Coppin says re-start rule needs ‘re-think’

Citroen’s Adrian Coppin thinks the sports regulators need to examine the consequences of the restart rules following Scott Pedder’s Heat Two dramas at the Quit Forest Rally last month.

Pedder, who had been leading Brendan Reeves at the midway point in the Forest Rally’s second Heat, found his clutch was failing and at the start line to SS16 Brockman 2 it failed completely. He returned to service and was able to rejoin having missed two stages.

The rules allow a car to rejoin the field as long as they have completed 25% of the Special Stage distance for the Heat. For any stage missed the crew is given an allocated time equal to the slowest competitor plus 30 seconds.

In WA it was the second time this year Pedder had used the rule to rejoin the rally, having come to grief in Canberra too and restarting. In Canberra Pedder made it onto the podium, in third behind Coppin, but in Western Australia Pedder’s time saw him jump ahead of Coppin to take second.

“I admit it’s a very tough situation, and I’m sure there isn’t an easy solution either, but I think it does need to be looked at to work out what’s fair,” explained Coppin.

“There was lots of banter after the Forest Rally but I don’t blame Scott (Pedder) or Dale (Moscatt), they used the rules the way they are written. They benefited that day, and maybe at the next rally it might be me who is using the rule.”

Coppin, had he finished second at the Quit Forest Rally, would have jumped up to second in the Championship points race behind Brendan Reeves. “Rules are rules, I don’t begrudge anyone for what happened,” Adrian added.

“I just think at the time the restart rule was written it catered for a larger field of competitors. At the moment the fields are a bit smaller and it might be worth the sport looking at how the rule applies and adjusting it if necessary.”

Keen to look on the bright side Coppin is taking the result in his stride.

“For me I still ended up on the podium, that’s a great result regardless of the circumstances and currently I’ve been able to get Citroen two podium finishes in their first two events.”

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