It was disappointment for Leigh Hynes and Stuart Percival when the steering on their Subaru WRX broke on Saturday afternoon.
The Busselton Rally Sport pair had a healthy lead on the competition in round four of the WA Rally Championship (WARC), the Experts Cup Rally in the pine plantations around Collie.
Hynes explained: “We went a bit wide on a right hand bend and hit a bank and that broke the lower control arm.”
“Then 30 metres up the road, the car turned left and hit a few tree stumps, causing more damage.”
The boys were gutted by their stage-three exit with Hynes saying: “We snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.”
The Busselton Rally Sport team was an incredible 30 seconds faster than their competition on stage one of the Experts Cup Rally (25 kilometres) and 20 seconds faster on stage two (17 kilometres).
New DMACK tyres fitted to their WRX had helped Hynes and Percival increase their speed by about half a second per kilometre.
“The tyres were fantastic,” Hynes said. “As was the change to Winmax brakes. They made all the difference.”
The reigning WARC champion driver was disappointed he didn’t get to use his new QVEE LED lights in competition.
“We were going to put them on at the next service,” Hynes said.
“They worked really well during tests during the week. The LEDs give off an incredible amount of pure white light.”
Hynes and Percival’s attention now moves to WARC round five, the Lewana Stages.
The pair won the Balingup event last year and hope to do the same in four weeks’ time.
“We’ve got a bit of work to do on the car,” Hynes said. “But we’ll definitely have it sorted for Lewana.”
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