Despite the driest conditions for many years and the dust claiming many, Simon and Sue Evans have won this year’s Rally of Canberra.
They were never really headed and before the rally started on Saturday morning, Evans commented that road position would dictate who would win. He won today’s heat by 24.1 seconds, despite Neal Bates beating him by 7.3 seconds on the very last stage.
On the first stage Evans beat Bates by 11.7 secs, confirming Evans' claims at the start of the rally.
Evans’ younger brother, Eli, crashed at 145kmh yesterday in Kowen Forest. He was the only other real challenger to the older Evans.
A reflective Eli Evans did what hundreds of locals did and went and spectated at the famous “Castrol Cornerâ€, made famous 30 years ago in the Castrol International Rally.
“Both Chris (Murphy) and I are not even sore today and we reckon that with the Hans device and our wrap around seats, we were well protected,†Evans said. “I would recommend that gear to everyone.â€
Justin Dowel, who finished fourth yesterday, moved up into third after Glen Raymond broke a driveshaft in his Corolla.
“I thought it was a flat tyre at first but it was evident that we had broken the front right driveshaft. It costs us third as it happened 6km into the stage. We had to struggle to the end,†Raymond said.
He then put in a blinder on the last stage, only to be 0.9 of a second behind Bates for the stage time.
Dowel did well to finish in third and took his first podium finish, despite the fact that the front left mudguard ‘fell off†and he had to stop and tape it back on.
Steven Shepheard struggled with shock absorbers and had handling issues. “We have got to go back and work out how to fix this for the next event,†he quipped.
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