Eli Evans is continuing his faultless charge towards a third Australian Rally Championship, ending the second Leg at Rally Australia with more than a minutes lead over Steve Mackenzie with Molly Taylor third.
Eli Evans was again dominant in the ARC component of Rally Australia. (Photo: Peter Whitten)With older brother Simon Evans confirming that a piston had punched a hole in his Honda Jazz’ engine on the final stage yesterday, forcing him into an nearly retirement, Eli began the day with a comfortable buffer over Mackenzie.
And with the 50.80km Nambucca stage first up, and tyre wear on everyone’s minds, Eli arrived at the stage end a little disappointed with himself. “I think I left my sprint at the end a little late. I had grip on my tyres all the way through, which means there is still a bit left in them.”
His time though was 20.4 seconds faster than Mackenzie over the stage with Adrian Coppin setting the third fastest time despite a half spin in the stage.
Disappointment once again on the stage for Tony Sullens, having retired yesterday he was once more on the back foot with his Citroen stuck in fourth gear. “Hopeless!” he fumed at the stage end. “Stuck in fourth gear the whole way! We got smashed, on the slow stuff we couldn’t slow down and on the fast we couldn’t go fast enough!”
Sullens would affect a make shift repair after the stage but once again got stuck in gear, this time second, on the next stage before the hydraulic pump on his Citroen finally failed and he retired. “We don’t have a spare, so that’s it, weekend over,” Tony said.
On the second stage it was to be Sullens’ fellow Citroen driver Coppin who was in the wars. “It was feeling awesome up until we arrived at a right hander a bit too fast, I clipped the bank on the inside, it sent us up onto two wheels for a bit, rolled and landed back on it’s wheels. We maybe lost eight seconds,” Adrian explained.
Further back Ashlea James was finding the rear of his VW Polo stepping out under acceleration and deceleration. “It’s pretty god awful on the stages,” he laughed.
After admitting yesterday she wasn’t overly happy with the handling of her Renault Clio, Molly Taylor began the day with some setup tweaks and by the midday service was feeling more comfortable in the car. “We made a good step forward, but we’re still scratching our heads for that last bit (of pace) because we’re still trying hard.”
With the stages repeated in the afternoon, including another pass over Nambucca’s 50.80 kilometres, plus a night running of the Valla stage, Steve Mackenzie leapt out of the blocks to win the long test by 6.1 seconds over Eli.
“Felt good!” he beamed. “Still having some issues with a loose control arm in the front. We’re having to get out and tighten it as best we can after every stage. Basically we’ve stripped a bolt and right now we don’t have a replacement to fix it.”
With darkness falling drivers fitted their lights for the night stage, and while it was Eli Evans who came out on top it was a remarkable charge by Harry Bates in his near standard Toyota Corolla to finish just 0.9 seconds off Eli’s time.
“I took some real risks in the dust!” he smiled. “The car has been an absolute trooper today. Eli is the benchmark for speed and I’ve been within a second per kilometre of him all day so I’m pretty stoked with that.”
Third placed Molly was left wondering what she needed to do to bridge the gap to both Eli and Mackenzie in front, but happy enough to hold a podium position. “I’m not going to do anything silly because I just can’t make up the difference to Steve in front,” Molly commented.
“I want to keep pushing tomorrow because that’s when it’s enjoyable to drive these sorts of cars, but I’m not going to be taking any risks, there is no point in doing that,” she added.
Second placed Mackenzie was deep in conversation with his service crew after the final stage, with the team confident they can affect a repair on the loose control arm. “If the car was 100% I reckon we could be right up with Eli, so yeah, it’s a bit frustrating at the moment,” Steve said.
“I’m definitely happy with my position though, it’s good to be able to show our pace potential again.”
But in the lead, with a gap 1 minute and 19.7 seconds, Eli Evans continues to hold an almost unassailable advantage. “No issues today, just really, really happy with how I drove,” he said. “I was most happy with how I managed my tyres, I could have pushed harder but the tyres probably would have exploded under the strain.”
“One more day to go, no risks is the plan, looking forward to making it to the finish hopefully in the same position as we have right now!” Eli smiled.
It proved to be a day of drama in the National 4WD series, with overnight leader Justin Dowel falling foul of the longest stage of the rally, dropping over ten minutes to his rivals and falling down to twelfth.
That allowed Guy Tyler, in one of the oldest Mitsubishi’s in the field to jump into the lead, which he held for just one stage before his engine’s head gasket blew. That then saw Marcus Walkem take first place and hold it for the remainder of the day.
“The rally gods have smiled on us today, no problems at all, after having a few issues yesterday and dropping some time. We knew we had to press on to keep in the rally and now we just need to hang in there,” said Marcus.
A calm and consistent drive by Mick Patton has kept his Mitsubishi out of trouble, currently second, but over a minute behind Walkem. “Today went according to plan, everything is going well, and we have six brand new tyres to use tomorrow while most of our rivals reportedly have only used tyres left.”
“Everything is going very, very well indeed. We’re driving to a very calculated plan and we’re chasing the Championship,” Patton added.
Another demanding day in the field has seen the Classics field whittled down to just five remaining cars, with Clay Badenoch in his Toyota Celica continuing to lead the way, now by almost six minutes.
The Datsun 180B of Lindsay Collits holds second, while Keith Fackrell’s Ford Escort RS1800 has power slid sideways into third.
And finally in the Side-by-Side’s another disappointing day for Can-Am’s Michael Guest, who continues to prove fast but drama prone. “Basically the clutch belt is overheating. We’re learning as we go, and obviously the heat just doesn’t build up in normal use, but how we’re racing these cars we’re a long way from normal use!”
That has left Cody Crocker with a 53.7 second lead to fellow Polaris driver Iain Hughes, with Can-Am runner Nathan Chivers third.
The third and final day of Coates Hire Rally Australia gets underway tomorrow with the 21.95km Bucca Long test, before concluding four further stages later with the televised Wedding Bells stage and the podium ceremony in Coffs Harbour.
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