The crash destroyed the pair’s Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 and sent Nic Box to hospital for surgery to have his broken elbow wired. While Nic will be in a sling for at least two weeks and the surgeon has ordered him to be on light duties for four weeks, preparations are well underway for them to be on the starting ramp at the International Rally of Queensland on the 24th May.
Box has spent the last week supervising the stripping of the wrecked Evo 9 in preparation for transferring the salvageable mechanical components into a new shell so the team, which currently sits third in the championship after two rounds, can potentially salvage their season.
Box and Ridden in the Allstar Garage/Caravan Shed/Hippo Creek Bar and Grill Lancer Evo have been the revelation of the 2012 Bosch Four Wheel Drive Australian Rally Championship, leading the opening round of the series, the ECB Rally Calder before slipping on the last few stages going on to finish third. The effort is all the more meritorious given Calder was the first time the pair had contested a round of the Bosch ARC.
They continued that form at their home round in WA leading heat one until a puncture late on Saturday robbed them of their maiden round win. They continued that pace in heat two on Sunday before landing badly over a high speed jump at better than 165 km/h.
The car speared off the road and into trees with the first impact measured at 128km/h by the car’s RallySafe transponder. The fact that both Box and Ridden avoided serious injury underlined the importance of the mandatory safety equipment in the car.
Box owns Allstar Garage, a high performance modification and tuning workshop, while co-driver Ash Ridden is the general manager of The Caravan Shed, a caravan repair and modification business, in Cockburn south of Perth.
“We will be at Rally of Queensland and the remaining rounds and we will be aiming to lift our pace to match Tom Wilde and Michael Boaden,” said Ash Ridden.
“It was a pretty scary ride and left us pretty sore and sorry but our resolve is undiminished and we will definitely be fighting for the championship until the very last round,” he said.
The Bosch Australian Rally Championship heads to the Sunshine Coast for round three of the 2012 title, the International Rally of Queensland on 25-27 May. Then it is off to Round four, the Scouts Rally of Adelaide which will be held in July with the Snake Racing Coffs Coast Rally in October. The Championship then concludes at Rally Victoria in Early November.
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