Australian Rally Championship leader Simon Evans has extended his margin by a further six points over rival Scott Pedder by taking out Heat 1 of the Scouts Rally SA.
Evans went into Saturday with a slender 0.9s lead over Justin Dowel after Friday night’s Angaston Super Special stages. Dowel pipped Evans in the first run, before the Tankformers Subaru took out the second stage.
The Victorian began Saturday’s running in impressive fashion, setting the fastest time on three of the first four stages to build a 21.9s lead over main championship rival Scott Pedder.
The morning proved to be instrumental in deciding the outcome of the heat, with Evans managing his lead for the rest of the day to emerge victorious by 20.1s.
“If you looked at the times, you would probably say it wasn’t a particularly tough day,” said Evans at the end of the heat. “But it was definitely hard out there.
“Last night we concentrated on keeping it clean – you can’t win a heat on those Super Special stages, but you can go a long way to losing it.
“This morning I wanted to push hard to try and capitalise on the lead I had – we gave it plenty and the times came to us.
“The roads were brilliant and the car was awesome – every event we move forward with it and I am getting more and more confident.”
Two more runs on the Angaston Super Special stage on Saturday night kicked off Heat 2, and if they were anything to go by Heat 2 could be an intense affair.
Scott Pedder took out the first stage of Heat 2 after some unexpected loose gravel caused Evans to lose around a second with a half spin.
The championship leader recovered to lap Angaston Oval fastest on the second time around taking a tiny 0.1s lead into Sunday.
