It was a race between five for outright honours, with Bryan Van Eck/Jim Gleeson quickest on Stage 1, before retiring with fuel pressure problems in Stage 4.
The rally lead then became a straight fight between Ric Cary/Rob Edwards, and the Canberra crew of Michael and Thomas Barrett, with both crews neck and neck going into the final 17 kilometre Greenhills stage.
A wrong tyre choice for the now very wet conditions saw the Barrett brothers lose time hand over fist to Cary and Edwards, who went on to take a convincing outright victory.
“We came to this event knowing we only had to finish seventh outright to wrap-up third place in the NSW Rally Series. So we drove consistently, and still managed to take the victory, which is my first ever State round win,” Ric said.
The local crew, Michael and Thomas Barrett - who also sponsor the ACT Regional Rally Series - were far from unhappy with their second place finish.
“We came into the final service with a brake issue, and changed discs and rotors,” explained Michael Barrett after the event.
“We opted for a full wet weather tyre for the last stage, thinking that the conditions would be similar to those in the two previous stages. Unfortunately this turned out to be the wrong choice, and we lost time to Ric and Rob. Still, this was a fantastic event, and with the level of close competition we had today, we had possibly the best time we have ever had in ACT rallying.”
Richard Leitis and Rob Mules, driving the newly repaired Evo1 (after their recent Corsa di Mille Pini accident), finished third outright; ahead of Blair/Stevens.
But possibly of more importance was that by finishing ahead of the flying Datsun 1600 of Claude Murray and Lizzy Ferme, Richard and Rob took out the prestigious Gold Cup, in this year’s Total Traction Services ACT Regional Rally series.
“I’ve never won a championship in anything, so I was more relieved than happy at the end of Stage six, when I knew I had wrapped up the Gold Cup,” explained Richard.
“The car fought us the whole way through the re-build process; and there were plenty of times when I thought I wouldn’t be running the TRUSSME National Capital Rally. And yet the car ran faultlessly during the event. All we did was change tyres and check the oil!”
For detailed results from the 2007 TRUSSME National Capital Rally, visit www.bmsc.com.au.
SUBSCRIBE BELOW TO READ THE FULL STORY
