Australian Rally Championship leader, Simon Evans, has vowed to go all out for victory at next weekend’s National Capital Rally in Canberra.
With a bumper entry for the second round of the championship, and with plenty of drivers sure to be pushing hard for the win, the ARC leader could be forgiven for heading into the weekend with the plan to secure points and consolidate his lead.
But that’s not the Evans style.
“I’m all for the spectators – without them, we don’t have a sport,” Evans told RallySport Magazine.
“Why be conservative? We remember the great performances in sport – like Peter Brock setting the lap record on the last lap at Bathurst when he was already laps in front.”
Evans is set to face stiff opposition in Canberra from the likes of Harry Bates, Mark Pedder, Brendan Reeves, Nathan Quinn and Molly Taylor. It’s a challenge he’s relishing.
“I can’t wait,” he says. “This is the event where everyone will be putting all their cards on the table and going for it. It should be super exciting!”
Evans’ Subaru Impreza WRX should be even more potent in Canberra, with the team fitting a new hand-built intercooler, which should help the car perform better.
“We were finding in WA that the intercooler temperature was getting high, up over 70 degrees, when it should have been running at 40 degrees,” Evans said.
“This effected the performance of the engine and made it feel like we had dropped a cylinder. Hopefully this will help.”
The regulations allow for teams to make their own intercoolers, provided they retain the same dimensions as the original item. The team have also worked on the intercooler spray as well to try and maintain engine performance.
The National Capital Rally gets underway in Canberra next Friday, May 27, and finishes on Sunday afternoon.
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