Having claimed a dominant victory at last weekend’s International Rally of Queensland, and in the process moving into the lead of the Australian Rally Championship points race, Eli Evans has confidently said “that’s the best I’ve ever driven!”
Molly Taylor had held a 17-point advantage heading to Queensland, and yet despite standing on the podium for the third rally in a row watched her lead turn into an 8-point deficit by the end of the weekend.
“Winning in Queensland was huge!” exclaimed Eli. “That’s the best I’ve ever driven, as far as I can remember.”
“We were 17 points down heading into the weekend and I said to myself, and to the team, that I wanted to be ahead at the end of the rally and to take the Championship lead.”
Apart from the benefit of sitting ahead in the points Eli firmly believes that his confidence in his Citroen means he now holds the distinct upper hand over Molly with just two Rounds remaining in the season.
“I don’t think Molly was able to match any of our stage times over the weekend and that gives me the psychological edge,” he said. “Molly’s doing a great job but I think I’ve got her measure now. The pressure is on her now to see if she can maintain the speed.”
Queensland is a rally that has tested drivers for years, and the 2015 addition was no different, with drivers up and down the entry list coming to grief over the jumps, bumps and water splashes.
Eli though remained relatively clean throughout, one might even say lucky after a couple of early scares that could have ended his rally instantly. He maintains though that success is about making your own luck.
“I could have easily put it in the trees. I could have rolled it on the very first stage in fact! But at no stage did I panic, I realised we were off the road twice and I used everything in my ability, and my knowledge of how to handle those situations, to get the car back on the road and we did.”
“You’ve got to trust your instincts and I kept the power on in both those situations and pulled it free. To the Citroen’s credit it shone through both times,” Eli continued.
While Eli was contesting both the Asia-Pacific and Australian Championship segments in Queensland, his brother Simon was keeping a watchful eye on his progress from further back.
“Simon was obviously watching our stage times all weekend,” explained Eli, explaining that Simon had elected to contest just the ARC component of the event meaning he started half a dozen cars further back.
“Because he was behind us on the road he was able to drive accordingly. I know how determined Simon was to throw everything at being faster than us. I’m not saying I was taking it easy, or taking it slow, but I wasn’t checking his times or taking any huge risks and we he only managed to beat us by 11 seconds at the end of the day and that really pleases me.”
“I was focused on being neat and being clean, while I’m sure he was on the edge!”
From the Sunshine Coast the East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship now heads to Coffs Harbour and the rigors of World Championship rallying. While endurance will once again be the aim over the event’s three days, Eli is fully aware that tyres will most likely make or break the eventual winner.
“We’ve had excessive tyre wear in Coffs every year we’ve been there so looking after the tyres is something I’ll be focused on. Basically with the World Rally Cars and all the four-wheel drives the roads get incredibly swept so we’re running on very hard packed surfaces and that puts a massive strain on the tyres.”
“We get 24 tyres at the start of the event, and we’ll use every single one of them. If you don’t focus on tyre wear it is very easy to run out of tyres before the end of the rally,” he commented.
SUBSCRIBE BELOW TO READ THE FULL STORY
