A hard road well travelled – part 2

In the second part of this special sit down with the newly crowned Australian Rally Champion Scott Pedder, the ARC media team catch up on the years from 2007 to the present day, including the accident in 2010 that almost ended Scott’s rally career. (Read Part 1 HERE)
 

Q: We skip ahead again and you go from two years as a factory Mitsubishi driver (2005 & 2006) to a very quiet 2007.
 
SP: I only did the one event in 2007, I leased a car to compete at Rally New Zealand. I recall I crashed on day one and then came back to be 2nd fastest Group N car behind event winner Toshi Arai and beat guys like Juho Hanninen, Hayden Paddon and Alister McRae across the combined days two and three. I thought that was pretty good for my first time in New Zealand, in a leased Evo IX and so looking back not a bad result.
 
Scott Pedder and co-driver Glen Weston with their MRF Lancer.Q: And then to the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship in 2008. Fill in the blanks if you can?
 
SP: It was one of those bucket list things in 2008. Through a contact with MRF and Mitsubishi, and with the Race Torque team there was a seat there and we were able to get some funding and the opportunity to do the APRC came about.
 
I saw it as a chance to do something completely different. Very different events, a different car, different tyres. But it turned out to be an extremely difficult year, I think we broke five gearboxes in six events.
 
Looking back that was probably my fault, I was driving a left-hand drive car after years in only right-hand drive. Sure it was a tough year but I look back now and it taught me a lot, I think it put my ego in check after some very successful years in ’05 and ’06. That year I was easily third behind Crocker and (Katsu) Taguchi, and it forced me to realise that I had a lot to learn still.
 
Q: So a disappointing year in 2008 led to nothing at all the following year.
 
SP: That’s right, I didn’t go rallying once in 2009. At the time that was tough to take but I needed to clear my head a bit and the Pedders business needed some attention as the GFC loomed.
 
Q: And then we get to 2010 and your return to the ARC, was the motivation to come back and sort out some unfinished business?
 
SP: Like the APRC there was a good opportunity there to come back. We had some good sponsors behind us, and Mark wanted to go rallying again, so we decided to reinvent the Pedders Rally Team.
 
We had a terrific car with the Race Torque Evo IX, and I think it was the car of the Championship that year. We went out and won the first event of the year on tarmac in Tasmania, then backed it up to win the Forest Rally.
 
But then it started to go down hill. I needed to win almost every stage on the last day in Coffs Harbour to win the event and we were on track to do that so it was a last stage shoot out and probably immaturity got in the way, I took my eye off the ball which was to win the Championship, and had some bloke called Simon Evans who I really wanted to beat, and I managed to roll the car.  At that point that was the lowest I had felt in my rallying career because it was just a stupid mistake caused fully by me at precisely the wrong time but little did I know what was to come.
 
Q: So we get to Rally SA, an event you’d won before, but it all went terribly wrong.
 
SP: That’s right the next event, Rally SA, that’s where we had a massive setback with the crash. That was the real low point, we had had a great start to the year and had built a points lead. And basically I made a mistake, just two inches off line, and it was a mistake that cost me a couple of years on the sidelines.
 
In reality the mistake probably started back at Coffs Harbour on that last stage start line.  Take your medicine and finish second for the event and the Championship lead is still comfortable going into South Australia, a great event for me traditionally, but the Coffs accident and Simon’s improved speed in South Australia built up the pressure and something was bound to happen. And it did.
 
Q: After that crash did you honestly ever think you’d ever drive a rally car again?
 
SP: Definitely not initially, but as time went on my mental state changed and as opportunities presented themselves I couldn’t keep myself out of a rally car.
 
Q: In the Pedders business you focus on the marketing, was the move to being involved as a director of the ARC after your crash a way for you to use your real world experience to try to move the sport in a fresh direction?
 
SP: Absolutely, I could see things were on a slippery slope in that period after the manufacturers had departed the sport, and that if it had continued it looked like it was only going to get worse and in reality the end of the ARC, something that I have held very dear to my heart for now 38 years, was almost looking like it would become extinct.
 
I had a lot of enthusiasm to put back into the sport, and I saw the push towards two-wheel drive as the only real option to reinvent some much-needed commercial support and as a chance for me to give back. I had some great support from ARCom and people like Ben Rainsford, Katie Philps and Justin Dowel and actually most of the rally community that could see beyond their own noses.  As is normal, a lot is owed to the few.
 
Q: But you obviously still had a desire to race?
 
SP: I woke up one day and thought ‘I reckon I could drive these cars alright’ and then very late in 2012 I had a conversation with Renault and it went on from there.  My desire was drive a rally car again but the sound and dynamics of a top front-drive car and the challenge of something different drew me back.
 
Q: So out of some tough years, and a huge battle to get back on your feet after the 2010 accident, you arrived back in the ARC in 2013 and it all seems quite positive from there.
 
SP: I think I just wanted to be Australian Champion – pure and simple..
 
Q: And you linked up with Dale Moscatt as your co-driver and that, from the outside, appears to have calmed you as a driver, is that a fair assessment?
 
SP: I think those brain fade moments are still there (laughs) as I proved as recently as the ARMOR ALL Power Stage in Victoria. I just think I’ve learnt to control them. When I look back now, even talking to you for this story, at the times when I was competing against the factory cars you weren’t there to make up numbers, you were there to win stages, get attention and hopefully secure a factory drive. That mindset changes when you have a big accident, you realise you can’t drive flat out all the time, so you become a little more mature and smarter.
 
When you have a legitimate chance to win the title and that is your aim your mindset changes and you drive towards winning the title.
 
Dale is a true professional and has been a major reason for the success this year. I wouldn’t say he is a calming influence because he is probably more competitive than me but he is a guru of real perspective, reading a situation, saying the right things at the right time and essentially helping me ‘just drive’.
 
Q:  At times last year you seemed frustrated, so what changed this year?
 
SP: I just don’t think we had the car last year to compete consistently despite the fact that we had moments of greatness including winning the very first Heat of the year in Canberra.
 
And that’s nothing against Race Torque, I just don’t think the Renault in R3 spec was good enough to match the Honda Jazz or the way Eli (Evans) was driving. Like his big brother was, Eli in a full factory car and team was very formidable competition last year and Glen Weston is a World-class co-driver so like in most years the best team won.
 
This year we took the lessons learnt and brought them forward to 2014, updated the car to the full G2 regs, changed our approach slightly, and the results have flown from there. Certainly not having an Evans, Bates or Crocker in a factory car to compete against made some difference too - although Brendan, Rhiannon and the Rallyschool team can be nothing but proud of their efforts.
 
Q: So in the end how does it feel, to have come all the way up from the VRC, through all those years in the sport, to finally become Australian Rally Champion?
 
SP: It feels like the jobs done, actually more relief than elation. It’s hopefully the end of something I’ve worked very hard at for a long time now, and the start of something else. I’ve grown up loving the Australian Rally Championship since before I can even remember, I think I was at my first event before I could even walk, probably about when I was only six months old with my dad, and my uncle Bill, probably at the bottom of the mineshaft!
 
I’ve put a lot in to become Australian Rally Champion, I hope I bring a lot of credibility to that, to becoming the Champion. And I’ve done a lot behind the scenes too. So I hope, people look at the Championship in the same way I have, it’s something to be revered, people like Neal Bates, Simon Evans, Ed Ordynski, Possum Bourne, Ross Dunkerton, Cody Crocker. I hold all of them in high esteem and hopefully now I’m part of that group.
 
Q: So where do you go from here, what does the future hold for Scott Pedder?
 
SP: It’s still probably too early to tell, there are options out there, both in Australia and possibly also overseas.
 
I’d love to come back and drive that (Renault) Clio again, it’s the most unbelievable car to drive. And anyone who thinks front-wheel drive is boring needs to come for a ride.
 
Q: What about your nearest rival this year in Brendan Reeves?
 
SP: Full credit too to Brendan. He did an amazing job all year and took the fight all the way to the very last day of the year. But someone had to win and someone had to lose.
 
Q: And lastly is that the end of a short but sweet relationship with Walkinshaw Racing?
 
SP: The deal at the start of the year with Walkinshaw was that this was a toe in the water exercise from a pure marketing point of view, to tell the World that they aren’t just Holden and that they have the ability to diversify into other forms of racing.
 
That box has been ticked from them now. I think there are opportunities for them still in rallying, but not with me next year unfortunately.  They have been an amazing team, a great bunch of people that will always be Australian Rally Champions.

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