Michael Boaden, on course to finish second at Rally Australia, said the failure that ended his rally was "an absolute tragedy" and “one of the hardest moments to accept in my rally career”.

By his own self-admission it’s been a tough couple of years for Boaden. Having come off the high of winning the last four-wheel drive Australian Rally Championship in 2012, Boaden embraced the new two-wheel drive format and purchased a South African built VW Polo.

“It’s fair to say it’s been an up and down couple of years, that’s probably what makes the failure at Rally Australia so tough to accept,” Boaden commented. “We felt good running in second, we felt the end was in sight and it felt like a relief to be getting through an event without a problem.”

Then on the opening stage of the final day in Coffs Harbour a failure that no one could have predicted had Boaden, and co-driving sister Helen Cheers, parked on the side of the road shaking their heads.

“The oil cooler split,” Michael explained matter of factly. “Who's ever heard of that happening? Even the manufacturer hadn’t heard of an oil cooler splitting like we had. The first question was did you hit anything, and that’s the most confusing bit because we hadn’t.”

“There were no noises, the engine was still running on all four cylinders, but the oil light was on and when I pulled over and checked there wasn’t a drop of oil left in the engine. We were 1.6km into the stage, and as I looked back up the road I could see a massive oil trail that we’d left, it must have been absolutely pouring out!”

In a way Boaden was relieved the failure was focused away from the engine itself, having had a run of terminal failures last season. “The engine was still cranking over even after we stopped so I’ve got everything crossed I turned it off in time, the last thing I need is another engine problem, I feel like we’ve been tainted with engine problems!”

The failure rocked Boaden who arrived back at the service park clearly distraught. We are gut wrenched!” he said at the time and from the look on his face that was probably an understatement.

Boaden had hoped to make Rally Australia a turning point with the ongoing development of the VW Polo, and it had looked on course until the unexpected failure. “The car was good, I was feeling really happy with everything, and the finish line was in sight, that’s the bit that hurts the most.”

“We’d really looked after the car, we were changing things at service that didn’t need changing just to be safe. We were certainly getting closer to the pace that I wanted to be at. And we’d taken no risks, then this happened,” he added.

This latest set back has put in doubt Boaden’s plans to enter the final Round of the season, Rally Victoria. “At this stage I’m not sure, probably not likely, I maybe need to see how I feel in a month from now because right now I still feel pretty disappointed with everything. I’m sure I’ll bounce back, I still love rallying, that’ll never change, it’s just these set backs are hard to take sometimes.”

 

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