As he prepares to head to Rally Germany later this month, Citroen’s Adrian Coppin called upon current East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship pace setter Scott Pedder to sit in with him to offer advice on car setup and driving.
Pedder, who went on to win the recent Scouts Rally SA, sat in with Coppin at the pre-event test day. “I went up and asked him, I’m here to learn, I want to get the best from myself,” Adrian said.
“I’ve had help from Neal (Bates), and Scott is doing a bloody good job at the moment so I was keen to see what he thought,” Coppin added. “He (Pedder) said I’m doing everything right and I’ve just got to get my confidence and experience up if I want to really take it to that next level with my driving.”
The test stage gave Pedder a chance to observe Coppin in action, and the experienced rally driver offered up his thoughts after the brief outing. “Although I only had a few minutes in the silly seat with Adrian during the test I was instantly impressed with both his technique and car control especially given his limited time in the sport.”
“The next step for Adrian are the harder bits and that is being more aggressive under brakes, using more road and maximising mid corner speed. This, in summary, just involves him taking more risk,” Scott continued.
“I was honoured that Adrian asked for my opinions and I hope that I was able to assist. The fact that two days after the test he got within 2 seconds of us on the ARMOR ALL Power Stage suggests that he is improving and certainly he continues to be closer to Brendo and I at each Round.”
“In fact he (Adrian) was extremely close to matching times with Brendo on the Saturday morning in SA. Obviously I just hope he gets on Brendo’s pace before mine!” concluded Pedder.
In the end Coppin had a mixed weekend at Scouts Rally SA, finishing as high as third outright at the end of Saturday’s Heat only to drop back to last place on Sunday after misjudging a corner and ending up beached on a causeway.
“I wouldn’t say unhappy, we had a really good rally up until the final day. We were close to Brendo to take third on Saturday, and then probably just trying too hard on Sunday morning we had a mishap and that ruined everything.”
“I’m happy with the overall pace from the weekend, we just had a costly moment but that’s what happens when you push on, sometimes you make mistakes,” he said.
“I’m really looking forward to Rally Germany now, and then getting back to Australia for the next Round of the Australian Rally Championship in Coffs Harbour.”
SUBSCRIBE BELOW TO READ THE FULL STORY
