West Australian Brad Markovic and Victorian Glen Raymond are now locked in a tight battle for the ARC2 crown after two rounds of the Australian Rally Championship.
The opening round, run in Raymond’s home state of Victoria saw points go to the West Aussie Markovic.
But Raymond has evened up the ledger at the Western Australia round, and the two drivers now neck-and-neck in the ARC2 points table, with just six point separating them *.
“We had pretty good pace, particularly in the first stage of Sunday”, commented Markovic after the podium presentation.
“But towards the end of the first pass of the Brockman stage we hit a kangaroo, pretty much in the middle of the bonnet. It caved in the front, and damaged the radiator and intercooler. Luckily we were able to make it to the end of that stage, through the next short stage and back to service.
“The Maximum Motorsport team did a great job fixing the car and getting us back out in time.”
Sunday’s stages also saw a great battle between Markovic and Asia-Pacific Rally Championship driver Mike Young.
After the mornings five forest stages, the pair were in equal overall time. But during the final three stages Markovic moved ahead, claiming first in the Western Australian Rally Championship and second in ARC2.
“I think after the collision with the ‘roo we lost a little bit of confidence on the next pass of Brockman, and Mike Young started to catch up. So we really had to push on the final few stages to stay ahead.
"Overall it was a pretty good result. It would have been great to keep the ARC2 lead, but Glen is a really experienced rally driver and has won this round previously.
"We minimised the points lost to him, plue we snared equal 6th for the outright ARC points. So I’m pretty happy with that.”
The Australian Rally Championship now heads back to the east coast of Australia, with the National Capital Rally starting on 1 June.
As well being round three of the ARC, the Canberra-based event is also a round of the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, providing the opportunity for local crews to compete against teams from round the world.
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