Kevin Weeks and John Allen have shown their dominance of the roads of the Adelaide Hills taking this weekends ASP Adelaide Hills Tarmac Rally in the second round of the Australian Tarmac Rally Championship to add to his Classic Adelaide crowns around the famed Adelaide Hills Roads.
Weeks in his Superloc Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera R had a faultless display despite nearly not making the start due to a late engine change in the days leading up to the rally.
However after sourcing a new engine for the Italian Supercar and some initial problems, the car ran faultlessly, much to the delight of Supaloc Racing Technical Director Oscar Fiorinotto and the Supaloc Racing team members, who worked absolutely tirelessly just to make a start in the event.
“The lead-up to the event was less than ideal,” Fiorinotto said.
“We had another engine failure due to a problem with the oil system, and the team worked tirelessly for two days straight and only just made the start of the rally.
“Once we started the rally, Kevin was never really challenged and everything ran like clockwork. I’m confident we have the technical problems sorted now.
“Kevin was particularly happy with the seamless shift gearbox. We have to especially thank Ole Buhl Racing and Reiter Engineering for their help with its development.
“The ASP Rally was also run very professionally, and it was enjoyable to compete in. Hopefully we see some more national competitors racing there in the future.”
Taking Second place was last year's ASP Adelaide Hills Tarmac Rally winner in a Mitsubishi EVO XIII of Andrew Burnard and Brian Virgo with the local pairing showing they had the speed despite some early problems.
“We had to change the car back to using pump fuel, because we weren’t allowed to run E85,” said Burnard
“I wasn’t confident about how we would go in the rally because I knew it would rob us of some horsepower."
“At the beginning of the rally, I was losing time to some of the other competitors because they had more powerful vehicles, but once we got into the tight and twisty stages, we just carved them up.
“The Supaloc suspension totally transformed the car’s handling. The normal issue with Evos has always been massive understeer, but once we installed the Supaloc suspension, the understeer just disappeared and the car was beautifully balanced. On one stage, I was 20 seconds faster than last year, even though we had less power.
“It really gives you a lot of confidence when you know exactly when you need to turn into a corner, and the car will respond accordingly.
“It was really good to beat such quality opposition in cars with great pedigree.”
The next challenge for the Supaloc Racing team will come this weekend at Eastern Creek, when Kevin Weeks steps into his newly-acquired Lamborghini Gallardo GT car for Round 3 of the Australian GT Championship.
“It will be good to give Kevin some miles in circuit racing again and familiarise himself with aerodynamics in a circuit environment. The goal will be to get some good, consistent results and establish Supaloc Racing within the GT ranks,” Fiorinotto concluded.
There was disappointment however for 2009 SA Rally Championship Winners Matthew Selley and Bernie Webb who were running in 2nd Outright before developing problems near the end of the event in the last few stages.
