brad Markovic on his way to third place in Heat 1 of Rally SA. (Photos: Peter Whitten)

How important has the influence of Dean Herridge and the Maximum Motorsport team been this season, and in what ways have they helped you get through it?

Dean and I have been best mates for nearly 20 years and with his father, Rob, I feel part of the family. So their influence to my rallying, and especially the friendship and commercial support this year, has been huge, especially since the fire. Just being able to talk about what’s been on mind and not bottle up the emotions has kept me motivated to get back out there.

Similarly, how big an influence has Glenn Macneall been on your rallying, and your driving in particular?

Glenn, without a doubt, would have to be the biggest change and influence to my driving and increase of speed over the last few years. His passion and experience, both in and out of the car, has given me confidence to compete at a level I didn’t believe I could ever achieve. I just wish I’d had the opportunity to have him in the car 15 years ago when I was younger.

There’s been plenty of discussion on whether the ARC should be only for modern cars, or for older cars like it is this year.

What are your thoughts?

Commercially I understand people’s views on a field of modern cars, and my commercial partners want to see me in a modern car, but realistically I think

$

99

inc Postage

we need to create a championship that attracts the most competitors in the short to medium term. If that means the older cars enable the championship to continue and grow, that’s the outcome we should be trying to achieve.

What’s your rallying goal over the next three years?

doing the whole ARC, but from a business perspective I would see the strategic/business plan requiring consistency for technical regulations for the next five years, looking for ways to increase the content of our social media platforms, and maintaining our competitor numbers.

Firstly, to keep enjoying it. This year was all about learning the events for a larger attack on the 2017 championship, and I would love to do some events in New Zealand.

What are three key points that the ARC needs to concentrate on?

This is my first year

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C L I C K H E R E T O P U R C H A S E CAMSSHOP SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 15

FIVE MINUTES WITH ...

5

minutes with ...

JOHN KENNARD

The 2016 season has been the best yet for the WRC’s oldest co-driver

By PETER WHITTEN

You’re a resident of Finland when you’re in Europe. Why is this, and do you see your future in Finland or in New Zealand once you’re out of the WRC?

My wife, Satu, is a Finn and we have a “summer” cottage there, about 1.5 hours north of Jyväskylä, where WRC Rally Finland is based.

As the cottage is also good enough to stay in during winter, it’s a natural location to base myself, rather than the long haul back and forth to NZ all the time.

Long term I’m sure I’ll end up back in NZ, as both Satu and I consider it home and our wine business is based in Marlborough.

You spent some time with the Subaru World Rally Team in the 90s. What did that involve, and did that benefit you once you became a WRC regular?

I was logistics co-ordinator, and occasional team manager, for SWRT from the mid 90s, then, just before the millennium, when WRC changed to central service and some of the challenge of the job disappeared, I swapped over to do the same job for the customer side of Prodrive, mainly on the French and Polish championships.

In the beginning much of the job involved not only getting people, vehicles and parts to and from events, 16 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

“(Hayden) had a calm, analytical approach, and a level of skill that reminded me of some champions I’d already worked with.” but also service planning to get vans and/or trucks to service areas after every few stages, on rallies with up to 40 stages, in places like the French Alps, Corsica and even in Kenya, for Safari Rally.

It was often like a puzzle to make it all work, and, with much less in the way of communications, one you had to get right from the start, as there was little opportunity to put it right once things were underway.

Having been in this role, I had a great understanding of both how WRC worked, the places and the people, which I think was a help in finding Hayden’s path into it all.

When Hayden first approached you to codrive for him, did it take some convincing to get you in the seat?

During my time at Prodrive I worked with some young customer drivers, usually from wealthy backgrounds, who weren’t the easiest people to deal with,

so I was a bit reticent. But as soon as we got in the car together I realised he was the polar opposite, very grounded and mature, with a huge passion to reach his ultimate goal, WRC champion.

He also had a calm, analytical approach, and a level of skill, even then, that reminded me of some champions I’d already worked with, and together it all suggested he could go a long way.

What’s been the most noticeable improvement in Hayden’s driving in 2016, and do you think there’s still more speed to come?

I don’t think there’s been one big improvement. When you’re looking for those last fractions of a second it’s always about looking at the many things you need to go that quick, and improving each and every one if you can.

How much of an improvement has the “New Generation” i20 been this year?

The New Generation i20 WRC has been a great step forward in many areas, but especially the engine.

Hayden also felt quite at home in the car from our first test, so I think this has also been a plus for us.

On gravel, the VWs run a lot lower to the ground than the Hyundais. Does this give the VWs an advantage, and why don’t the team run your i20s that low?

It’s extremely hard to compare the New Generation i20WRC with the other cars, as it’s the only one we drive, and each of the other cars has subtle differences in how they’re set up and work the best.

You are the oldest winner of a WRC event, which is a great achievement. Are you still improving as a co-driver, and if so, how?

Thanks. I’m not sure about improving, but I think I still learn something on most rallies, and that accumulated knowledge certainly helps.

Have you ridden in the 2017 car, and can you tell us what it’s like compared to the current car?

We’re into the test programme with the 2017 car now, which, along with pre event tests and rallies, makes life quite busy.

It’s always good fun developing something new, and I think people will be impressed with the cars when they see them on the stages next year.

Is 2017 a realistic title opportunity for Hayden and yourself, or do you think you still need another year of experience and improvement to being a real threat?

While it would be great to say it was a realistic goal, I think it’ll be a case of starting it as a dress rehearsal year and seeing how things develop.

A championship almost always requires a mix of speed, skill, experience and luck, so approaching

it this way allows for a season where by being right there, anything might happen if the dice fall the right way.

RALLYCROSS SUCCESS AT RALEIGH

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he growing popularity of rallycross was on show again recently when Raleigh International Raceway hosted 30 cars in round three of the Raleigh RallyX Series.

Entrants from as far as Queensland and Victoria descended upon Raleigh (20 minutes south west of Coffs Harbour) for an epic day of rallycross action.

Cars were separated into three classifications: Rallycross 1 vehicles (autocross automobiles) in Restricted and Unrestricted classes, and Rallycross 2 (rally-bred machines).

The 1.1km track comprises 50% tarmac and 50% dirt/ gravel, and participants had heats of four laps and had to include a “Joker” lap (a slow section of the course) on at least one of the four laps.

The Raleigh event attracted all types of makes and models.

(Photo: Bruce Thomas)

The heavy hitters of Rallycross 2 included the Will Orders, Justin Dowel, Sean Bolger and Michael Coyne.

Rallycross 1 consisted of a field of 26 that ranged from Excels, Charades and Mirage hatches to V6 and V8 Falcons and Commodores. Winners were: Rallycross 1 Restricted – Kerry Taylor - Commodore Rallycross 1 Unrestricted – John Kelly - Mitsubishi FTO Rallycross 2 – Will Orders – Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8 SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 17

NEWS@RALLYSPORTMAG.COM.AU

APRIL FOR OTAGO RALLY

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he Otago Rally will be the first round of the 2017 New Zealand Rally Championship, and will again incorporate the hugely popular Otago Classic Rally.

To be held from April 7 to 9, the rally will be centred around the South Island city of Dunedin, with a ceremonial start on Friday evening, before competitive stages on Saturday and Sunday.

The date is conditional on the announcement of the World and AsiaPacific Rally Championship dates, but presently fits well with the proposed 2017 NZ Championship calendar.

“Route planning is well underway and will incorporate a combination of forestry and the fast flowing public roads that the Otago Rally is renowned for,” Clerk of Course, Norman Oakley, said.

“Classic stages such as Waipori Gorge, Whare Flat and Kuri Bush are certain to be included.”

The 2017 New Zealand Rally Championship looks set to be the most competitive for many years, with a host of current and new AP4 cars set to contest next April’s Otago Rally.

A strong field of competitors is also expected in the Otago Classic Rally, including a number of Australians, and the regular guest appearance of a star driver from the northern hemisphere.

In 2016, Estonia’s Markko Martin blitzed the field in the Classics, while Hyundai WRC star, Hayden Paddon, performed similar heroics in the NZRC.

On the mend after big shunt V ictorian Rally Championship competitors, Viv Dilkes-Frayne and Tracey Dewhurst, are on the road to recovery after a serious crash in the recent Pyrenees Rush Rally in the Victorian goldfields.

Dilkes-Frayne suffered a fractured pelvis when the car hit a tree head-

on at high speed, while Dewhurst also received a fractured pelvis and a broken coccyx.

The RallySafe unit in the car recorded the Subaru’s impact with a tree at 8g after the car got light on a crest, hit a stump with a rear wheel and was speared into the tree.

CLASSIC ADELAIDE OFFER TOURIST TROPHY

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he Classic Adelaide Rally returns with 21 stages through the Adelaide Hills and surrounds from November 17-19.

With a focus on pre-1986 model vehicles vying for outright and handicap honours, the field is large and diverse.

This year, organisers are offering up a “Tourist Trophy” for interstate entries. The fastest visitor to the state will receive a commemorative trophy and $3495 credit towards a future entry in the event.

“We have seen a number of gravel rally cars converted to tarmac for this event that celebrates classic rallying as the premium category,” event spokesman, Tim Possingham, said.

“The tight course we have this year has boosted entries from lower powered, but better handling cars, and it has evened up the playing field a lot.

“It’s great to see such a mix of entries including Renault Alpines, Lotus Cortinas, Cosworth Escorts and a heap more.

Entries close soon, with further information available from www.classicadelaide.com.au

18 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

LIGHTFORCE RALLY SA - ARC 4

WIDE

Simon Evans pushing hard on day one of Lightforce Rally SA.

OPEN

PHOTOS: Peter Whitten, Luke Whitten

Six points separate top three in title fight Story: LUKE WHITTEN

L

ightforce Rally SA blew the championship wide open and now not one, not two, but three drivers will be a part of a thrilling battle in the final round on the beautiful Coffs Coast.

Simon Evans, Molly Taylor and Harry Bates left the Barossa Valley with just six points separating them.

PRE EVENT

The pre-event ride day and shakedown was cancelled on Thursday night due to heavy rain, leaving crews to twiddle thumbs and wander amongst themselves, waiting for a decision on a revised route from the rally organisers.

Simon Evans, who relinquished his championship lead to Harry Bates last time out in Queensland, was sporting a repaired and repainted Subaru. The light blue colour of the paint was visible if you looked hard enough, but the matte black vinyl covering it was the same as in previous events.

Championship leader, Harry Bates, was looking for a consistent weekend.

With no major changes to the car since the last round, he was no doubt aiming to keep ticking boxes on the road to the championship title.

ARC newcomer, Arron Windus, fresh off his win in a Victorian Rally Championship round was, admittedly, like all the drivers, rueing the cancelled shakedown.

“I’m not worried about the result this weekend,” he said before the event. “It’s all about learning and getting experience.”

Early on the Friday, Waterholes was the first stage to be cancelled (how ironic). This was followed by QH, Buddys and Gum Flat, which were all left out of the route.

It was looking like another shortened event like the previous round in Queensland, but rally organisers swiftly scheduled the repeat of three shire road stages, including the ‘driver’s favourite’ Goldfields.

HEAT ONE

Rally winner Brendan Reeves was in top form.

The first loop of stages of the morning was in fact, not a loop at

Weather fails to dampen SA spirits

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espite mother nature throwing everything it could, Lightforce Rally SA was a resounding success, despite many difficulties in the lead up to the event.

Over two inches of rain fell in the Mount Crawford region throughout Thursday and Friday, causing headaches for Clerk of Course, Ivar Stanelis, and his experienced team.

However, rather than simply cancel stages, the organising team swiftly put in place a brand new itinerary, only losing 20km of distance in the process.

The cancelled stages were to an extent, replaced, and it was business as usual.

Four stages, Waterholes, QH, Gum Flat and the popular Buddys, were cancelled, but three longer shire road stages were all run a second time.

This provided value for competitors, spectators and media, who perhaps thought the event was in serious doubt early on Friday morning.

SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 19

LIGHTFORCE RALLY SA - ARC 4

“On a fast left hand bend, his Corolla left the road at 150km/h.

Bates and McCarthy were fortunately okay.” all. A short blast through the short, 6.37km of Cromer proved rather straightforward.

Brendan Reeves set the early pace by 2.2 seconds from Evans. Mark Pedder completed the stage a promising third quickest in his fully rebuilt Peugeot 208 Maxi.

The Goldfields stage, set northwest of the Mount Pleasant base, is a driver’s favourite, but was dominated by Brendan Reeves. This took his tally to three stage wins out of three, and a 21 second lead was quickly built.

Molly Taylor was a surprising eighth quickest in SS1, but a faulty wire caused no anti-lag on her Subaru, dropping the car’s power. This was easily fixed by the crew after the stage.

A kangaroo attempted to derail Simon Evans’ stage two, but that, coupled with a spin on the last corner of the stage, meant he dropped to third, behind Harry Bates.

“We have major rear brake lock up, which is stalling the engine,” Evans lamented.

Mark Pedder, although not troubled through the first lot of stages, found the roads slippery but was in fifth place, behind the debuting Arron Windus, who had survived a big spin on the first run through Goldfields.

Taylor had recovered somewhat to be sixth, just clear of Tasmanian Eddie Maguire in a Lancer Evo 9, and WA’s Brad Markovic.

In the first afternoon stage, disaster struck for the championship leader, Harry Bates. On a fast left hand bend,

Bates was third before his accident on day one.

Harry Bates’ Corolla took a big hit.

his Corolla left the road at 150km/h.

Bates and co-driver John McCarthy were fortunately okay, but their car was in desperate need of repair, and perhaps requiring a miracle to make it to the start of heat two.

“We took a slight cut across the grass and it was a lot slipperier than it had been in recce,” Bates explained.

“The car slid to the outside of the road and for a second I thought I had it under control. But it hit the trees, ripping a front wheel off and doing significant damage.”

With the stage temporarily stopped, Bates’ crew were able to extract the car from the stage (see separate story) and trailer it back to the service park, where a 12-hour rebuild got underway.

Fixing a brake bias issue (by turning the brake bias adjuster!) from earlier in the day, and driving a little smoother, meant Simon Evans netted a stage win on ‘Crawford’. He was now building momentum and was looking forward to the night stages.

An exhaust leak was Reeves’ only dilemma as he led heading into the night.

Arron Windus had started the event well and was third outright at one stage, but four spins in the most recent two stages were not ideal for the 20 year-old.

“We’re just trying a bit too hard. We Brendan Reeves has now won three events in a row.

20 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

Miss Consistent. Molly Taylor drove superbly once again.

need to adapt to the conditions better,” he said.

A broken driveshaft then meant he lost time, and dropped to fifth for the heat.

Mark Pedder’s cruel run of bad luck continued as well, with his Peugeot blowing an engine and cutting his rally short.

The night stages threw up plenty of dramas. Running first on the road, Evans was eager to make use of his considerable night rallying experience, and while he set a strong fastest time on the first of the two stages, it came at

Leading SA competitor, James Rodda was fourth in Heat One.

“It’s ridiculous. There were thousands of kangaroos out there and we were lucky to only hit one.” a cost.

Another altercation with a kangaroo just 300 metres from the end of the first night stage did considerable damage to the Subaru, including smashing his

driving lights and holing the radiator.

He limped through the final stage, but dropped a whopping 13m44s to Reeves, and eventually finished the heat seventh (although luckily, fourth of the ARC pointscorers).

“It was ridiculous,” Evans fumed back at service. “There were thousands of kangaroos out there and we were lucky to only hit one. It’s ruined our day, and possibly our championship!”

Reeves hit trouble too, when a water splash on the Telephone Road stage destroyed his Subaru’s air cleaner. The team had a spare, but the rally leader had to make do with a low on power engine for the remaining night stage.

His exhaust leak had also worsened, with the heat build up melting the front sway bar mounts.

However, Reeves would not relinquish his lead, taking the heat one honours by over two minutes after a drama filled day.

The consistent Taylor steered her way through all the drama to finish the day in second place (and the top ARC pointscorer), while Brad Markovic grabbed his best result of the season so far, taking third place in his Subaru, just two seconds behind the factory WRX. James Rodda put in a great drive to be fourth outright and the top South Australian home in his Lancer Evo 9, with Windus rounding out the top five.

SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 21

LIGHTFORCE RALLY SA - ARC 4 Brad Markovic on his way to third place in Heat One.

Championship standings after round 4 of 5: 1. Simon Evans 251 2. Molly Taylor 246 3. Harry Bates 245 4. Tom Wilde 175 5. Chris Higgs 172 6. Brad Markovic 113

Watch the highlights HERE * Heat 1 * Heat 2 Eddie Maguire’s great run came to an end on the final stage when he slid off the road into a tree stump, damaging his Lancer’s front suspension.

In the classics, Mal Keough’s Quattro was a clear winner over Tony Quinn’s BMW. After the previous days of rain, crews were happy that day one of the event had proven to be fine, albeit it overcast.

With better weather forecast for heat two, there was plenty to be excited about.

HEAT TWO

Molly Taylor started heat two, much to her surprise, as the ARC championship leader.

“It’s exciting for us, but it doesn’t change our approach in any way,” she said. “Consistency is our strength, and we just need to keep scoring points.”

Harry Bates, who lost his championship lead to Taylor, had his Corolla looking brand new again after a tremendous effort by the Neal Bates Motorsport mechanics overnight.

The car was driven into Parc Ferme at 3.00am, and Harry was yet to drive the car. His father, Neal, had driven the car up the road and back after the repair, and everyone had their fingers crossed that it was back in one piece.

It was a slow stage one for Bates, but he admitted it was good to get back on the horse after the biggest accident of his short career.

“I can’t thank the team enough,” he said. “It was my error, and I’m so thankful that the team were able to get 22 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

the car finished in time. The drinks are on me!”

Windus and Markovic, both showing pace throughout the weekend, came unstuck on the same corner of Trial Hill, the day’s second stage.

Windus rolled gently while trying to avoid the tree that Markovic eventually hit. Neither car was badly damaged, and while Markovic missed a couple of stages and rejoined later in the day, Windus’ car had ended on its roof, so the team were unwillingly to risk damaging the engine by restarting it.

Reeves had started day two were he left off on day one, and after the opening two stages his lead was already out to 21.6 seconds and victory

looked his. Evans, meanwhile, was letting Reeves run his own rally and was determined to finish with a good haul of points, knowing that he only needed to keep an eye on the times of Bates and Taylor.

Bates had settled into third place, ahead of Taylor and Maguire, but the pretty BMW M3 of Tony Quinn had retired with driveshaft failure.

With the sun shining brightly, the status quo remained on the repeat runs of Corryton Park and Trial Hill, and nobody appeared to be willing to risk anything.

The final two stages, Telephone Road and Crawford, were run for the third time each, and while the roads had cut Crowd favourite, Mal Keough, took the classics victory.

Night rallying made a welcome ARC return, with Eddie Maguire lighting up the night sky.

Removal of Bates’ Corolla explained ...

C

up somewhat, they held up remarkably the fast SA roads as some of their rivals, well. but they did a stellar job.

In the end it was Brendan Reeves “Rally Australia is the pinnacle event and Rhianon Gelsomino who took a in the championship, and to be second convincing 27.2 second win in heat two, in the series heading into the event securing their third win in succession, gives us a huge boost,” Taylor said. across two countries.

“It may be two months away, but “Everything has gone perfectly and we we’re already looking forward to the challenge.” couldn’t be happier,” Reeves said.

Eddie Maguire’s return to gravel “The fast shire roads really suit my rallying ended successfully with fifth driving style and the car, so when the place for the day, and gave him much organisers had to re-route the event needed experience heading towards and include more shire roads, I was Rally Australia. He admitted that his really happy! driving needed to be more aggressive “The rally organisers should be than it is on tarmac, but he enjoyed the congratulated for their efforts in challenge. providing a fantastic event, despite Chris Higgs and stand-in co-driver, all the difficulties they had with the Steve Glenney, took sixth place in their weather. We had a ball,” he added.

Subaru, ahead of Rodda (who was Evans and Ben Searcy were thrilled delayed by a puncture), Adam Kaplan in as well, having a trouble-free day that a Mazda RX7, and Brad Markovic in his ended with them in second place, and with a five point lead in the ARC heading repaired Subaru.

Mal Keough and ‘Pip’ Bennett once into the final round. again took the classics victory in their “Being this close going into the final Audi Quattro S1 replica. round wasn’t exactly in my plans, but The championship now concludes we’ll take it and move on to an exciting with the running of Kennards Hire Rally Rally Australia,” he said.

Australia, to be held on the Coffs Coast Third place for Harry Bates and John of NSW from November 18 to 20.

McCarthy was a brilliant result, not only for the duo, Mark Pedder’s horror but for their team who run of back luck repaired a car that ran continued. faultlessly over the final day’s stages. They are just six points behind Evans in the title race, and still well in the running.

For the fourth straight rally, Molly Taylor and Bill Hayes finished without a scratch on the car, and truly deserve their second place in the ARC. The Group N WRX may not have been as well suited to

laims that Harry Bates’ team received special dispensation from the organisers have been refuted by Lightforce Rally SA, after Bates crashed on day one of the event.

After the Corolla of Bates and John McCarthy slid off the road and hit trees at around 150km/h, the “Telephone Road” stage was stopped for considerable time.

The location of the car was assessed by event officials, and the Neal Bates Motorsport crew were then allowed to extricate the car from the forest before the stage was restarted.

On a Facebook post, Lightforce Rally SA clarified the situation as follows: - Car 4 went off on Telephone Road during Heat One - Medical Intervention Vehicles and Recovery vehicles were sent into the stage to assess and provide medical attention - Based on reports and photos from the stage coupled with extensive knowledge of the road involved, the Clerk of Course made the decision that the car was in an unsafe position.

- The only way to recover the vehicle to a safe position was to extract it from the stage, and as the car had significant damage including missing wheels this took longer than originally anticipated.

- Car 4 did not finish Heat One, so received no championship points.

- The Kumho Tyre Australian Rally Championship do not run events on the ground - this is down to the local organising team, who made an impartial assessment based on all the facts.

- Car 4 was able to complete repairs and book in before their 4am deadline.

Regards, Lightforce Rally SA

SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 23

COROMANDEL RALLY - NZRC 5

GOLDRUSH Aussie duo rob Kiwis of victory in final round Story: BLAIR BARTELS Photos: GEOFF RIDDER

24 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

Watch the highlights HERE SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 25

COROMANDEL RALLY - NZRC 5 Carl Davies pushing hard in his pretty Subaru WRX STI.

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he final round of the Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship saw teams head to the holiday town of Whitianga for the Mahindra Goldrush Rally Coromandel, with 120 kilometres of twisting and demanding roads on offer.

Although the overall title had been well and truly wrapped up by David Holder and Jason Farmer, a large group of cars were in contention for the runner-up spot in the championship, while the Gull Rally Challenge two and four-wheel drive classes, open twowheel drive, Rookie and Junior titles were still all up for grabs.

As well as this, there were several surprise one-off entries for the event, including three-time New Zealand champion, Neil Allport, in his Ford Escort RS1600, and Australian gun Brendan Reeves, jumping behind the wheel of Force Motorsport’s first generation Mazda 2 AP4+ car, run over the past three seasons by Andrew Hawkeswood.

However, the drama started early when Emma Gilmour, who came into the event second in the championship, was forced to withdraw prior to the start when her new engine started throwing water out in fairly severe quantities.

Fears of dust saw the top five (reduced to four) start order draw see no change to the running order, with Holder leading away Graham Featherstone, Sloan Cox and Andrew Hawkeswood.

Outgoing champion Ben Hunt, Matt Summerfield, Reeves, Dylan Turner, Lance Williams and Phil Campbell rounded out the top 10 on the road.

In the end, fears of dust were alleviated when overnight rain fell, just enough to dampen the dust, but still leaving a layer of gravel on top for the leaders to sweep away.

The opening stage, unchanged over the past three years on the outskirts of town, got underway with overcast

26 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

“Reeves immediately set the pace, 3.4 seconds ahead of Hawkeswood, with Glenn Inkster third fastest.” and threatening conditions overhead.

Straight away the stage threw up some surprises, with Holder struggling to eighth fastest, Featherstone 11th, and Cox getting accustomed to a change in tyres, coming in fifth fastest.

Reeves immediately set the pace, 3.4 seconds ahead of Hawkeswood, with 12th seed Glenn Inkster third fastest, despite a misfire developing late in the stage.

Summerfield was fastest of the non-AP4 cars in fourth, ahead of Cox and Turner. Grant Blackberry was the fastest of the Gull Rally Challenge cars in seventh, ahead of Holder, Kingsley Jones and Hunt, who was struggling with an electrical problem that left him down on boost.

A long tour took teams to a new stage

Andrew Hawkeswood in the second generation Mazda 2 AP4.

at the top of the Coromandel Peninsula, Port Charles. At 16.5km, it proved a real opportunity for someone to make a break.

It was Reeves that took that opportunity, 8.6 seconds quicker than Summerfield, who moved up to third, and Turner, who moved into fourth place. Hawkeswood’s fifth fastest time kept him in the runner-up spot.

Blackberry was on a charge, fourth fastest in the Evo 6, with Robson chasing him hard for class honours, sixth fastest and only 4.2 seconds behind his rival.

Tony Gosling was a man on a mission in the Historics early on, climbing into 14th outright to take the class lead after stage two, having taken more than 30 seconds out of normal class pace setter Marcus van Klink.

John Silcock was also giving van Klink a hard time, beating him through stage two, and eight seconds clear of Jeff Judd, who he was battling with for second in the historic championship, the pair having entered the event level on points.

The high horsepower open two-wheel drive cars were struggling with the abrasive nature of the road surface,

with Anthony Jones managing to reduce a pair of rear tyres to canvas across the opening three stages. Despite that, his Escort led the class from Dave Strong, who needed only to finish to secure the title.

However, Strong was coming under more pressure from rookie Dylan Thomson, who was only 15 seconds behind and well clear of Jack Williamson in fourth.

Reeves continued his domination of the opening loop of stages with a five second win on stage three, heading home a surprised Blackberry, who continued his storming drive with a second fastest time to move into the top five.

Turner signaled his intent with third fastest, ahead of Summerfield and a frustrated Clint Cunningham, whose top five time was despite a misfire holding him back.

Sixth fastest meant Hawkeswood stayed ahead of Summerfield for second, 23.6 seconds behind Reeves

Sloan Cox secured second in the 2016 NZRC in Coromandel.

a worrying turn with an overheating engine, ironically an issue that dogged him on this event last year (to the point where later in the day, he would stop and take water from the same spots as the year before) was starting to cause a few concerns.

Not as many as the Ben Hunt team, however, who were unable to sort the

Jeff Judd was as spectacular as always in his Escort.

and only a tenth of a second ahead of Summerfield, with Turner lurking less than six seconds behind.

As teams headed for service, weather was becoming a big talking point and the dark clouds lurking ensured several different opinions would show in tyre choice.

With the first pass through the longest stage of the rally, the 23 kilometre Tapu-Coroglen stage, as well as a repeat run through the 309 road used as stage three, some compromise was inevitable, but the weather factor was throwing in a further unwanted complication.

On top of tyre choices, there were plenty of dramas for teams to work with. Inkster, who was on the pace in stage one, was forced to replace a broken spark plug to fix his misfire, while Lance Williams’ morning, that began with a puncture, was taking

cause of the power loss and made the difficult decision to retire rather than risk the car.

Kiwi hopes continued to dwindle as

Reeves took his fourth stage win in a row as the rain began to fall, although an almighty effort from Inkster saw him only three seconds behind over the 23km, despite a broken gear display, causing difficulty in judging speed with the sequential gearbox in the Skoda.

Kingsley Jones showed Blackberry was not the only Gull Challenge competitor in a hurry with the third fastest time, just ahead of Summerfield and Turner, both of whom leapfrogged Hawkeswood in the stage, as did Blackberry and Inkster, after a tyre choice went horribly wrong on the Mazda and he could only set the 14th fastest time.

With some suspension changes at service, Holder increased his pace slightly to seventh fastest in stage four, but showed why he is the national champion in stage five, claiming the stage win and the first driver to take a stage win off Reeves.

The stage win moved Holder up three positions to seventh place and into what was becoming an intense battle for the top five, with 3.1 seconds separating fifth to seventh.

Summerfield moved himself into a solid second place with the second fastest time, while a wound up Hawkeswood recovered some of the time lost with the third fastest time, Dylan Turner was impressive once again in his Lancer.

SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 27

COROMANDEL RALLY - NZRC 5 Queenslander Bruce Fullerton contested the event in a Mitsubishi Starion.

which took him past Inkster to fifth.

Turner and Blackberry were equal fourth fastest, leaving Turner with the same 7.1 second margin over Blackberry in the fight for the final podium spot.

As one shower passed, another threatened while teams returned to the service park before repeating the previous two stages. Once again Reeves headed home Inkster through Tapu Coroglen, this time just over eight seconds separating the pair, while Graham Featherstone finally was able to show the speed that had him as a favourite for second in the championship prior to the round, with the third fastest time. He edged out Turner and Cox, who had made major tyre changes in an effort to rekindle his fight for the championship runner-up spot.

Once again the big loser on the stage was Hawkeswood, who again missed out on picking the right tyres in the service park and slipped back to seventh, behind Holder.

The third and final run through the 309 road stage was another Reeves benefit, putting the victory well beyond doubt with a margin of 47.6 seconds with only three stages remaining, two of which were a short tarmac publicity stage.

Featherstone once again showed what might have been with a time only 0.4 of a second off the Australian’s pace. Summerfield’s third fastest time made his second place look increasingly comfortable, while Turner held third, just over 10 seconds ahead of Inkster, who was now under no pressure from behind after Blackberry spun and found himself stuck in a ditch. Although he did no damage, he was unable to regain the road.

Hawkeswood moved back into fifth after a spin from Holder, who now had Featherstone only 2.4 seconds off his 28 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

tail, and Kingsley Jones moved into the Gull Rally Challenge lead following Blackberry’s demise and an oil leak for Robson, that meant he was now keeping an eye on third placed Jono Walker, who was having his best run of the season.

Gosling continued to dominate the Historics and would continue on to take a well-deserved victory, as well as claiming top two-wheel drive overall for the event, and the power stage for extra bragging rights Graham and bonus points.

two-wheel drive and with it, victory for the year over an absent Greg Murphy.

Other championship classes saw Max Bayley take out FIA two-wheel drive (without contesting the finale), Carl Davies come home for the Rookie title and Sloan Cox become Junior Champion for the second time.

With only one gravel stage remaining, the major placings and the minor money were fairly sorted, but with a tight battle for the championship runner-up spot behind Holder, the power stage and the bonus points would wind up crucial.

Hawkeswood blasted through the stage to claim the stage win and the big haul of points, but it was a second fastest time for Sloan Cox that sealed him second in the championship, only one point ahead of Hawkeswood.

Turner set the third fastest time and that meant he would take fifth in the championship, just behind Featherstone.

Inkster complimented his fourth overall with fourth in power stage to claim two bonus points. But a single bonus point for fifth fastest would hardly have mattered to Reeves, who claimed a magnificent victory, the first for Mazda in the NZRC in 23 years and

Featherstone.

Second place for Silcock secured him second in the championship behind van Klink, who retired from Coromandel with an alternator failure, while Judd’s third place meant he took third for the year.

Anthony Jones took his third round win of the year in his Escort, but second place was enough for Dave Strong to take the Open twowheel drive championship for the year in his Honda Civic.

Third in the class, and a stage win, was enough for Dylan Thomson to be awarded the Dunlop Drive of the Rally and the free set of Dunlops that go with it, while Jack Williamson rounded out a tough season with a solid fourth place.

The Gull Rally Challenge on the day and for the year would go the way of Kingsley Jones, ahead of Lee Robson, while Jono Walker’s third place on the day won him the Gull Rally Scholarship prize of a drum of Gull Force Pro E85 liquid horsepower, but it wasn’t enough to stop Warwick Redfern taking third for the series.

Jeff Torkington took the round win for

by a margin of 23.6 seconds.

Summerfield was relieved to round out a tough season with second place, while Turner continued his run of podium finishes this season, now up to three from three starts, with another third - not bad considering he had never had an NZRC podium at the start of the season.

Inkster, Hawkeswood, Holder, Cox, Featherstone, Kingsley Jones and Robson rounded out the top 10, narrowly edging out the frustrated Cunningham and Phil Campbell.

Jono Walker, Carl Davies and series sponsor, Brian Green, rounded out the top 15 on an event that started with the highest numbers of the season, and ironically offered up the least DNFs after a crazy season of rallying.

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SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 29

FAMOUS STAGES: BUNNINGS 1996

THE BIG WET AT BUNNINGS 30 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

S

The Bunnings watersplash became a WRC car park at Rally Australia in 1996.

(Photo: Martin Holmes)

Heavy rain at Rally Australia in 1996 saw the stages waterlogged and the famous Bunnings watercrossing flooded to the brim as the WRC stars of the day were stopped in their tracks.

Story : PETER WHITTEN

SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 31

B

THE BIG WET

ack in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the newest event on the World Rally Championship calendar quickly established itself as an innovator, and set standards that perhaps have never been bettered since.

Rally Australia burst on to the WRC scene in 1989, and over the coming years the Langley Park Super Special Stage and the stages in the Bunnings forest complex, south of Perth, became legendary the world over. We’ll look closely at Langley Park some other time, but for a real rally fan, spectating simply didn’t get any better than a day at ‘Bunnings’.

The complex featured an area large enough to ‘house’ the entire service park, with three stages starting and finishing all within easy walking distance.

By walking less than a kilometre, rally fans could watch high-speed corners, low-speed corners, big jumps and a spectacular water crossing in the surrounds of a natural amphitheatre that was perfect for spectators. The area provided a full day of rally viewing, in one location.

There’s probably not a rally fan who hasn’t seen spectacular images of Colin McRae launching his Subaru Impreza over the two big Bunnings jumps, before sliding sideways through the water splash and up the hill to the finish line. Such images are now as iconic as 32 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

cars sliding their way over Monte Carlo’s Col de Turini, or flying over Finland’s Ouninpohja jumps.

Some of the most memorable Bunnings images come from 1996, with heavy rain on the day of the rally swelling the water crossing to a level higher than it had ever been before. As spectators arrived and took their vantage points, the water level was literally rising before their very eyes and the anticipation that something special was about to happen gained momentum.

As a treat for spectators that year, touring car legends Peter Brock and Dick Johnson were given a Commodore and a Falcon to drive through the famous Bunnings stage before the rally cars, helping to get the crowds ready for the real action when the WRC stars hit the stage.

While Johnson managed to cross the ford in his Ford, Brock’s Holden was left stranded, much to the delight of the hundreds of onlookers. The volunteer marshals weren’t as impressed, though, because they were forced to wade into the swollen creek to push Brock and his Commodore onto drier ground.

But once the real action started, things really got interesting. While

Tommi Makinen made it through unscathed, Colin McRae wasn’t so lucky, and the sight of his father, Jimmy, knee deep in water as he pushed the stricken Subaru out of the crossing is one that is etched in many memories.

When Carlos Sainz’s Ford Escort ground to a halt, co-driver Luis Moya waded across the water (with no regard

Photos: Stuart Bowes, Martin Holmes, Peter Whitten

FAMOUS STAGES: BUNNINGS 1996

“Such images are now as iconic as cars on Monte Carlo’s Col de Turini or flying over Finland’s Ouninpohja jumps.” for his expensive overalls) to warn fellow competitors that the water was too deep to traverse.

From then on there was complete chaos. The road immediately after the crossing resembled a car park for dead WRC cars, while those drivers who didn’t dare to chance their luck parked their cars on the entry to the ford, wondering what to do next.

The stage was (literally) awash with cars, drivers, co-drivers, team managers, mechanics and photographers as everyone tried to make sense of the situation. Bewildered spectators could only watch on, wondering what to make of it, and what would happen next. For those of us who were there, wandering among the cars, it was something quite surreal, and something that, surely, we’ll never witness again.

Peter Brock’s Commodore was stuck in the ‘ford’ prior to the WRC cars arrving.

Our event report from November 1996 included the following explanation:

“McRae once again had a bad day, forever choosing the wrong tyres for the conditions which had turned nasty, with constantly falling rain and the ground very soft.

The rainfall did nothing to help the marshals at the Bunnings forest complex, who worried about the height of the water at the famous ford, which two different stages were to use.

The excitement came at the first of the water crossings. Makinen, winner of this year’s Safari, could see the risks and took to the water remarkably gently, and came through to the other side under his own power.

Then came Sainz with more speed and stopped, having to be pushed to the other side with a dead engine. Then the same for Eriksson and McRae, but the Scot then restarted the engine and drove out past the others to the end of the stage.

News travelled fast, and suddenly there was chaos at the scene. Mindful this was a no-service zone, engineers ran down and gave instructions to the drivers as to what they must do.

Thiry removed the plugs and the starter motor turned the engine so that water spurted spectacularly out of the plughole, while Sainz and Eriksson could

The stage was stopped and cars returned back up the stage to the service park.

SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 33

FAMOUS STAGES: BUNNINGS 1996

“Stewards argued he was trying to block the track deliberately.”

A distraught Carlos Sainz after his Escort’s engine stopped in the ford.

All hands on deck. David Richards and Carlos Sainz (above) push Eriksson’s Subaru, while Jimmy McRae lends a hand to son, Colin.

only glumly wonder if their engines had been wrecked.

Prodrive chief, David Richards, tried to push Eriksson’s car, but it became jammed across the track and FIA stewards argued that he was trying to block the track deliberately!

Sainz’s co-driver, Luis Moya, stood at the water’s edge and waved other drivers down to dissuade them from trying to cross the water, while team managers stood amidst the crowds in the middle of the track giving their opinions in television interviews!

It was a most amazing scene. Sainz was walking round, hand on his head, looking forever like a man who had just witnessed the end of his championship aspirations – which it could well have been.

The stage was duly stopped, and then came the problem of how to extricate the drivers waiting to cross the water, because the obvious alternative route would have taken them along the next special stage.

The organisers sent breakdown trucks to pull the stranded cars up to the service area. First decision was how to rearrange the rally. Second was for the mechanics to see whether there had been serious engine damage, thirdly (which could wait until later in the day), was how to handle the stage results, and what to do about competitors that were towed away.

Tommi Makinen explained: “I knew that the engine inlet air came from the top of the engine compartment, so I had to make sure that the bonnet did not get covered by the water. We also knew exactly how bad it was because both our gravel note cars broke their engines trying to cross the water.”

In the end, all the stricken cars were able to restart, with some having their turbochargers changed as a precaution.”

MUST WATCH ➜ All the action from the Bunnings stage in 1996.

34 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

FEATURE: SAAB 99EMS Story : TOM SMITH

A LITTLE BIT OF SWEDEN Ross Perry’s Saab 99EMS is a perfect example of a classic rally car.

Q

ueensland competitor, Ross Perry, has been around for quite a few years and might be best remembered by some as co-driver for Ian Reddiex back in the early nineties when the crew ran the Maxim Motors Peugeot 205 GTi in the Australian Rally Championship.

Not only is Ross a long-time enthusiast, competing and servicing for a number of mates in local and national events, he is a gun mechanic, preparing rally machinery for a number of people and recognised as an expert Saab technician and former part-owner of the SaabCare workshop in Brisbane.

It was therefore inevitable that Ross would find the time and inclination to build his own Saab competition car, and chose a 1974 99EMS as the weapon of choice.

The Saab was the first car of Ross’s eldest daughter, Lindsay, who took ownership when she was 16, and then parked it when she moved on to better things.

It sat for about 12 months until the decision was finally made to build it into a rally car.

With robust strength and being a good size, the 99EMS was a good base to start with, and having worked on Saabs for most of his career, the project was always going to happen one way or the other.

Recalling the early days of the real factory cars of Stig Blomqvist was inspiration for both Ross and his good mate and co-worker, Bill Spurway, who commenced the build after hours one night at the SaabCare workshop in suburban Brisbane.

As a labour of love, the build took seven years – mostly after hours.

The steel roll cage was built by friend and fellow competitor, Paul Andrews, and the interior remains standard, apart from trim removal and the fitting of a fire bomb and essential safety equipment.

Mechanically the engine’s bottom end is standard, apart from balancing, thanks to a steel crank as standard. The head is machined to improve flow rates, but valve size remains standard, with upgraded camshaft and springs.

The cam is too big for the original manifold, and so quad throttle bodies from a Suzuki GSXR have just been fitted, instead of the original Bosch D-Jetronic injection.

Saab gearboxes are a weak link, and even with the best one available and a Modena LSD, it proved unsuitable for competition use and failed in spectacular fashion. An FLD straight cut gearbox has been sourced from Sweden and just fitted.

Shock absorbers for the car are the ever-reliable Bilsteins, re-valved by MCA. Brakes are upgraded Saab 9000 turbo rotors and callipers front and rear, which bolt on with no additional modifications, resulting in a nicely balanced car all round.

The car is painted in factory colours from the era, not the traditional black with yellow and blue of other Saabs.

While Ross primarily uses the car for khanacross’ and the odd sprint rally, there is interest for a possible entry in the Alpine Rally in 2017, subject to the approval of the original owner – daughter Lindsay!

Ross also suggests that coaxing Ian Reddiex back into a car with him is

possible, but Ian currently enjoys the occasional event with Mike Mitchell, owner of a classic Toyota Celica twin cam.

SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 35

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: ROB HERRIDGE

?

WHERE

are they now

E G D I R R E H ROB

Story: TOM SMITH PHOTOS: Peter Whitten, Stuart Bowes, Richard Eustace 36 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

Repeatedly making the long trip across the Nullabor from WA to the eastern states, Rob Herridge proved to be a fast and entertaining driver, winning Australian Rally Championships in 1991 and 1992.

Tom Smith found Rob Herridge in a reflective mood, and found out what he’s been up in the 25 (!) years since his initial ARC title.

SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 37

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: ROB HERRIDGE bug.

Also, spending a bit more time on the farm in the wheat belt, overdue time spent with long suffering wife Debbie (and a small amount of time in her garden), four children, 10 grandchildren and supporting our rally operations in WA and elsewhere doesn’t leave a lot of spare time.

Do you actively try to attend local, or other rally events?

Yes, I attend nearly every rally that Maximum campaigns a car in, whether gravel in WA or the ARC, Targa events or tarmac and/or gravel corporate or sponsors days.

Clearly, Dean is now the organiser and facilitator (as has to happen for normal progression), but of course I

1991 Coffs Harbour Rally.

W

hile Subaru Australia has firmly committed to the current Australian Rally Championship, the company has long been a feature of the Australian rally scene.

In the heady days of the Australian Rally Championship during the early to mid nineties, the Legacy RS Turbo was the best rally car in the championship in the hands of a couple of outstanding personalities.

One of those was the great Possum Bourne, but the other was a talented West Australian who initially backed himself, before being invited to join the factory Subaru team.

Repeatedly making the long trip across the Nullabor from WA to the eastern states, Rob Herridge proved to be a fast and entertaining driver, and an equally entertaining speaker who gained a reputation for his sometimesprovocative rally dinner acceptance speeches.

Winning Australian Championships in 1991 and 1992 cemented his reputation as one of the all time Australian greats, and the gene pool spilled over with son Dean also proving himself a capable and competitive ambassador for the Subaru brand.

RallySport Magazine found Rob Herridge in a reflective mood, and found out what he’s been up in the 25 (!) years since his initial ARC title.

1990 Rally Australia.

“I still have my original Subaru Legacy, the one I built to contest, and ultimately win, the 1991 ARC.”

What keeps you busy these days, Rob?

Still busy day-to-day with Maximum Motorsport, but spending very little spare time on the boat. The enigma is that I need to be retired to do the boat justice, and if I retire I can’t afford to keep the boat.

I have started clay target shooting again for the first time in 35 years.

Interestingly, I only stopped shooting to do a bit of rallying and get the ‘motorsport bug’ out of my system.

Well, I still seem to be infected with the 38 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

Herridge and Nelson check out a works Group A Legacy that fell off a truck on the way from Sydney to Perth for Rally Australia.

am still needed as truck driver (funny how everybody says that someone else can drive the truck, but nobody else gets their truck driving licence), or the ultimate backstop if any special build or fabrication is required.

What does a typical day for Rob Herridge look like?

I go in to work every day and bounce off whatever is going on.

Whether assisting in the workshop, dropping off or picking up stuff, prepping motorsport cars, fabricating components for sale or whatever vehicle we may be preparing for competition. I don’t necessarily meet and greet customers day to day, but sadly they all know where my fabrication area and my office are.

I have come to realise all customers bring ‘happiness’, some by arriving and some by leaving. However, I am very fortunate as every day I look forward to going to work, and at the end of the day, I look forward to going home.

Most people in rallying know that my founding partner, Steve Wisby, sadly succumbed to cancer at only 49 years

of age about five years ago. Over the years as Dean came into the business, Steve became my best mate and he was very generous in his support of my rallying, and then Dean’s motorsport career.

But time marches on and in the time since his passing, Dean and I have been very busy, not only consolidating the business and embracing the IT and social media opportunities, but also moving in to new purpose built premises, taking on distribution of Seibon Carbon products, Shining Monkey car care products, and reinforcing our long term connection with the Subaru brand by proudly being recognised as an STI Motorsport Parts retailer for Australia.

We understand that you still have your first championship-winning Legacy?

Yes, I still have my original Subaru Legacy, the one I built to contest, and ultimately win, the 1991 ARC. (I borrowed every dollar off the bank, with a condition if I was coming nowhere by the middle of the year, I would sell the car. Yeah, right!).

I was supported in a small way by BP and the car was campaigned in BP colours in 1991. (A very distinctive livery, but as Steve pointed out years later, an American motorsport superstition is that green is bad luck on race cars.)

When I won the 1992 title, I was driving the Team Subaru Australia (PBMS built) Group N “Liberty” alongside Possum Bourne. These cars were painted the very distinctive

“The 90s were great years for the ARC, aided of course by the fact we (WA) hosted Rally Australia.”

Chrome yellow with reflective blue ‘mud splashes’.

For 1992 and most of 1993, until the demise of Team Subaru Australia (following the tragic death of Rodger Freeth in Rally Australia), my BP coloured car was used by Subaru for promotional purposes and repainted yellow, as per the team cars. It is still in

this base colour today.

Dean and I campaigned it locally and for some interstate events with three more WA titles and many event victories achieved to add to its national title. Over the years it has been rebuilt, upgraded and adjusted to suit tarmac. I used it to place third outright in the first Targa West, and then it was leased a couple more times after that.

The last time it was used was by Dean at Barbagallo Raceway in a couple of street car circuit races, to enable him to gain experience to get a license to compete in the Bathurst 12 hour international endurance events.

Quite a few people have tried to buy it over the years, and everybody has an opinion on what I should do with it.

I am undecided whether to run it in some tarmac events, return it to its gravel roots, or maybe completely strip it and rebuild it to show spec (although it is in quite spectacular condition) and repaint to the original BP colours.

As far as I am aware, it is one of only a few cars to be still owned by the person who bought it new, built it, campaigned it and won an ARC outright title in it.

Being consigned to a rally museum, or other car museum, is the most likely scenario.

So, do you miss competing in rallying?

Of course yes, I miss competing. The 90s were certainly great years for the ARC, aided of course by the fact that we (WA) hosted Rally Australia in the 90s and the 2000 years. The sport had a high profile because of tourism dollars

1992 Esanda Rally of Canberra.

SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 39

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: ROB HERRIDGE 1993 Coffs Harbour Rally.

promoting it, and manufacturers utilising rallying as a promotional opportunity.

I think the years before then and after then have all had their periods in the sun, and I’m sure they will again.

The Australasian Safari had my name written all over it and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of building a Subaru to be competitive in an event in which we were considered such an underdog. Placing second and fourth outright in two of the four years we competed was very encouraging, and I was in the process of building up a very special (but still production-based) XV when the event was discontinued.

I am trying to convince myself (and Dean) to finish this car, just in case the Safari rises from the ashes.

Who was your main competition back then and just how tough was the competition?

25 years ago! Where did that quarter of a century go?

The competition then, was as it is now. Difficult to win at the top. The competitors I remember most were Neal Bates (Toyota) of course (sparring partners in and out of CAMS Appeals Courts), Murray Coote (Mazda), Ed Ordynski and Ross Dunkerton (Mitsubishi). My 1992 and 1993 Team Subaru leader and team mate, Possum Bourne, Michael Guest (Mitsubishi, mostly) David Eadie (Subaru) and every other absolute local maniac that made our life difficult at their local ARC event.

This local knowledge was always difficult to quantify, but ultimately was one of the reasons that limited pacenoting was introduced. At the time, I didn’t give any thought to the profile of the championship, just like Dean after me and the next generation after that, we just wanted to compete in, and win 40 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

“Local knowledge was difficult to quantify, but was one of the reasons that limited pacenoting was introduced.” rallies at the highest level we could afford.

Just like now, whether it was worthwhile, viable, affordable or had any direction then or after didn’t seem to matter. Commonsense never comes in to motorsport decisions.

My father died when I was a teenager, and if he was still alive and we were still living and working on the farm, there is no way I would have ever been allowed to go rallying, he was way too sensible and practical for such frivolity!

Now, about your rally dinner speeches – is there a memorable heckle?

Yes, this is a curly one. What can I say? I didn’t set out to be infamous for some of my comments, speeches at presentations, or in any of my/our rally commentary.

It just happened. I thought it was all a bit boring, everyone thanking their mum and dad, the neighbour, the man at the garage for putting air in their tyres, etc, etc. I think people just latched on to my self-effacing comments and my character assassinations.

And of course once I was encouraged, I sometimes went too far, then I was castigated by the very ones who encouraged me.

There were very few heckles, at least when I was speaking, I think because

I could always come back harder at them. You’re always funnier if you win the rally, because nobody gets to speak after you.

I think the best way to summarise it is, “the same mouth that got me in trouble, was the same mouth that got me noticed in the first place”.

Do you maintain contact with any of the rallying cohorts of the era?

Well, Dunko of course, initially commentating together at ARC events and Rally Australia, becoming good mates through our mutual boating and other interests. Even now, with Ross and Lisa in Cairns, we often see one another and shoot s#@t just like always.

Apart from a few business dealings and occasionally bumping in to the regulars from that period at ARC rallies, I don’t get to mix with others much.

Neal Bates goes out of his way to call in and see how we’re going, and Ed Ordynski has also dropped in to MMS a couple of times.

Interestingly, Dean got to compete against most of the same ARC stars as myself. Ironically my fiercest adversaries, Dunko from Mitsubishi, and Neal from Toyota, have stayed in touch the most.

In the last few years of Rally Australia, Lisa Dunkerton was instrumental in arranging ‘demonstration’ runs of all the ARC champions (fewer than you think), which of course turned into very fiercely fought ‘parade’ laps. This was great fun and allowed us to keep in touch and relive old rivalries.

What’s your opinion on the current state of Australian rallying?

I have no issue with where Australian rallying is or where it has been.

Sometimes the eligible criteria suit us (our Subaru cars) and sometimes they don’t.

I genuinely think everyone who has tried a different ‘tack’ on the sport over the years has its best interest at heart.

I don’t think it’s gone astray, it’s just the way life is.

There is not the same ‘car club’ culture that there was in the ‘60s, ‘70s and maybe into the ‘80s. The car clubs and their grass roots events were the feeding pool for rallying and all the officials. If you look at most of the officials, they have come from that era.

I think the biggest problem facing rallying is the aging demographic of the average official and/or volunteer. I don’t know what the answer is but, “if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem”.

Is there any young Aussie drivers you have noticed that can become the next stars of the sport?

Depends what we term young. The ‘young’ must come with connections (money and management), resilience, dedication, be presentation and promotion savvy, and so on. It is expensive and difficult to keep someone ‘at the coal face’, hoping they are still there when the smouldering embers flare into a raging fire when an opportunity presents itself.

Some of the most successful rally drivers over the last generation or so, Chris Atkinson, Cody Crocker, Dean Herridge, Simon and Eli Evans, Scott and Mark Pedder, Nathan Quinn, Molly Taylor, and now Harry Bates (probably the most promising), are all second generation drivers who have come from a family and an upbringing of knowing what is required to compete (and win) at ARC events, and being able to support them at some level or another.

An example of this is Tom Wilde, showing great promise, but struggling even with the support of good friends and family to fund a long term ARC campaign, made especially difficult coming from WA. To quote a mate of mine who said many years ago, “if there is a future Australian WRC champion out there, we don’t yet know their name”.

What are your thoughts on classic rallying, and what would you build?

I don’t know much about the current regs and what constitutes a ‘classic’.

However, I’m all for it, and would love to build or run a car ... when is my Legacy eligible?

Most people who know me, know that for many years I owned a Rover 3500 (like the Tom Walkinshaw Bastos

Esanda Rally of Canberra.

scrap metal value.

It dawned on me as the big loader poked its forks through the windows and picked my pride and joy up by the roof that it was probably too late to change my mind.

A mate said: “You might have been able to sell it for $500”, and I replied: “I don’t want anyone who drives a Rover coming to my house!” Hang on a minute …

The classics have a place in Australian rallying and there is no reason why they can’t be as big here as in Europe and the UK. At the Canberra ARC, the car that got my, and everyone else’s, attention was the beautiful looking Audi Quattro.

At one point in Australia I think the classics ran at the front of the ARC field, but it was a bit complicated by the fact that some of these cars regularly compete in their local state championship.

This has some merit, but I think the field needs to be limited as the quality of driver and machinery tapers off, and most likely will cause issues for the organisers and the schedule.

For myself, or one day Dean, to compete it will have to be a Subaru, pretty much like our entry in to the Australasian Safari had to be a Subaru.

When I work out what model Subaru is eligible, I will be on the lookout.

I would love to build a classic ‘anything’, utilising and showcasing all the expertise that Maximum Motorsport has amassed over our 25 years in rallying.

Rob Herridge’s doomed Rover 3500.

Rovers … well almost). I purchased it near new in about 1987, and was my family car for many years.

It was passed down to Dean and then sold back to me (mmm, hang on!). It then sat in my shed languishing over the years while I made up my mind what to do with it. Pretty much like the Legacy now, really.

Any time I thought about building a classic gravel car out of it, or maybe even a classic Targa car, my partners Dean and Steve would look at me funny and say “why don’t you just take one of the already built Subarus out the back of Maximum and save yourself some heartache (and a lot of money)”.

I replied: “It’s not all about winning you know, it’s about a cavalcade of motoring and motorsport through the years.” They said, “Yeah, right!” and that’s where the project stopped.

In one of those sliding door moments, as I was taking the Rover to our new premises, the traffic lights changed, and I sat there thinking (where Dean might let me put it, etc?). As the lights turned green, I drove straight ahead to the scrap merchants and got $82.95 for the

SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 41

FEATURE: RALLYSAFE

better to be SAFE than SORRY

G

o back 40 years and safety in rallying meant that the crew (probably) had a bolt-in half roll-cage made of aluminium, maybe wore a helmet of one type or another and wore long pants, but often only a t-shirt during competition.

Perhaps a tongue-in-cheek comment, but competitors were often reminded not to roll into the scrub upside-down, as it may have been difficult to locate them in heavy forestry if they ever wanted to be recovered. “Keep the shiny side up!” was the call-out.

Move forward to the mid to late 90s and there was recognition that covering the extremities with long sleeves would be a positive improvement – and cotton was recommended, as opposed to that pesky nylon which tended to burn!!

During this era, ‘OK’ boards and ‘red crosses’ were included in rally road books, so that at least a crew could indicate to fellow competitors that they were stranded (but unhurt), or in the worst case, needed some assistance.

Red crosses were eventually replaced by green crosses due to some trademark issues, but overall standards were lifted and safety in rallying was finally recognised as an important issue.

Having an ambulance on site to follow the rally, or even a qualified first-aider was probably a luxury at any event.

Obviously that situation has since changed dramatically, and in major events FIVs (First Intervention Vehicles) are strategically located along the rally route to be able to render assistance in the earliest reasonable timeframe.

While some of this reflection of days gone by may seem incredulous, it was real.

Recognition of the importance of safety and the risks associated with rallying as a dangerous form of motorsport promoted positive change at all levels.

42 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

As a result, no rally car competing today should pass scrutiny without a full and comprehensive steel roll-cage, recognised safety-standard seats, five-point safety harnesses and, for the most part, HANS devices to protect the neck and head.

Coupled with the integral safety equipment in the car, crews are wrapped in fireproof underwear and multi-layer driving suits, and with helmets that would have only been seen in a space shuttle mission 25 years ago!

It would be challenging to add to the effectiveness of current safety

is at any time during an event. Using GPS, GSM and satellite communication capabilities, the system allows warnings and vehicle data to be transmitted as efficiently as possible.

Each car is fitted with a small electronic module, incorporating a full colour display, keypad, accelerometer and radio transceiver.

The main safety function of the RallySafe system is to automatically generate hazard warnings in the event of an accident.

The ‘Push to Pass’ function is a brilliant innovation that allows a competitor to warn forward vehicles of their intention to overtake on a potentially dusty or hazardous road.

In years gone by, passing a slower

standards, but RallySafe does just that.

RallySafe is an innovative vehicle-tovehicle communication system that transmits hazard warnings via in-car units during competitive rally events. By using the RallySafe system, competitors have the ability to understand where they sit on a rally road, in real time, in perspective with following or forward competitors.

Most importantly, RallySafe shows rally organisers where a car and crew

car was difficult to impossible during adverse conditions, and while some drivers resorted to a nudge in the tail of a slower car, equally, many drivers overdrove the situation and ended up off the road by trying too hard in blinding conditions.

RallySafe is an Australian idea that has been recognised worldwide as an essential safety innovation.

Since its inception in 2009, RallySafe has taken the rallying world by storm.

Story: TOM SMITH

RallySafe has become a common addition to rally cars in Australia, New Zelaland and around the world.

O

riginally the system was only available in Australia, but has now spread to supporting events in countries as diverse as New Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and China, Europe, North America, and Canada. The system is in use in every event in the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship.

In Australia, the system is the primary timing provider for the Australian Tarmac Championship, and is in use in the Australian Rally Championship,

as well as multiple smaller tarmac and regional events and championships. In New Zealand, it is the primary timing provider for the New Zealand Rally Championship, as well as in use in multiple smaller events, including the iconic Silver Fern Rally.

The parent company is Status Awareness Systems (SAS), which was formed in 2010 as a result of recognition that multiple on-track collisions could have been avoided.

Directors of the company are Stephen Sims, who is well connected within the Australian motor racing industry, and Wayne Maxwell, a world standard instrument mechanic with a passion for motorsport.

Together, the directors of SAS have delivered this technology to the rallying world to ensure the ongoing safety of competitors in the sport, at a time when safety standards are high, and rally speeds are higher than ever before.

SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 43

RALLY GERMANY - WRC 9

GERMANY BEARS FRUIT FOR OGIER Story & Photos: MARTIN HOLMES

44 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 45

RALLY GERMANY - WRC 9 Dani Sordo took second place ahead of his Hyundai teammate, Thierry Neuville.

Behind them the Hyundais mounted a charge, led by Thierry Neuville and Dani Sordo, and started to harry Mikkelsen, until at the end of Day 2 when just four seconds separated Mikkelsen, Sordo and Neuville.

The greatest excitement was still to come. With two stages left, Ogier was 20 seconds ahead, but 3.1 seconds separated the battling trio. Then the penultimate stage was cancelled on account of spectator control problems, so it was all down to the Power Stage. ikkelsen had brake problems, arriving at the finish with flames coming from under the car. Neuville scored the best time, but Sordo did just enough to finish second overall by a margin of 0.1 of a second!

Third Hyundai driver, Hayden Paddon, finished fifth, finding the going difficult.

“On nearly every stage I had a moment,” the New Zealander confessed. “I have a lot to learn about tarmac rallying!” And not only about rallying, but tyre selections as well.

Sadly, M-Sport was not at the party at all. Even after he rejoined the rally, Eric Camilli was not on the pace, so there were hopes that Tanak would present a challenge. His new version DMack tyres, however, were not as competitive as their new version gravel tyres had been in Poland and Finland, and then he stopped on Day 2 with alternator trouble.

Once again, M-Sport’s hopes rested

M S

tarting first car on the road, Sebastien Ogier cruised through to win the all-asphalt Rallye Deutschland, but his Volkswagen team did not repeat their 1-2-3 walkover of last year.

Teammate Jari-Matti Latvala’s VW was out of contention on stage one when the car’s gearbox failed, though Andreas Mikkelsen led for seven stages before falling back with errors, and then losing his brakes in the final stage, finishing fourth.

Hyundai drivers, Dani Sordo and Thierry Neuville, meanwhile, were furiously battling Mikkelsen for second place up to the final stage, the place finally going the way of Sordo by 0.1 seconds.

M-Sport had a miserable event with Mads Ostberg struggling to sixth place with technical problems, and Eric Camilli off the road, also on the opening stage, but happy to hear that their absent R5 team driver, Elfyn Evans, clinched the British Championship on the same weekend.

Citroen released one of their cars for protégé driver Stephane Lefebvre to use, but he crashed heavily on Day 2 when sixth, hospitalising both crew members.

DMack M-Sport driver, Ott Tanak, was sidelined with alternator failure when holding fifth place at half way, his latest version asphalt tyres not so impressive here as the DMack gravel tyres had been on previous events.

Support championship categories saw runaway wins for Esapekka Lappi (WRC2), Simone Tempestini (WRC3/ Junior) and Osian Pryce (Drive DMack Fiesta Trophy).

When the teams arrived in Germany,

the big news was that this was VW Sporting Director Jost Capito’s final rally before moving over to McLaren F1. VW were supporting the event, celebrating 50 years in rally sport, not the least by presenting a selection of famous old rally cars, mostly Golfs of one sort or another.

Latvala’s early gearbox problem proved again that Germany does not automatically do any favours for VW, and Ogier had an early struggle with his fellow VW driver Mikkelsen, who held the lead for over a full day before he fell back.

From then on tyre choices played a major part as the traditionally mercurial weather patterns kicked in on Day 2, which meant mud thrown on the road

by Ogier’s car hindered Mikkelsen’s progress.

TAILOR-MADE PACKAGES TO 46 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

on Ostberg. He had a horrendous time, suffering differential troubles which led to eternal wheel spinning on corners due to front axle trouble, and there were constant brake cooling issues.

Through all this he battled on to finish sixth, the last of the World Rally Cars that completed the full route.

Volkswagen’s 59 point championship lead over Hyundai in the Manufacturers’ series was shaved to 55, while M-Sport’s third place over Volkswagen’s secondary team was down to one point.

In the Drivers’ series, Ogier extended his lead over Andreas Mikkelsen to 59, with Hyundai drivers Hayden Paddon and Thierry Neuville equal third.

There was a spate of early retirements in the WRC2 category, mostly the results of going off the road.

Day 2 leader Armin Kremer’s private Skoda headed off the works cars of Jan Kopecky and Esapekka Lappi, with the Peugeot 208 T16 of Jose Suarez challenging in the early stages before a spin and a puncture.

Kremer lost a half minute and with it went his lead, which he was never able to retrieve. Kopecky also punctured and spent the rest of the rally trying to pull back time.

At the end of Day 2 he passed Kremer and got up to second, so works Skodas were now first and second in WRC2.

Hidden from view were the efforts of a third works driver, Pontus Tidemand, who was this time competing on a non-points-scoring basis and therefore seeded far behind the others. Secretly he was bidding for a top 10 position, eventually finishing the rally in eighth place overall, between his regular teammates Lappi and Kopecky.

Lappi scored his second WRC2 win of the season. In the WRC2 championship standings, the absent Elfyn Evans and non points scoring Teemu Suninen (delayed on this event by suspension damage) continue to hold 1-2 in the WRC2 series.

Simone Tempestini led the WRC3 and the Junior categories almost from the start, ahead of early leader Martin Koci, who finished second.

In the DriveDMack Fiesta Trophy, Osian Pryce led all the way, finishing ahead of Max Vatanen, and they also lie 1-2 in the series’ standings as well.

O SUIT YOU

Thierry Neuville has no time to admire the vines.

A consistent drive into fifth place was a good result for Hayden Paddon.

Eric Camilli makes his way through the Mosel wine region in his Fiesta RS WRC.

To advertise in RallySport Magazine call Dominic on 0499 981 188 or email dominic@rallysportmag.com.au SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 47

HOLMES COLUMN HOLMES

INSIDE LINE

T

FASTER & FASTER!

he old adage that ‘those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’ has seldom been as true in rallying as in recent years, when the big-wigs in the sport keep pursuing their ideological concepts and dreams, pressing ahead with their home grown ideas, unaware of the wisdom of what they do.

Obsessed with the conviction that the World Rally Championship does not serve a purpose unless it can be a commercial billboard, the influentials in rallying forget that rallying, like other forms of motor racing, is essentially a sport. They express a regret that it isn’t a business.

The official policy of forcing the WRC into new territories, areas where it doesn’t belong, is seriously threatening the stability of the good things about rallying.

The cancellation of Rally China was a damning indictment of the FIA and the WRC Promoter, and their ingrained policy that the championship needed jazzing-up by expanding into commercially more exotic territories, when it doesn’t. he irrational quest for pushing the WRC into places where it does not belong is not new, but people do not ‘remember the past’.

There was a lot of excitement when the WRC went to China in 1999, but it was on very insecure ground, basically because it was heavily supported by the tobacco industry, rather than because of the strength of the sport in that region.

That event took place, after two years of preparatory work on candidate events, but when there was a financial crisis in that country a year later the pack of cards collapsed. At short notice the event was cancelled.

The official FIA expansionist ardour did not diminish and simply turned elsewhere. To Japan. To a country which sounded exotic, but where the sport at WRC level was unknown, and it was in a region which commercially and media-wise had little connection with mainland Japan.

The WRC in Japan ticked some boxes, but not the right ones. The foreign importers had no chance of making inroads into the car market in that country, and anyway, the Japanese car manufacturers were already losing interest in the sport.

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48 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

Story: MARTIN HOLMES

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hat went wrong in China this year? Firstly, there is no sign that China has a burning desire to run a WRC event. China nowadays runs a very interesting national rally championship, run to their own national rules, attracting a wide range of national manufacturers who have no commercial interest in using the WRC to promote their own agendas.

The Chinese federation itself has no clear vision of what sort of event it wants to project on to the sport.

They offered the FIA various possible locations, even one on the edge of the Gobi desert. They were asking the FIA what they wanted, rather than what they knew would work.

The recent quest for a suitable location in Brazil led the FIA to inspect the Erechim Rally, a delightful national and regional event, but held at a city which does not even have scheduled flights to the country’s biggest cities, let alone to international destinations.

In Brazil, a WRC initiative does not come from the national federation, they have never been interested. When the WRC went in the 80s to Brazil, it was the result of friendships between the organisers and the FIA. Of course, the storms in China in July this year that finally caused the cancellation were unpleasant, but the problem with Rally China had been evident years ago.

The lessons are clear.

When a country wants to be part of the WRC, like Australia in the 80s, it will do everything until it happens, and the

event will be a success.

If it is the FIA or the teams who want that country in the WRC, it will be a disaster. The trouble is, people do not remember the past. oodbye Jost! The long protracted move of Jost Capito to his new career in Formula 1 is finally at an end. The gap in the WRC calendar created by the exit of China provided the opportunity for Capito to make his move.

Capito has been a remarkable rally chief. He has spent a total of five years in charge of two WRC teams, two years with Ford and three with Volkswagen, five times winning the FIA Manufacturers’ title.

He goes down in rallying history as a special person. For the media, Jost was good fun. Every moment journalists with a voice recorder were

G

Martin Holmes at the Great Wall of China during the WRC’s last visit in 1999.

near Jost, they obtained copy that was worth hearing, whether you agreed with him or not.

In recent years he sided with the FIA Promoter and did his best to inflict the sport with his revolutionary concept of final stage Shoot Out points. It was very entertaining to hear what he said, but happily that little plan was killed off by the FIA. And another aspect, one thing on which you could not fault him, was the way he supported his drivers, and none so much as his prima donna, Sebastien Ogier. Every time Ogier complained about his unhappy life as the world champion, especially on the basis of running order rules, Jost backed him up.

We don’t yet know who will be the new VW Sporting Director, but whoever it is will have a hard act to follow.

I am waiting anxiously to see how F1 settles down to Jost. He has been good fun for us. oes the WRC need jazzing-up?

The WRC Promoter, when not actively pursuing new, but inexperienced, countries for the WRC, is performing splendid work with providing attractions for fans.

The problem with the promoter is that that there is also an unwelcome crossover of initiatives with the sporting authorities. This has been going on for years.

When ISC was the promoter, there

D

Jost Capito makes a presentation to Martin Holmes in Portugal in 2015.

was a confrontation with the FIA on the subject of organisers being guaranteed positions in the calendar in exchange for payment. That idea drifted away.

Some years later this matter re-emerged through the current promoters’ agreement system, in conjunction with the current filming opportunities.

There have been various other overlapping debates, the final stage Shoot Out idea being a recent example, in which the FIA said this sort of plan is not one of the promoter’s responsibilities.

And, of course, the recent plans for going to China have been enthusiastically pursued by the promoter.

The sport does not need jazzingup. It needs proper management, transparency of policies, provision of facilities and formats which are media-friendly. And an appreciation that rallying is for everyone, not just for the elite, for whom the sport is a passion and not the business that the hierarchy seems to want.

Sometimes it seems only the fans love the sport, but I don’t believe that.

QUINNY’S BOOK A GREAT READ

W

hether you’re a motorsport fan or not, Tony Quinn’s new book, “Zero To 60” is a tremendous read that you’ll find hard to put down. Quinn,

a multiple winner of Targa Tasmania, moved from Scotland to Australia in his early 20s, then, with his wife Christina and their four young children, landed on New Zealand shores in the early 1980s.

He founded a fat rendering plant called Fatman, which sowed the seeds for a remarkable story of success in petfood. He moved back to Australia in the mid-1990s and in 2015 he sold his business, VIP Petfoods, for over A$400m.

The Tony Quinn success story also includes building the $25 million Highlands Park racing circuit in Cromwell, in the South Island of New Zealand.

“I turn 60 soon and while I’ve achieved a lot in business and motorsport, I’d like to think there’s a lot more to come,” Quinn says.

“Since I finished the book so much has happened in my life, so think of this as part one of my story! I’ve already got some great feedback on the book from people whose opinion I respect.

“They all tell me it’s an easy and entertaining read, and I hope people enjoy it.”

The Tony Quinn story is one of rags to riches. A self-made man who has been through the hard times and has made his own luck, the affable Scotsman is an iconic figure in the business and motorsport world, and his story is one that had to be told.

It’s a compelling read and one that we thoroughly recommend.

SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 49

RALLY OF THE BAY - NSWRC 3

ROBERTS WINS

Peter Roberts on his way to victory. Photos: Aaron Wishart

Story: CRAIG O’BRIEN

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onsistent speed and reliability rewarded Peter Roberts and Andrew Crowley with victory in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI at the AMH Automotive Group Rally of the Bay on Saturday, August 13.

Under clear skies in Batemans Bay on the south coast of NSW, a total of 43 crews gathered on the banks of the Clyde River for round three of the Gary’s Motorsport Tyres NSW Rally Championship.

The event consisted of 145 competitive kilometres across eight stages, using the stunning private and

of retirements on SS4 after a minor incident damaged the oil cooler of the Repco Evolution X. Roberts/Crowley would subsequently inherit the rally lead. Sullens/Newell rejoined the field, going fastest of all on SS4 and SS6, before electing to withdraw with two night stages Ben Barker was equal third in his impressive BMW 320is.

forestry roads of the Eurobodalla and Shoalhaven Shires.

Crews were greeted with dry and dusty conditions when the opening 31km Techworkz stage started proceedings shortly after midday. Tony Sullens/Kaylie Newell were blindingly quick in their front wheel drive Citroen DS3, topping the time sheets, two seconds clear of Roberts/Crowley, with the Mitsubishis of Mick Patton/Bernie Webb and Greg Croker/Tim Batten a further five seconds adrift.

Further back, Stephen Duthie/Damien Hanns exited the rally in spectacular fashion when they crashed their Datsun 180B at the spectator point.

Croker/Batten would suffer a similar fate, rolling on SS2 and neutralising the stage. Meanwhile, Sullens/Newell would return to service early after encountering gearbox trouble.

When competition got back underway for the 10km Whiteline stage, Patton/ Webb jumped into the lead after winning SS3, but would join the list 50 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

remaining. Despite a troubled event, the crew had put the field on notice and many were left wondering what could have been.

While those around them had their challenges, Richard Shimmon and Cars line up beside the Clyde River for the 2016 Rally of the Bay.

Russell Hannah put in a string of consistent times throughout the day and night in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII to find themselves in a well deserved second outright, just over two minutes behind the event winners.

Using the event in preparation for the next round of the Australian Rally Championship, Chris Higgs and Kirra Penny in their Subaru Impreza, found themselves in a tight battle with former Toyota works driver Ben Barker and Damien Long in their rear-wheel drive BMW 320is.

Heading into the final 10km test a mere two seconds separated the pair, with Barker/Long holding the upper hand. Despite the Subaru crew pipping the BMW over the final 10km, nothing could separate them in the overall results, and they would share the final step on the podium.

Tom Clarke/Ryan Preston (Mitsubishi), Tim Wilkins/Katie Fletcher (Nissan), Bethany and Matthew Cullen (Mitsubishi), Thomas Dermody/ Eoin Moynihan (Ford Escort), Brett Middleton/Andrew Benefield (Honda Civic) and Tom and Nick Ryan (Toyota) completed the top 10.

The series takes a short break until the Bathurst Rally on September 24.

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SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 51

FEATURE: RENAULT CLIO RS

For 95 per cent of us rallying is, first and foremost, a sport.

It’s something we do on weekends to fill in the hours between Frida afternoon and Monday morning – a time when many others are cha balls, kicking balls, hitting balls or even throwing balls.

By PETER WHITTEN

F1 PEDIGR 52 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

ay asing

REE

PHOTOS: Peter Whitten, Ivan Glavis Ged Blum pushes his Excel hard during Rally Victoria in 2013.

SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 53

FEATURE: RENAULT CLIO RS The Clio has proven to be a fast and reliable tarmac rally car in Richard’s hands.

S

o when Victorian, Richard Fung, decided it was time to get back behind the wheel of a rally car, he wanted something that was not only fun to drive, but was also reliable and didn’t require him to give up every night of the week to work on it.

After rallying a Toyota Corolla on gravel in the 1990s, Richard decided that his second foray into the sport

“A rear air diffuser channels airflow around the car to increase down force, thereby reducing lift.

It looks great too!” would be on tarmac, and so he set about searching for a suitable vehicle.

Initially the plan was to build a car from the ground up, but when a smart looking 2009 Renault Clio RS caught his eye, it wasn’t long before a deal was done and the car was making its way to his workshop.

The Clio in question is a limited edition ‘Clio RenaultSport F1 Team R27’, a special model created to commemorate Renault’s Formula 1 World Championship wins (Constructors’ and Drivers’) in 2005 and 2006, using the R27 chassis.

Only 40 examples were imported into Australia, making the car even more desirable.

Part of the ‘limited edition’ package was a rear aero diffuser that channels airflow around the car to increase down force of the rear end, thereby reducing lift. As well as being an effective addition, it looks great too.

Before the car landed in Richard’s

Photos: RedMAGAZINE Bull Content Pool | RALLYSPORT 54 - SEPTEMBER 2016

workshop, it started life in Western Australia, where it was built into a tarmac-spec rally car by LF Performance in Bentley.

Aside from the required safety equipment, the car is pretty much standard, something that really appealed to its new owner.

“It’s such a well-built and reliable car that it really only requires basic maintenance and a clean before each event,” Richard says.

“Provided you don’t hit anything, there’s not much that can go wrong, and it’s a cheap way to go rallying.”

In the time that he’s owned the Renault, Richard and co-driver, Graham McGrath, have contested Targa Hellyer Gorge and several rounds of the Australian Tarmac Championship in Victoria, never failing to finish.

“It really is fun to drive,” he adds.

“With a two-litre, normally aspirated engine the car is never going to be a rocketship against the four-wheel drive, turbo cars in tarmac rallying, but if we can continually improve our times and have fun, that’s what it’s all about.”

Power from the 2.0L motor is driven through a six-speed gearbox and a Quaife ATB helical-gear LSD, while fullyadjustable coil over suspension helps to keep the Clio sitting nicely through the corners.

The standard 17” alloy wheels are fitted with Dunlop semi-slicks, while massive Brembo 330mm discs on the

front, and standard 240mm Renault brakes on the rear, slow the car down. t all culminates in a tidy package that is the envy of many other competitors – and it doesn’t hurt that the car looks fantastic as well.

But while tarmac rallying and the Clio are Richard’s passion for now, his 1987 Corolla sits forlornly on jack stands just a few metres away, begging to be let loose on the gravel once more.

I

“I haven’t done an event in the Corolla since 1999, and it hasn’t even been driven for many years,” he admits.

“It’s got a new close ratio gearbox in it which has never been used, so I guess I’ll need to find some time to get it going and take it for a run.”

In the meantime, however, his focus is on the Clio and getting it ready for his next event, the Great Tarmac Rally, to be held around Marysville in Victoria in December.

SPECIFICATIONS Engine

Standard 2.0L naturally aspirated, tuned ECU

Transmission 6-speed manual, standard clutch Differential Quaife ATB helical-gear LSD Suspension Fully adjustable KW Variant 3 coilovers Brakes (F) Brembo 4-pots with 330mm full

floating 2-piece slotted disc (R) standard Renault 240mm - Pagid R29 pads

Steering Standard electric Wheels / Tyres Std 17” alloy / 215/45R17 Dunlop semi-slicks

Corolla or Clio? Gravel or tarmac? Richard Fung has a difficult choice.

SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 55

AUCHENFLOWER ROAD RALLYSPRINT

AWESOME AUCHENFLOWER Story: ROSS TEESDALE

A

maxed out field of 60 drivers took on the Autosport Club’s 2016 running of the very popular and blisteringly fast Auchenflower Road Gravel Sprint on August 14.

Run in the foot hills of NZ’s Southern Alps, 8.7km would be driven in just over four minutes by the top 4WD crews.

With lots of recent rain, but sunshine on the day, the road was hard packed with great grip, and provided a variety of twisting and high speed challenges, along with several blind brows that would be taken at maximum speed.

The 4WD battle would be a fight between Matt Summerfield in his NZRC Impreza, Mike Tall, having his first outing in his Evo powered Mirage, and Matt Jansen in his Impreza.

Tall and Summerfield had the pace on the field and went into the last run separated by just 1/10th of a second.

Tall found another half a second, but Summerfield found more, to win the event by just over two seconds with a time for the 8.7km of 4 mintues 03.8 seconds. Jansen took third, 3.3 seconds behind Tall.

Others to put in fast drives included Autosport Club regulars Matt Penrose (WRX), Gary Hawkes (Evo 9), and Job and Dave Quantock (sharing an Evo 7) who finished fourth to seventh respectively. Also impressing was eighth placed Sheldon Bell, who brought his Evo 3 home in one of his first drives on gravel.

The tightest battle and the biggest field was in the Unlimited 2WD class with 21 entrants. The fastest five drivers had all done battle in the snow and wet at Catlins Rally a week earlier, and would arrive at Auchenflower Rd race fit and primed to resume the battle.

Matt Summerfield showed his class in his Subaru.

Photos: Kevin Corin

Regan Ross had his injected Mk2 BDA Escort on the pace from the start, but would lose the fight to Robert McCallum’s Duratec Mk2 Escort as the day wore on.

McCallum found some more time in the last of three runs at the road, to win the Unlimited 2WD class with 4m21:4s, Ross taking second place two seconds back.

17-year-old Ari Pettigrew continued to build his reputation by running third in class for most of the day in his BMW Chris Herdman pushes his Toyota Starlet hard.

56 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

318. Tony Gosling and Jeff Judd would ultimately jump over him in the last run to take third and fourth in class in their Mk2 BDAs, with Pettigrew a few tenths back in fifth.

Spectators described Pettigrew’s drive as being among the most impressive on

the day, and bravest under brakes by a margin.

Others to feature in the 2WD top 10, finishing 6th through 10th respectively, were Ross Teesdale in his turbo and supercharged AE86, Deane Buist in a high powered V8 Mk2 Escort, Andrew Sim in his 2 litre Fiesta, along with Australian resident, but regular NZRC runner, Justin Walker, in his Mk 2 BDA. Two time former NZRC Champion, Brian Stokes, took 10th in 2WD in another Mk 2 BDA. Young competitor Chris McLean just missed the 10, finishing eleventh in his 2-litre Fiesta.

Josh Marston took on and won the 1600cc Class in an AE111 Toyota as he prepares to run his new AP4 Holden Barina, which is being built for a full assault on the NZRC in 2017.

Dave Fahey took second in class, another impressive drive by Fahey in his lightly developed Mk1 Escort.

Hayden Spatcher took third in class as he continues to come to grips with his R2 1600 Fiesta, while fourth was an excellent effort by mid-aged rookie Alastair McLean in his near standard 1990s Honda Civic.

Mike Nokes also went well to take fifth in class in his AE92 Corolla.

Last, but not least, was the 1300c battle which was won by Chris Herdman in his Starlet, ahead of rally veteran Grant Goile in his classic 1971 KE30 Corolla.

In the groove: Robert McCallum slides his Escort home ahead of Regan Ross.

Another strong drive from Neil Hetherington netted an impressive third in class in his KE70 Corolla in his rookie season.

Steve Thompson also impressed, getting his Datsun Sunny home in fourth of the 1300s.

As he picked up his trophy, Robert McCallum described the Auchenflower Rd venue as “the

best sprint road in the world”.

That may be a bit keen, but Canterbury can certainly claim to have some of the best roads, and a large number of hard charging rally competitors always eager to take each other on.

Right: Josh Marston gets in practice ahead of his NZRC return next year with the new Holden Barina AP4.

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SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 57

FEATURE: ARI PETTIGREW

EXCEPTIONAL ARI

Ari Pettigrew has shown speed and consistency way beyond his years.

WHAT’S IN A NAME? Story: ROSS TEESDALE

I

f rallying had talent scouts they would surely be making their way to sign up 17-year old Ari Pettigrew from Rangiora near Christchurch, in New Zealand’s South Island.

Ari arrived at his first ever event late last year, a gravel sprint at Mt Thomas Forest, and he immediately upset the established order by placing second in 2WD, beating home many fast and vastly experienced drivers on the tricky forest course.

Recently he proved his exceptional talent at the Catlins Rally. Seeded 64th in the 85 car field, he finished an amazing fourth outright. And he continues to beat home many fancied cars and drivers every time he competes, despite being a fresh rookie in the sport.

Ari Pettigrew has so far competed in just four gravel sprints and two rallies, but his talent has already been noticed by many long-time rally people. Ari’s potential to go to the top is obvious to those that know what it takes.

35-year rally veteran and highly respected driver, Jeff Judd, said: “Ari is an awesome talent, he’s a young man going places”.

Derek Ayson, a three-time winner of the Otago Classic Rally and another legend of the sport in New Zealand, added: “Ari has an outstanding natural talent, his drive at Catlins showed great maturity in treacherous conditions. I hope he doesn’t get an Escort”.

To add to his burgeoning reputation, Ari is doing this in a less than spectacular car – a 1996 E36 BMW 318 58 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

compact. The car is not bad, but not great.

It gets good power from its engine head worked over by Peter Kennard of Kennelly Cams. Kennard has ported and flowed the head and added big valves and Kennelly Cams, and it runs high compression pistons.

The car has some Bilstein shocks, better brakes and a 5 to 1 ratio slippery diff, but uses a standard gearbox, making for big gaps between gears, which is far from ideal.

Ari has so far followed a similar path to Kiwi rally ace Hayden Paddon, having competed in grass karts from an early age. Also like Paddon, Ari then stepped up to driving cars in grass autocrosses while he waited to be 16 years old and was able to get a driver’s license.

The plan from here is to move to front-wheel drive, which will give him the experience he needs to step up.

Ari is not from a privileged background. His father, Dave, has worked hard to put together the BMW, that was purchased for just $3000 as a road car. The grass kart was lent to him by family friend and mentor, Tom Penrose, when Tom’s own boys had grown out of it.

Tom and Dave have both been involved in rallying for decades and can provide the technical help Ari needs, and there are other local people in the sport who can help guide his career. In the coming two or three years Ari

needs to gain as much experience as possible, which can be achieved quite cheaply in New Zealand. Then he needs to get overseas, which will be expensive.

Those that know the sport can already see that Ari Pettigrew can be the next rally star from Australasia.

Given three more years to get 30 or so rallies behind him, Ari could be making his mark in the Junior World Rally Championship in 2020 - and he would have just turned 21.

If you’d like to be involved in Ari’s rallying career moving forward, contact Ross Teesdale at h

RETROSPECTIVE

WELL I’LL BE

BOGGED!

Story: JEFF WHITTEN

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n today’s El Nino climate, rain can be a rare occurrence (with some exceptions), so getting bogged when rain does fall is even rarer still. Many of us have slid off the road and lost traction to such an extent that we couldn’t get back on the road again.

But if that’s ‘bogged’, I have to tell you that you don’t know what ‘bogged’ is. If you want to know what bogged is, let me take you back to the ‘good old days’ when getting bogged was part of the fun of car rallies. If you weren’t bogged more than once in an event in those days, you weren’t enjoying yourself too much at all.

It was out the back of Tittybong (in Victoria) when disaster struck. Here we were sailing along in the rally car down some dang-awful grassy lane when the rear wheels of the car started spinning hopelessly and we got that really hard lump in our throat.

You know the feeling – forward progress has all but totally diminished, and the trees start going past a lot slower than they were a few minutes previously. So there’s only one thing for it (for the navigator at least) – out of the car and onto the jump bar on the back.

Now, for you tender young readers out there, I should explain that all serious rally cars (let’s call them trials cars, for that’s what they were called then) had a jump bar or steps mounted at the rear of the car where the bumper bar used to be.

Jump bars were pretty sturdy items with a couple of foot plates welded on, designed so the navigator could stand

on the bar and jump up and down a lot until traction was restored. Of course that was all very well, but the forward motion of the car (if there was still some left) meant that it was all too easy to fall A over Z into the mud while performing this ceremonial jumping trick.

So the cunning ones among us would thread a couple of long loops of rope under the forward, hinged edge of the boot lid, one on either side, to use as reins to hang on to. Sort of like the reins on Charlton Heston’s chariot in the Ben Hur movie.

“If you were really serious, the car owner would screw a couple of cupboard door handles on to the boot lid .... much more professional.”

Of course, if you were really serious, the car owner would screw a couple of cupboard door handles on to the boot lid in place of the rope reins. Much more professional, really (as long as you removed the cupboard doors beforehand!).

That at least meant that you could stand upright at the back of the car, jump up and down like crazy so that the subsequent bouncing would help the car in getting some traction. Naturally, this exercise was totally useless if you were driving a Mini or anything else with front-wheel drive!

Come to think of it, I have seen at least one navigator in a Mini open the boot lid and jump in before proceeding to SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 59

RETROSPECTIVE

Being bogged is bad enough, but when the tow car gets bogged too, you really have problems!

bounce up and down – I think he was Irish!

Well, all these bouncing shenanigans used to go on every time a boggy lane or a slippery creek crossing was encountered, and in those days that was fairly regularly. It wasn’t always the end of the world when you got bogged; in fact, it was often good fun being able to get out of the car for some exercise after having your head down over the maps for hours, even days, on end. rouble was, once you’d done the bouncing bit and the car was actually moving forward again, you’d step off the jump bar into the boggy wheel ruts that the car had just dug or, even worse, you’d get sprayed with thick, black (or red, or grey, or yellow – delete whichever doesn’t apply) mud as the driver gunned the motor for more traction.

It wasn’t unknown for drivers to really plant the foot and hightail it to dry, solid ground where traction wasn’t a problem, before stopping to wait for the navigator to rejoin him.

Fair enough, you might say, but in the middle of winter the nearest high ground might be a mile away, and by the time you got to the waiting car after walking through thick mud, running water and slippery grass for what seemed like hours, you’d look like something out of Creature from the Black Lagoon.

“Get in, get in,” he’d roar and so you’d climb aboard. Then, just as you were about to shut the door and belt up, you’d realise that under that thick layer of mud covering your feet, your left shoe was missing, obviously left behind

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60 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

“The problems arose when Murphy’s Law intervened and you became stuck in an area that resembeled the Treeless Desert on the Nullabor.” in that sticky black morass stretching out behind you. What to do? Waste more time going back to look for it (and risk losing the right shoe as well), or continue on with a limp like a man with an artificial leg? Ah, those were the fun days!

Competitors in early trials like the infamous BP Rally and other navigational nightmares got so used to getting bogged that it got to the stage where crews used to take half a ton of de-bogging gear with them in each event. Not only was the jump bar compulsory equipment, there were other aids that were often carried as well.

Forget wet weather compounds and special tyre cuts, the serious competitor always carried two spare wheels in the boot, already kitted out with a set of chains in case the going got really tough. At the first sight of mud or potentially impassable creek crossings, it was out with the jack, off with the Dunlop SP44s or the Goodyear Ultragrips, and on with the chains.

Boy, did chains work in the mud!

Great for getting you out of sticky

situations and yep, you guessed it, the navigator was the one who had to remove them when dry ground appeared on the horizon! Sections timed to the second? Forget it! Just getting to the next control the same day was an achievement!

However, if all that failed and you were stuck fast like a bug on the windscreen, the last resort was always the Tirfor. What’s that, you say? What’s a Tirfor? A Tirfor, dear friends, was a particular brand of winch that every serious trials competitor carried in the boot of the car. It never saw the light of day until all other methods of extraction had been exhausted, but it was invaluable if you were hopelessly bogged.

Like most other forms of winch, you attached one end of the cable to the car and the other end to a tree, which was all well and good if you were stuck in a suitably-treed laneway or paddock.

The problems arose when Murphy’s Law intervened and you became stuck in an area that resembled the famous Treeless Desert on the Nullarbor. No trees, no winching point.

Of course if there was a convenient fence post handy, you could always winch off that. Problem was, if the fence post was old and rotten, you could end up with a corner post, a strainer post, a couple of hundred droppers and four kilometres of barbed wire on the end of your Tirfor.

The other problem was that if you found a tree to winch from, everything would be going along smoothly for a while. Then, just as you got a nice backward-forward rhythm going on

the winch handle, another car would appear into view, wanting to use the same piece of road that you’d just got stuck in. So you’d unhook the Tirfor from the tree to let the other car through, while your car slowly slipped back into the hole you had just extricated it from. aturally your driver couldn’t see the funny side of all this – he’d just sit there revving the motor, roaring like a madman for you to hurry up and hook the Tirfor up again, while all the while sitting in his nice, warm, dry, mud-free motorcar. And they used to refer to navigators as just a bag of spuds!

No, getting bogged wasn’t much fun, and I was an expert at it. Let me give you a couple of examples of the art of bogging.

Minis were the world’s worst cars for getting bogged in. They were so low to the ground and their wheels so small that they always suffered in muddy conditions compared to other, bigger cars.

If you were the first car through a muddy section, there wasn’t too much of a problem, but if cars had been through before you and left deep muddy ruts in the road, then, sure as heck, the Mini would slide into the wheel ruts and belly itself on the sump guard. Towing was usually the only way out.

The Cooper S was a popular rally car in the 1960s, but it had a reputation for being fastest on the road and the first to be bogged.

There was one particular occasion when we were out doing some roading for a rally and we were following the mapped road along the bottom of a hill. Coming to a gate that obviously led into private property (even though it was the mapped road), we opened the cocky’s gate and drove up past his hay shed.

All of a sudden the farmer appeared at the corner of the shed, wielding a shotgun and yelling for us to stop.

Faced with what we quickly decided looked like certain death from this gun-toting Rambo, we roared further into his property and out the back gate at the other end, to the sound of shots being fired into the air.

Now in full flight, our Mini was aimed at a big greasy area with a water soak running through it. Gunning the motor, the Mini flew into the slop and sank to the doorsills. We were stuck solid.

With darkness falling rapidly, we decided to go for help, but there was no way we were going back to ask Rambo for help to get us out. Weighing up the only other option (walking – there were

N

The Sydney Morning Herald reports on a famous last-stage bogging on the 1955 Redex Trial.

no mobile phones in those days), we set off on our enforced eight-kilometre walk to the nearest farmhouse to seek assistance.

To cut a long story short, the farmer jumped in his car and drove us back to the bogged Mini. Hooking on a towrope, the farmer’s car spun its wheels and sank to the axles. Yep, now there were two of us bogged. We repeated that eight-kilometre walk back to the farmhouse for the second time that night. By then our wives had just about added our names to the missing persons’ list!

Of course there are all sorts of ways of getting bogged – bogged in mud, bogged in sand, bogged on a stump, bogged in snow, but I’ve even been bogged in a river.

It was that Mini again (what else) that brought me undone in the middle of a fast flowing river one morning.

On the wrong road (as usual), we drove into the water thinking it would be a nice shallow ford. However, the further we got in, the deeper it became, until the water was lapping almost up to the door handles.

Well, you’d panic too. The only way out was to reverse out, but then disaster struck and the “wish I’d fixed that before” scenario reared its head.

That was when I wished I’d stopped to replace the two bolts that held the back of the sump guard onto the car.

It was also when I also realised that the back of the sump guard was acting like a grader blade the more I tried to reverse out. With front wheels spinning and sand banking up under the sump guard, all progress stopped in the middle of the stream.

The only way out of our predicament was to open the door and climb out into knee-deep water. Of course, as we got out, water flowed in through the doors and we abandoned the Mini to the sight of maps, route instructions, small fish, yabbies, floor mats and other assorted items floating around in a car full of water.

Trials and rallies really were an adventure in those days, and getting bogged, just like dealing with gates (of which there are hundreds of varieties) were all just part of the fun.

One of these days we’ll do a story on gates, another of those long-forgotten obstacles that trials crews used to come up against. Mallee gates, cocky’s gates, locked gates, @#%& gates!

Now it’s a different age, a different page, and the pace of life has shifted up a gear or three. Ah, give me the good old days!

SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 61

BRAKES DIRECT BORDER RANGES RALLY

ROBERTS AT HOME ON THE RANGE Story: TOM SMITH

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or many years, the Gold Coast Tweed Motorsporting Club has managed to put together events using some incredible rally roads in and around the Queensland/NSW border – and it must be said that the best roads belong to the southern state.

Events in the Kyogle/Woodenbong area, about two and a half hours south of Brisbane, are so good they formed much of the route for the WRC round in 2009.

It certainly helps when the local community is supportive, and the local Kyogle Council and NSW Police welcomed an event back to the district.

Ironically, the event was a round of the Queensland State Championship (sponsored by MRF Tyres), but this rally loves classics and amongst other things, offered the Zupp Property Manfred Stohl won Group Classic Rally Car Challenge and the China Rally in a the Border Ranges Escort Challenge Citroen DS3 R5. (naturally for Ford Escorts of all models).

For some years efforts have been made to sell the virtues of this event to New Zealanders and for 2016, Kiwi hot-shot Derek Ayson was convinced to compete, having been handed the keys to Ed Mulligan’s Mk 2 Escort.

With about 105 competitive kilometres on offer, the route originally offered eight gravel shire roads stages and a couple of Super Specials in the Kyogle Showgrounds, home of Rally HQ and a camping village for the weekend.

Sadly enough, rain in the lead-up

to the weekend was to force the cancellation of the Showground stages in an effort to keep the local show society on-side. 44 cars and crews promised to chew up every green blade of grass, and discretion was the better part of valour.

With most crews on site for reconnaissance on Friday and settling in for the weekend, the organisers also arranged for a rally forum to be held in the Kyogle Golf Club on Friday night, moderated by Australian rallying identity Ed Mulligan.

One of the much-anticipated entries was the recently re-fettled Mulligan-

Kiwi star, Derek Ayson, was the first Classic car home in Ed Mulligan’s Escort.

The always-impressive Audi Quattro of Mal Keough.

Photos: Sam Tickell.

62 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

owned Opel Manta V8 in the hands of Jack Monkhouse, but a headgasket problem in the week before forestalled the entry.

On rally day, 39 entries lined up in a colourful parade in Kyogle’s main street to face the starter.

Mal Keough and Pip Bennett were at car 1 in the mighty Audi Quattro S1 replica and promised to give the locals a show. Add seven Escorts, Matt Love’s Mazda RX7 Group B replica, Peter Leicht in his Nissan 240RS, and then a fantastic field of modern 4WDs and this was a rally to watch!

Over SS1 ‘Happy Valley’, the classics

at the front of the field enjoyed close racing and Keough’s Audi was simply superb.

Predictably, the modern 4WDs set a quicker pace and New South Welshman Peter Roberts cracked the event open in his Lancer Evo 6, with Andrew Crowley calling the notes.

Rob Bishop/Neil Woolley were next best on the outright leader’s board in their similar car, and the two Evo 6s started a rally-long battle for domination.

Kiwi Ayson settled into a nice rhythm in his borrowed Escort (and borrowed co-driver in the form of Cate Kelly), dicing with both Keogh and Clay Badenoch (Celica).

While the roads may not have been damaging, breakdowns occurred and Bruce Clark retired his Stanza after SS2 with a blown headgasket.

Peter Roberts added a Border Ranges victory to his win in Batemans Bay.

The immaculate VW Polo S2000 of Marius Swart and Alan Stean only made it to SS5 before drive problems brought their weekend to a premature end.

Roberts and Bishop did not have it all their own way, with the lead classics breathing down their necks on stage times.

Peter Kahler (son of the late George) had recently made the conversion to 4WD with a Lancer Evo 6, and he and co-driver, Claire Buccini, were improving with every kilometre, clocking times inside the top five almost from the outset.

This was the battle that the organisers hoped for with incredibly close overall times being swapped by the Japanese turbo 4WDs and the brilliant-sounding classics.

There were simply seconds separating the quickest cars.

SS8 ‘Toonumbar 2’ over 19 kilometres was cancelled due to safety reasons, with reports of local anti-rally protesters throwing burning clumps of rags onto the road, and some further reports of officials being threatened.

This unnecessary behaviour caused much concern for all parties and reminded everyone of the antics of the anti-WRC brigade seven years ago in the district. On the occasion of the WRC, protesters blockaded and delayed cars and damaged property.

Thankfully, the third run over the brilliant 8.30km Hillyards stage

provided the exciting climax to the event that everyone wanted.

28 finishers were recognised at rally end, with the win going to a flawless performance by Roberts/Crowley, from Bishop/Woolley. A consistent and quick run by Kahler/Buccini saw the new team take third spot on the podium.

Derek Ayson and Cate Kelly held off the classic and 2WD competition to take a brilliant fourth outright, in front of Steve Tonna/Peter Graham (Evo 5), and holding off the Celica of Badenoch/Kelly in sixth and the insane Keogh Quattro in seventh.

Such was the tightness of the competition, the top five cars were

only separated by 90 seconds on the timesheet, and position six to 10 were also spaced over a mere 75 seconds.

With Derek Ayson heading back to New Zealand after Border Ranges to contest the Hanmer Rally the next weekend, his parting words were positive and encouraging.

“Thanks for another well organised rally, and I would love to get a few more Kiwis back sometime as this is truly an amazing event,” Ayson said.

While the Border Ranges Rally may not have the exposure of the Otago, it’s an event that has much to offer and a local rally community that is inspired to take it to the next level.

Rob Bishop secured the 2016 MRF Tyres Queensland Rally Championship with one round to go.

SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 63

FEATURE: SOUTH AFRICAN SPECIALS

WHEN NECESSITY WAS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION Story: LEON JOUBERT

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ike Australia, South Africa had lots of tempting unsurfaced roads and countryside mountain passes that begged to be used for rallying in the years following the Second World War, and they were soon put to use by enthusiastic amateurs.

South African outback roads were of indifferent quality. Potholes, cross drains and rocky surfaces were part of the mix and crews had to be skilled car preparers and mechanics. Tough cars ‘made for Africa’ were preferable.

By 1960 a national rally championship had been established and, in its first years, the two-stroke Auto Union proved to be a regular winner, thanks to its durability, good FWD handling and 15-inch wheels with long travel suspension.

By 1964 another tough European car, the Volvo 122S ‘Amazon’, began to feature regularly on the leader boards, but that year also witnessed the first appearance of two other durable car makes, both from Japan – Datsun and Toyota.

The Datsun effort was driven (literally) by a remarkable Pretoriabased engineer, Ewold van Bergen, who could meticulously dismember a Datsun Bluebird 1200, then re-design and reassemble it into a rally-winning car. He was so successful that he was soon employed by Datsun (and later Nissan) as the company’s only ‘foreign’ consultant outside Japan.

The Toyota importer countered by importing two twin cam Toyota GT5 coupes and the cars were successful.

That prompted van Bergen to create

Leon Joubert’s Auto Union competing in the late 60s.

64 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

The ex-Hannu Mikkola Ford Escort imported by Ford South Africa for Jan Hettema in 1971.

his so-called Datsun P510 SSS-TK, which confused his Japanese employers until he explained that TK stood for ‘Toyota Killer’.

Throughout the late 1960s, the South African Championship saw healthy competition between Volvo, Datsun, Toyota and also Renault (with R8 and R12 Gordinis). Even Alfa Romeo Guilia and Berlina models (assembled in South Africa) were in the mix.

The Total International Rally was the country’s biggest annual event in which the winners also got a free entry into the Monte Carlo Rally. These links led to some cross-pollination with top European rally drivers often competing in the Total Rally. Ove Andersson was one of the first, and would eventually establish powerful competition and

engineering links for Renault and Toyota.

During the 1960s, eligible cars for championships were basically those that were for sale in the South African market (there was a wide choice), but modifications were largely unlimited, though there were engine capacity classes that scored bonus points, along with points for overall results.

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his formula carried through into the 1970s and as Ewold van Bergen with Datsun, and Ove Andersson with Renault and Toyota, began to forge technical links with overseas sources, the development of Ford of England’s motor rallying programmes with the Escort also spilled over to South Africa.

The first ‘full works’ Ford Escort to arrive in South Africa was an ex-Hannu Mikkola Lotus Escort used as a recce car, and it was given to multiple SA Rally Champion, Jan Hettema, to drive.

It was soon followed by a local ‘Perana’ version of the Escort Mexico, powered by a two-litre SOHC Ford Pinto engine.

The Escort ‘Perana’ was developed by the same Basil Green who created the Perana Ford Capri V8 that is quite well known in Australia. It may have triggered a flood of ‘skunk works’ cars for mid-1970s rallying in South Africa.

In 1972-73, General Motors SA (under

the Chevrolet name) funded two excellent engineers and race drivers, Basil van Rooyen and Geoff Mortimer, to build a car to challenge the Capri Perana V8 on the racetracks. The ‘Little Chevy’ Can-Am 302 was born.

Based on a Vauxhall Firenza body shell, the Can-Am ran a 302 cubic inch, small block V8 from the Camaro Z28, coupled with a four-speed Muncie gearbox. Since the bigger local ‘Chevrolet’ sedans of the time were Holdens, the Can-Am got DeVille front discs, a Kingswood rear axle (with Volvo 164 side shafts and Borg Warner L/S), Fiat rear discs and Koni shocks.

Of the 100 required units that were built for race homologation, two were then turned into 300bhp rally cars.

What could have been a remarkable career for the Chevy Can-Am was sadly curtailed by a knee-jerk ban on motor sport during the prevailing fuel crisis at the time. But the concept of do-it-yourself local engineering had been established. The only regulatory pre-requisite was that the car and its oily bits would share the same genetic lineage.

When motor sport recommenced in the mid-1970s, Geoff Mortimer applied his prodigious talents to the most unlikely of templates, the unloved Austin Marina.

He replaced the ancient B-Series four cylinder with a Rover V8 (as would be done in a few other BL models), coupled with a four-speed transmission that included electric overdrive on third and fourth gears. This car, on occasion, beat the Ford Escort RS1800 in national championship events, and even had a run in the hands of Simo Lampinen.

Mortimer followed the V8 Marina with a similar car fitted with a modified Triumph Dolomite engine and, in the hands of Tony Pond, it held its own

Geoff Mortimer in the very successful Rover V8 powered Austin Marina. Photo: Kees van de Coolwijk.

1973 Chevy Can-Am 302 rally version,designed by Geoff Mortimer.

The Fiat 131 Abarth fitted with a Ferrari/Lancia 2.5 V6 was not a successful development.

against works Escorts being driven by Roger Clark and Timo Mäkinen in South African events.

Another somewhat unusual ‘skunk works’ car that made its South African appearance in the mid-1970s was the ‘Fiat-Ferrari 131 Abarth’.

Fiat South Africa created a potentially powerful rally team around Jan Hettema with an imported full-works 131 Abarth and a back-up team of locally developed Fiat 131 Rallye models (fitted with modified, but much more standard, mechanicals).

But the two-litre 131 Abarth quickly showed it lacked the grunt to keep up with the 220+bhp of the works Escorts, hence a decision was taken to transplant a 2.5 litre Ferrari Dino/Lancia Stratos engine into the Abarth.

This blend of South African and SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 65

FEATURE: SOUTH AFRICAN SPECIALS Firenza CanAm rally car in action, with Jan Hettema driving.

Mazda rotary engine on its way into a 323.

Italian engineering talents proved less successful than Rory Byrne’s later tenure at Ferrari, and the development was scrapped after just a few events.

Mazda was having a fantastic run of success in Group N racing with its RX-2 and as the RWD 323 had become a best seller, the idea of a rotary-engined 323 was there to be used.

Engineer/drivers, Colin Burford and Andre Liebenberg, built the car for Mazda and Liebenberg rallied it with some success, though the flamespewing exhaust had a tendency to

cook the feet of the crew and risk setting fire to forest stages.

Most of these developments petered out by the late 1970s when exact copies of Boreham Escort RS1800s were being built by Bernie Marriner for Ford in Port Elizabeth. Toyota was building cars in close co-operation with Japan and TTE, Nissan was doing much the same, and General Motors was using ‘Chevairs’ (Opel Asconas) with Blydenstein engines.

From 1976-1983 these sophisticated Euro/Japanese powered cars would

dominate the South African rallying scene and attract the likes of Tony Pond, Roger Clark, Hannu Mikkola, Ove Andersson, Per Eklund, Sandro Munari, Rauno Aaltonen, Jimmy McRae, Jochi Kleint, Pentti Airikkala, Leif Asterhag and many other European drivers to come and compete in the country.

And then it all changed in 1985, when the Audi Quattro arrived and was put in the hands of ‘SuperVan’ Sarel Daniel van der Merwe. But that is another story for another day...

- LEON JOUBERT

KIWIS GO MAD FOR AP4

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Tony Gosling has purchased Force Motorsport’s Mazda 2 AP4.

Greg Murphy (right) is excited about the new AP4+ Barinas to run in the 2017 NZRC. 66 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

mongst rumours of another five AP4 based cars coming to fruition for the 2017 New Zealand Rally Championship, the RDL Performance team are hard at work preparing their two Holden Barinas for former Bathurst winner, Greg Murphy, and Josh Marston.

“Both cars have about 2-3 days of fabrication work left in them and they’ll be ready for paint,” explains Marston. “The body kit is half done already as well, it’s progressing nicely.”

Under the skin, both cars will comply with the recently announced AP4+ rules that allow an 1800cc engine with a higher 1300kg weight limit.

The engine will be based on an ‘Ecotec’ engine, which will be stroked back from two-litre, while the cars will run the same Sadev drivetrain run in the Hawkeswood Mazda, Inkster Skoda and Paddon Hyundai that were campaigned in 2016.

The team is currently working towards a first public outing at Rod Millen’s Leadfoot Festival on February 4-5.

- BLAIR BARTELS

ROYCE WATSON MEMORIAL RALLY Matt Summerfield steers clear of the snow-capped mountains to take victory.

PHOTOS: Euan Cameron

ACTION APLENTY AT POPULAR HANMER Story: BLAIR BARTELS

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he Royce Watson Memorial Rally, held in the forest around the tourist town of Hanmer Springs in North Canterbury, saw several NZRC regulars out for a play, including a few who swapped jobs for the day.

The event was largely dominated by Matt Summerfield, who won by just under one and a half minutes.

Summerfield had to do so without regular co-driver, sister Nicole, who borrowed Matt’s Legacy and jumped in the driver’s seat, with Rocky Hudson (now sitting alongside his fifth driver for the season) calling the shots. The pair

Author Blair Bartels sat beside Regan Ross and picked up 8th outright in their Escort.

came home 49th and steadily improved across the day.

Summerfield wasn’t the only co-driver turned driver for the event either, with Blair Read, normally seen in Tony Gosling’s Escort, taking the wheel of a DX Corolla, coming home third in the 1300-1600cc class.

He did enlist some help in the form of brother, NZRC and APRC regular Malcolm Read in the co-driver’s seat.

Another making the same swap was Nigel Ross, who enlisted Dave Neill to co-drive, the pair coming home 33rd.

Another NZRC regular swapping jobs was Rally Live host Blair Bartels, who jumped in alongside Historic class

regular Regan Ross in his BDA Escort.

The pair finished third in the 1600cc & over 2WD class.

Richard Bateman/Sharisse Guckert and Phil Collins/Tracy Spark both ran exactly the same team and car as they did at the final NZRC round in Coromandel, taking out sixth and 32nd respectively, while Jason Clark this time teamed up with wife Tracey, only to have engine failure.

A few NZRC regulars swapped steads for the event as well, with Jeff Judd having a troublesome day with his rather rapid Corolla to finish 34th, while Barry Varcoe, who wrecked his Impreza at Whangarei, piloted his TA64 Celica rather more successfully to 24th.

Nicole Summerfield was in the driver’s seat this time, and showed her talent.

SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 67

INTERVIEW: MADS OSTBERG

MADS OSTBERG Story: MARTIN HOLMES

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-Sport’s 26-year old lead driver, Mads Ostberg, is to start his 100th world championship rally in Corsica, the second youngest driver and the third Norwegian to reach this level of experience.

Mads embarked on his WRC rally career at the Swedish Rally in 2006, so this seemed a good opportunity to find out from the inside how the world championship has changed in the last 10 years. From the outside, the work of the promoters, the way that drivers and teams prepare for rallies, the intensity for competition on events and the personal way that the profession of rally driving have changed, and the way that rallies themselves are run?

Mads: By the time I came into WRC various things like central servicing were already well established. We had just started with two passes on the recce. It is surprising what changes came as a result.

Recceing has really developed over 10 years. It made everyone look in different areas to improve and use the spare time between the rallies to get more familiar with the roads. Everyone started to video their recces.

Now we use WRC+ a lot. Everything

is now getting more intense. The work continues, not just in the actual hours in which you are actually recceing the stages. Previously, co-drivers always used to spend their evenings cleaning up the notes they had made, but now everyone is watching the videos of the stages.

Back in the start of my career when Petter (Solberg) was still driving, we all went out to have dinner in the evenings with his brother Henning. I remember Petter also liked to go to a cinema after the recce. When he finished recce he would go for a jog and then go and see a movie!

Mind you, Henning still likes to go to eat. He hasn’t changed, he has the old fashioned way of doing things!

MH: Nowadays, the need for fitness is a big change.

MO: Yes, and never as much as now.

I think everyone knows you actually need to be a good athlete to be a good rally driver. Now all the top drivers spend a lot of time on physical training.

It wasn’t really that much when I started. I think there was a new generation starting quite at the same time as I did (2006-2009), with Thierry Neuville, Ott Tanak, Evgeniy Novikov, Andreas Mikkelsen and myself. A lot of new drivers brought these things Mads Ostberg driving for Subaru on the 2006 Wales Rally GB.

Mads Ostberg in 2011.

on to another level. This was a new generation of drivers coming in with different backgrounds.

Sebastien Loeb started himself by being an athlete before he came into rallying.

MH: The next factor is everything to do with social media. Has it taken all of us over?

MO: When I started rallying there was no such thing. Everyone had a website and things were working differently.

I think social media is really important. Together with the television, it is now one of the biggest things we have to promote our sport. I think all the drivers on the top level are using a lot of energy on social media and that’s the same for me as well.

I think every driver has other people to do this work for them. You can’t do that while you’re driving! Obviously we can take pictures, which we do, we give comments to our media people, but they are the people taking care of this.

MH: Then there have been advances in the safety work.

MO: When I came into rallying special clothing was already a big part of the rally teams and also for us. For sure, especially with the HANS (Head and Neck Safety) device, and now I’m using 68 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

the hybrid system, both of them are really important and its difficult now to look back and see that actually at the start of my career, I didn’t use it.

Also, the safety of the cars has been a lot better, even though the roll cage at that time was already really strong. We have seen the importance of the safety foam and where this is placed in the car and things like that, so there has been a good development on safety.

MH: Do you think SuperRally attracts the wrong sort of approach to the sport?

MO: I think it has been a benefit, but I’m not sure if it is anymore, because now we have a lot of cars and teams.

At that time there were not so many cars and teams. It was a correct thing to do to keep cars in the race.

MH: One of the most remarkable things about you is that apart from (Sebastien) Ogier, you are the most reliable finisher on world championship rallies. Is it a characteristic of you, or that you began in the sport when people thought more about reliability than speed?

MO: I think it is a mixture of many things. First of all it’s probably one of my characteristics as a driver and a person.

But also, in the start of my career we knew that the budget was limited, we knew that if we had a big accident it would probably affect the programme, so that was a big part all the way up to 2011.

Even after we stopped the private team and continued as a manufacturer driver, that’s been a part of me.

MH: The sport is building up to develop rallying into new areas. Do you feel that the sport should concentrate on being with the traditional events, or do you think it is important to have new ones?

MO: Of course it is important to have some of the classic rallies, events like Finland, Mexico, Argentina, Sweden, Monte Carlo. There are a lot of classic events that I think are really important for the championship.

And of course you need to develop and follow the markets that make it interesting for the promoter and manufacturers. So, in one way you need to develop, but you need to keep some of the basics of rallying, and that means some of the classic events.

MH: The traditional basics of rallying are the spectators. Are spectator levels what they used to be when you started?

MO: No. I would say that spectator levels, at least in some rallies, is very

Mads with his father, and manager, Morten.

high, but I see less people on other rallies. It can depend on the way the organisers actually lay out the events.

I don’t know all of the rallies so well but, if you look at Wales for example, you have seen a lot of spectators in the past, but the last few years they haven’t really been that great.

I think in Corsica there were almost no spectators, but I think on some of the classic events, like Monte Carlo and Sweden and Finland, there are a lot of spectators, and in South America, it’s obviously crazy!

MH: Coming to your 100th rally, has the life in the world championship been as exciting and meaningful as you expected?

MO: Yes, in many ways I would say so.

When I started rallying, I had a dream of getting into Manufacturers’ teams and things like that.

Obviously you expect something and very often when you are there you find it’s a little different, but of course a lot of it is like you hoped.

You get to drive a lot of rallies, a lot of cars and really enjoy it, but of course there are aspects of all sports which you don’t really understand before you are at the highest level. Some of it is more work than fun …

MH: Is there any country that you found especially exciting, and maybe some which were not as exciting as you expected?

MO: I have to think back to the time when I discovered the new rallies for the first time. I would say that South America probably had the rallies where I got really surprised about the interest and how they appreciate rally. How enthusiastic they are and how many people there are.

Disappointments? Yes for sure. It is not very kind to mention which ones, but I probably must say that Australia is one of the biggest.

I was really looking forward to going there. The place where the rally is now based is obviously a fantastic place in a beautiful area of Australia, but the interest of rallies is zero, however, I never went to Perth.

I heard a lot about Rally Australia before we were there, but it was in a different area.

MH: Finally, what do you think next year is going to be all about with the new cars?

MO: For me nothing is clear for next year yet. Regarding the new cars, I think that is a really interesting part of it.

Previously we were talking about developing different aspects of the championship, now it is the turn of the car. And obviously I was there when we used the 2-litre turbo with fully active differentials, and then we went to the 1.6 turbo, mechanical differential cars.

Now we are increasing the power with the 1.6 turbo and in 2017 there will be bigger turbo restrictors, more aero and more diffs again. It makes next year more interesting, next year’s championship will be extremely tough.

There are a lot of good drivers in the championship these days and a lot of good teams, and I think with the new cars it will be probably very different to what we see today.

I think the drivers will be more important, and I think it will be more difficult to drive the car to its limit, and the competition these days is tougher than it has ever been. These days everything is getting faster, quicker, competitive.

SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 69

GEORGE DERRICK PYRENEES RUSH

WINDUS ORDERS RUSH WIN Story: CRAIG O’BRIEN

A

rron Windus, with co driver Joe Brick (Subaru), clinched their second win, by a mere two seconds at the Leech’s Mitsubishi Pyrenees Rush on August 28, ahead of Will Orders and Toni Feaver (Mitsubishi).

Warren Lee and David Lethlean in another Mitsubishi completed the podium.

Following the cancellation of the weather affected Bega Valley Rally in June, the Victorian Rally Championship resumed in the small township of Avoca in the heart of the Pyrenees.

A field of 44 crews had entered the rally, although Justin Dowel and championship leader, Darren Windus, were late withdrawals.

This presented young Arron, who was returning from competing for Vauxhall in the British Junior Rally Championship, with the opportunity to step into the car his father has campaigned so successfully over the last 18 months.

Other notable entries included the Mackenzie brothers, Steven and Brent, in their G2 specification Ford Fiesta, and four-time Australian Rally Champion, Simon Evans, calling the notes for Luke Sytema in an Escort.

Consistent rain throughout August ensured dust would be at a minimum, but the challenging roads caught out one crew early in SS1, neutralising the stage and forcing the field to regroup at the beginning of SS2.

When action got back underway for SS2, Windus/Brick set the pace, but snapping at their heels were Andrew Murdoch/Jason Whitaker (Subaru) and Orders/Feaver, with six seconds covering the trio after the two opening stages.

Further back in the field, Brad Till/ Mitch Garrad had a soft roll but continued on, despite looking a little worse for wear, while Wayne Stewart/ Ray Farrell had a turbo fail on their WRX. Windus was determined to go well on the 29km test of SS4, which bit him hard when the championship last used the stage at the 2015 Begonia Rally, and he succeeded, winning the stage

PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS 70 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

Arron Windus again showed his natural ability and speed.

(Photo: John Doutch)

and claiming the heat one win by 15 seconds from Orders.

The star of the stage, though, was the local crew of Andrew Daniell/Emily Leech, who banked on local knowledge rather than pacenotes to record the fourth fastest stage time in their Datsun Stanza.

Will Orders lost the event by just two seconds. (Photo: John Doutch)

For more details call Dominic on 0499 981 188

Luke Sytema and Simon Evans put on a show for the spectators. (Photo: Ivan Glavis)

Late running time resulted in SS5 being cancelled, leaving Orders with a lot of work to do over the remaining three stages if he was to take victory.

He opened heat two in fine style, winning SS6 by 7.4 seconds from Windus, while Murdoch’s woes continued with the oil leak catching fire, melting the CV boots and steering rack bushes and forcing him into retirement.

This elevated Lee/Lethlean into the podium positions.

The penultimate stage saw Windus claw back just over a second and head into the final 29km stage with a nine second advantage.

Running ahead of Windus on the road, Orders/Feaver put it all on the line, and despite lacking rubber, set a staggering time, 25 seconds quicker than their earlier pass. They managed to even up the ledger, winning the heat, but Windus/Brick had done just enough to sneak home by two seconds overall and clinch Subaru’s 10th consecutive round win in the VRC. Behind them, the Mackenzies stormed home to finish fourth, Luke Sytema/Simon Evans an impressive fifth in their Escort RS1800, and Daniell/Leech sixth.

In the Our Auto Rally Series, a faultless event from Stephen Eccles/ Simon Pilepich saw the pair win their class comfortably and extend their championship lead, heading into the Spring 200 in mid-September.

Steve Mackenzie makes a splash. (Photo: John Doutch) Paul Eccles, Subaru WRX. (Photo: Ivan Glavis)

SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 71

FEATURE: THE CARS YOU WON’T BE SEEING Li Fusheng S2 Lotus L3

S6 SouEast Ling Shi Turbo V6

S6 FAW Volkswagen

S6 BAIC Senova Saab D50

72 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

THE RALLY CARS

T

he cancellation of the 2016 WRC China Rally means that a major chance to see first hand some completely different rally cars has been lost to the international rally world.

The national Chinese Rally Championship has for many years been an impressively supported series in terms of variety and exclusivity of cars, but now the only chance for foreign rally people to see these cars first hand has been when the FIA’s Asia-Pacific championship goes to China.

This year this meant going faraway to the edge of the Gobi desert, close to Mongolia. This helps to explains why many of these cars remain little known outside China.

Brian Young of Asia Pacific Sports Media, however, was present at the APRC round at Zhangye and secured this collection of images of seldom seen cars while he was there.

Chinese national rallying runs to its own rules and classes.

The premier class is S6, which is a surprisingly free formula based on production cars. Their main protagonists are the national FAW VW team that run special 2-litre turbocharged Golfs built by Prodrive in Britain.

These cars are fitted with old Skoda Fabia WRC engines supplied by Lehmann, and use a lot of Mini WRC components. These cars finished first, fourth and fifth.

Their main rival team is the Subaru Rally Team using a latest version Impreza prepared in America by Subaru Rally Team USA, using two cars, one a 2014 version of the American championship Impreza WRX STI 2014, and the other a new modified XV. The biggest team is Beiqi Saab Rally Team who run Beijing Automotive Saab D50 cars. These are BAIC Senovas that are based on old Saab 9-5 cars, but fitted with Mitsubishi R4 drivetrain, Holinger six speed sequential transmission from Australia, and Evo X transmission parts.

Another local, but older, model still used in CRC rallying is the SouEast V6 Ling Shi Turbo, which despite its name, was based on a locally made four cylinder Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X. A team that had been active till the end of 2015 ran a turbocharged version Skoda Fabia S2000, but they have now stopped competition, though two of the delightfully called Shanghai Volkswagen Skoda New Crystal Sharp (new Fabia shape) were entered by the Linky Racing team.

The wide range of cars continues in the supporting classes.

The top non-S6 cars in Zhangye were various Subaru and Mitsubishis in familiar Group N or Group R4 specification, while Manfred Stohl runs a team of Citroen DS3 R5 cars, which at Zhangye were run in the FIA APRC category, which Stohl won outright.

The top S4 cars at the event were two-wheel drive Dongfeng Honda Civics which took the top three places in their category, while another familiar shape won S3, the Volkswagen Jetta, heading three locally built Volkswagen Golfs.

YO

VW Polo Lifan and Suzuki

YOU WON’T BE SEEING It was further down in the supporting classes, and especially the popular S2 category, that really unfamiliar cars were found.

Top car at Zhangye was the JAC Refine S2, which finished first, third and fourth, but the winner was only 15 seconds in front of a new Chang Yi Moving XT. Among the curiosities of the category were a couple of rare small passenger Proton-derived Youngman Lotus L3 cars, which are no longer being produced.

The smallest class was S1, in which the winner was a Lifan 520, a model already seen in competition last year in the FIA Codasur championsip events. Rivals were the familiar shapes of a Changan Suzuki Swift and Volkswagen Polo. erhaps the most unusual category is the special class for hybrid cars, all of them being BYD Qin cars. These cars require special electrical recharging facilities in parc ferme situations. Zhangye saw nine of these cars entered, one of them running in the parallel APRC rally.

Entry levels for CRC events are impressively high, a total of 121 for the recent Zhangye event, in addition to the entries for the APRC event, with numerically a large proportion being cars that are seldom seen outside the country.

The calendar for CRC championship rallies is as fluid as the regulations to which the cars are prepared. This restricts the opportunities for foreign drivers to compete on these events and score championship points for the teams for which they run, but they are not allowed to score drivers’ championship points.

Normally only three or four foreign drivers will be active on each CRC event. British driver, David Higgins, said that there was a 50/50 chance that a published date for a future event would change at short notice! The locations for qualifying events are far flung and conditions were varied. The city of Zhangye is three days driving, each way, from Beijing, with no convenient airline connections.

The event was held in very high temperatures, a location which the imaginative Chinese federation proposed to the FIA as being a suitable venue for the recently abandoned WRC event.

Winter events have been held at Mohe in the far north of the country in temperatures of minus 40 degrees, largely run on frozen lakes. Another event has been run out of Jixi, north of Vladivostok and not far from the North Korean border, again as a winter event.

Normally the only time foreign people will see these events is at the annual APRC event, for many years held at Longyou, north of Shanghai.

It really seemed that finally the world of the WRC would have a chance to see these cars compete on a supporting event this year at Huairou, but that never happened. These cars are destined to remain secrets from behind the bamboo curtain for another year.

STORY: MARTIN HOLMES, PHOTOS: BRIAN YOUNG

Hybrid BYD Qin

Li Daiwei S3 FAW VW Jetta FV7166

P

Deng Xiaowen S2 Chang Yi Moving XT

Chiang Chi-yang S2 JAC Refine

SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 73

PHOTO OF THE MONTH

74 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016

Arron Windus and Joe Brick slide their way to victory in the Pyrenees Rush on August 28.

SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 75

15 YEARS AGO ....

SEPTEMBER 2001 NEW IMPREZA FOR HERRIDGE

L

eading Australian Group N driver Dean Herridge returned from Japan where he tested the new Group N Subaru Impreza WRX that he will drive in both the Rally of New Zealand and Rally Australia.

Along with Japanese driver Konishi, Herridge will drive for the Japanese Subaru outfit in a new shape Impreza, with regular co-driver Jim Carlton calling the pacenotes.

THOMPSON LICKS HIS WOUNDS

I

t wasn’t so much the physical damage that had been done to the car, but the remorse that 20 year old Mark Thompson felt after crashing Mitsubishi’s second-string Group N rally car at the pre-Saxon Safari test day.

“Bob Riley was actually quite good about the whole affair, urging me to put it behind me and concentrate on getting my own car ready for the rally,” Thompson told ARN. Still, it’s not everyone who can walk away from a 5th gear, 5,000 rpm crash that almost totally destroys a rally car. “Iain Stewart told me it was the biggest crash he’d ever had,” a bemused Thompson added.

BOURNE NEARS 6TH TITLE

P

ossum Bourne has all but clinched his sixth successive Australian Rally Championship crown after a hard-fought win in the Saxon Safari Tasmania, the fourth round of the national titles.

Together with co-driver Craig Vincent, Bourne outlasted a determined drive from the Toyota of Neal Bates and Coral Taylor to take victory in both heats.

Team-mates Cody Crocker and Greg Foletta, meanwhile, made the most of clutch problems to the Ed Ordynski/Iain Stewart Mitsubishi Lancer to take a double Group N win.

NEW LANCER WORLD RALLY CAR

Subaru’s Possum Bourne all but clinched his sixth ARC title.

M

itsubishi Motors is embarking on a new and exciting chapter in its motorsports history by creating its first World Rally Car. Known as the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution WRC, it will make its first FIA World Rally Championship appearance on Italy’s Sanremo Rally.

It is designed to be the most advanced, most sophisticated competition car that Mitsubishi has yet produced.

ATKINSON EMERGES

T

he Falken Tyres Rally Team announced just before the Saxon Safari that Chris Atkinson had joined Steven Shepheard in their two-car rally team for the final two rounds of the 2001 Australian Rally Championship.

Neal Bates in Tasmania in his Corolla World Rally Car.

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