Evans and his co-driver wife Sue hit trouble on the event’s second stage when the centre differential of the Tankformers Subaru stopped working.
The mechanical problem caused the Victorian to go off the road on the Pioneer 2 stage, before limping back to the service park in Warragul.
The Tankformers crew performed a minor miracle to fix the problem before Friday evening’s super special stages at Lardner Park, but the damage had already been done – the Evans combination was already 20 minutes down on the leaders.
The adversity did not stop the four-time champions from posting fastest times on five of Saturday’s six stages, by as much as 27.9s.
By the end of the shortened event (due to poor weather), Evans had reduced the gap by more than one and a half minutes – however, this was still only good enough for 13th place in the event.
Despite being unable to compete for the win, Evans celebrated his 2010 championship by completing a few donuts for the many fans during the final running of the Lardner Park Super Special Stage on Saturday.
Looking back at his final event of 2010, Evans was philosophical about his disappointing event.
“We haven’t had too many mechanical problems all year,” he said.
“If you’re going to have a problem, the absolute best time for it to happen is after you’ve already wrapped up the championship.
“It was a bit disappointing, but we were flying today – there were plenty of spectators out on the stages, so hopefully we gave them a bit of a show.
“It’s been a thoroughly enjoyable year... We knew at the start of the championship that we didn’t have the fastest car going around, but we worked at it all season and we have been really quick and reliable.
“I’ve got to thank the Tankformers team for that – their work this season has been absolutely incredible.”
After the completion of Rally Victoria, co-driver Sue Evans announced her retirement from rallying.
Sue was somewhat reluctantly persuaded into joining her husband as a co-driver over a decade ago – and the couple’s success has been phenomenal.
Class victory in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship and four Australian Rally Championships firmly entrench the Evans duo in the category of Australian rally legends.
In addition, Sue was voted the 2007 CAMS Australian Motorsport Personality of the year, confirming her individual lofty standing in Australian motorsport.
It has truly been an outstanding career – especially for someone that was hesitant to become involved initially.
Sue leaves the sport to focus more attention on her career and family life.