Sunshine Coast rally driver Ryan Smart will start as favourite for his home event in four weeks’ time after scoring his maiden Australian Rally Championship round win in Western Australia this weekend.
Smart and co-driver John Allen took their Toyota Corolla Sportivo to an emphatic victory in round one of the championship, which will continue at the International Rally of Queensland, close to the driver’s Yandina base, on 13-15 May.
Their all-wheel drive Toyota won both heats of the Quit Forest Rally run in forests around Nannup in South Western Australia against a field of high-powered rivals debuting the new ARC Unrestricted technical regulations.
It was the first rally to be run under the new Unrestricted formula for the championship with the leading turbo cars not running turbo restrictors with up to 400 horsepower.
Steven Shepheard led the heat after taking the first two tarmac stages around Busselton on Saturday evening but a turbocharger failure mid way through today’s stages forced the Mitsubishi Evo 10 driver out of the rally leaving Smart to battle Pedder and the Mitsubishi of Justin Dowel also from Victoria.
Smart was fastest on four of the ten stages on Sunday and was always in command in the dry and dusty forests around Nannup 60 km inland from Busselton on the West Australian coast.
Smart, 29, runner-up in last year’s ARC and a past Queensland champion, said he was “over the moon” after his breakthrough victory at national level and now was looking forward to resuming the title chase on his local roads.
“My new co-driver John Allen has kept me level-headed all weekend and we’re stoked with the win,” Smart said.
“It is really exciting and I am looking forward to Rally Queensland (International rally of Queensland), where we can really show some speed.
“I am very confident heading to our home event, being familiar with the roads and terrain, so we’re very confident of a win and bagging some more championship points to extend our lead.”
Allen has joined the team this year in place of Smart’s sister Rebecca, who has moved to Europe to contest the World Rally Championship with young Australian driver Molly Taylor.
“John did a brilliant job this weekend. We are really working well in the car together,” Smart said.
“I do also wish I could have shared this victory with my sister Rebecca, as she has co-driven for me in pretty much every rally since we started in our Datsun 180B in 2007. This is the first ARC that we haven’t competed in together.”
Meanwhile Local WA Subaru driver Alex Stone brought his car home in a fine fourth place ahead of fellow West Australian Subaru WRX drivers Tom Wilde in fifth and Chris Anderson in sixth.
Wilde took the Rallyschool.com.au Junior Australian Rally Challenge for four wheel drive cars while Victorian Will Orders took the two wheel drive honours in his Nissan Silvia, the pair qualifying for the Junior challenge shootout at Rally Australia in Coffs Harbour in September.
The rally took its toll with eight cars forced out in today’s second heat including the Shepheard Mitsubishi and the works Honda of Eli Evans that broke a drive shaft just three stages from home, while the local Subaru of Andrew McDonald exited with a spectacular rollover at a spectator point.
Stewart Reid comprehensively won the Classic section in his newly built Ford Escort RS1800 coming home 2 mins 27 secs in front of the Holden Commodore V8 of former Australian Rally Champion Barry Lowe
The ARC second round will be part of the International Rally of Queensland alongside round two of the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship, plus competitions for the Queensland Rally Championship, Classic rally cars and All-Comers.
Organisers are expecting up to 90 competing crews from around Australia and from overseas countries including Britain, Malaysia, Japan, India, Indonesia and New Zealand.
The event will feature the Caloundra Rally Shootout, presented by Caloundra RSL and Hella, under lights on Friday and Saturday nights, the traditional Mary Valley gravel stages in the Imbil forests and meet-and-greet stopovers in the hinterland towns of Kenilworth and Cooroy.
BOSCH AUSTRALIAN RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP - RD1: QUIT FOREST RALLY BUSSELTON WA
HEAT TWO. FINAL RESULTS
1. Ryan Smart/John Allen (Qld) Toyota Corolla Sportivo 1hr 6min 12.8 sec
2. Mark Pedder / Lee Tierney (Vic) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 + 29.1 secs
3. Justin Dowel/ Matt Lee (Vic) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 +32.0 secs
4. Alex Stone/ Hanna Drury(WA) Subaru WRX STi +2min5secs
5. Tom Wilde/ Neralie Wilde(WA) Subaru WRX STI +2min 36.1secs
6. Chris Anderson/ Ben Searcy(WA) Subaru WRX STi +3min 57.0secs
 [copyright-free photo by Phil Willams - www.freewebs.comphilwillmedia]nsp_119.JPG)
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