Canberra rally driver, Adrian Coppin, has set his sights on a top three place in the Hyundai Excel National Cup to be held in conjunction with the final round of the Australian Rally Championship in Victoria on the weekend of November 13.
After a very successful inaugural rally season that culminated in a hard fought second place in the NSW Rallyschool.com.au Excel Rally Series, Coppin is going into the Excel Cup feeling confident.
“I have proven to the NSW Excel competitors that I should be taken seriously in the Excel Cup,” Coppin said.
Rally Victoria is going to be a different story, though, as Coppin doesn’t have any measure of the speed of the Victorian Excel competitors who will also be chasing the coveted title.
“There are 15 Excel entries but only five from New South Wales. I have no idea how fast the majority of the competitors will be,” Coppin admitted. “I am hoping that a top three finish isn’t out of the question,” he added.
But the other competitors aren’t the only challenge Coppin will face. A new co-driver and both crew members doing their first event on pace notes will make the stages interesting. Coppin’s new co-driver, Michael Taylor, has been guiding his father’s very fast ex-Neal Bates Corolla NP in the ACT rally series this year, so getting the calls out in the Hyundai wouldn’t be a problem in a normal event but add the complexity of reading back the pace notes, and there could easily be a few exciting moments ahead for the crew.
Coppin has received valuable mentoring from multiple Australian Champion Neal Bates, including a session on writing notes from the drivers perspective.
“I am really appreciative of the advice Neal and Rick (Bates) have offered me this year. You can’t get any better," he said.
Rally Victoria takes place on Saturday, November 13 and will use the forests north of Warragul, approximately one hour east of Melbourne.
Visit www.rallyvictoria.com.au for more information
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