The ARMOR ALL & STP Power Stage took crews to the Kowen Forest on the Eastern outskirts of Canberra for what would be a demanding and dusty shoot out.
With each two and four wheel drive competitor having one qualifying run over the fast course, which featured a flat out straight over one kilometre in length on the run up to a flying jump just before the finish, all of the crews managed to keep out of trouble.
All that is except Mark Pedder, who spluttered away from the start line in his brand new Peugeot 208 ‘Maxi’ car but made it around to the finish, albeit at a reduced pace. “The car keeps switching to ‘limp’ mode,” explained co-driver Dale Moscatt.
It’s been a mammoth race against time for the Pedders Rally Team and Race Torque to prepare the ‘Maxi’ car. The car itself arrived last month, but the engine was held up by delays in shipping and only landed in Sydney on Tuesday.
The team ran with a backup engine they’d cobbled together themselves for testing on Wednesday, in order to give Mark valuable seat time in the car, with the team installing the delayed race engine while Mark and Dale were completing recce yesterday.
“We’re talking with the engine builder in Argentina as we speak,” Moscatt continued. “We’re hoping it’s an easy fix and we’ll be able to do some more running after the Power Stage.”
With all of the crews through qualifying the fastest four-wheel drive belonged to Irishman Richie Dalton, with Justin Dowel second in his brand new Hyundai i20 prototype with Tasmania Marcus Walkem third.
While in the outright two wheel drives Eli Evans proved the fastest in qualifying, finishing ahead of older brother Simon Evans and local campaigner Adrian Coppin.
Running in reverse order for the ARMOR ALL & STP Power Stage Marcus Walkem was first away into the stage. On only his first appearance in Canberra he crossed the finish line with a time of 1m49.24s.
“A great little stage!” he exclaimed at the end. “I don’t know what time I’ll have done compared to the next two, but I didn’t have any moments, and I thought it was a clean run.”
Dowel was next away in his World Rally Car-esque Hyundai in what appeared to be an uncharacteristically low-key launch. By the finish, his time just over a second slower than Walkem’s, he explained why; “That’s about as fast as I wanted to go at the moment.”
“I had a heap of fun, the car is fantastic, but it just doesn’t have the legs on the unrestricted 4WD’s and I wasn’t prepared to push it too hard this early with such a new car,” Dowel added.
That left just Dalton to complete the stage, the reigning 4WD National Rally Champion sporting a new black and white livery on his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX. Prior to the stage he’d made his intentions clear that he wasn’t going to hold back, and to prove it he jumped higher and further than anyone else just before the finish but it was clear he was immediately in trouble when he struggled to make the final bend before the flying finish.
“As we come over the jump I tried to pull it (the car) up for the bend and the clutch hit the floor. I don’t know why but I almost went straight off the road,” Dalton exclaimed although his time of 1m45.32s gave him a huge grin.
Dalton’s co-driver John Allen though had a feeling he knew what was wrong with the clutch. “He was probably going too fast!” he said matter of factly. “Richie had told me he was going to go over the jump slower, but it felt like we were about 100km/h faster!”
After celebrating their five bonus Championship points Dalton and Allen quickly loaded the car onto their trailer and took it away to effect repairs.
That left the two wheel drive challengers to take centre stage, and Adrian Coppin stepped up to the line after setting the third fastest time in qualifying. Having admitted to making mistakes during his earlier run the Canberra driver was keen to make amends.
“I definitely fixed up those little errors, we were a couple of seconds faster. Now though we’ll have to see what the next two boys do,” he said, his time a 1m57.07s.
On the re-debut for the Honda Jazz, having previously been driven to Championship success in 2012 and 2013 by younger brother Eli, Simon was determined to show who was boss and his time of 1m56.26s immediately dislodged Coppin from contention.
“I was a second faster?” he queried when told his time at the stage finish. “I probably lost a second because the gearbox jumped out of second back there, so that’s surprising. I was trying hard, I want to beat Eli.”
“The Jazz is just a fantastic car though. Where I make a mistake it makes up for it, it’s definitely a step up from the Civic,” Simon added.
Reports from the start line said Eli Evans, who had been radioed Simon’s stage time so knew what he had to beat, was psyching himself up for an all-out attack and as he flashed across the finish line and his time of 1m53.55s flashed up it was clear he hadn’t been holding anything back.
“Wow, the adrenaline!” he beamed at the finish. “I don’t think I took a single breath for that entire stage. I was so worked up to win this stage at the start I actually had to tell myself to be calm and take a breath.”
“Five bonus points is such a great result for the car and the team, they’ve worked so hard and we want to continue the run that we started in WA here again this weekend. Our goal is to have a clean run and we did exactly that this morning!” continued Eli.
Drivers now prepare for the ceremonial start alongside the banks of Lake Burley Griffin later this afternoon. Then the proper rally action gets underway at 8.30am when crews leave parc ferme, before the first stage starts at 9.10am in the Kowen Forest.
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