Over the course of the 2014 season Tony Sullens admitted he was struggling on events he wasn’t familiar with and even more so in a front-wheel drive car that felt completely foreign to him. But he promised that a second season in the Citroen would begin to yield progress, and last time out in Western Australia he began to put those pieces into place.
“It hasn’t been the easiest weekend at all, but I’m really, really happy with my stage times and I can see now just how much we’ve improved from last year,” said an upbeat Sullens after the Quit Forest Rally.
In fact Sullens had found himself leading the event after the fourth stage, only to trip himself up just a couple of stages later when he dropped the left rear wheel off the edge of the road, sending the Citroen DS3 into a slow roll into a patch of blackberries.
“The accident, which mind you was so minor and just shouldn’t have happened, was because I was pushing harder than I ever did last year,” Tony explained. “It was the second pass on swept roads, and if you do get off that swept line and into the loose stuff you’re carrying so much more speed than the first pass through.”
“I just want to consolidate the speed I’m at now before I even think about starting to take that next step.”
For Team Citroen Australia principal Ron Cremen, it was an encouraging sign for Sullens and co-driver Julia Barkley. “It was really pleasing to compare Tony’s times this year in WA against the times he set last year. You can see how much progress he’s made and how much confidence those improvements have made to him as a driver,” Cremen commented.
Cremen believes the improvement for Sullens comes not only from a year’s worth of experience in the car but also his new team mate Eli Evans.
“Last year we had two drivers going in completely different directions with their suspension setups,” said Cremen, referring to Sullens and former team mate Adrian Coppin.
“It was great to see Tony working with Eli during testing, and he even went as far as adopting some of Eli’s setups during the rally. I think it proved to Tony that you can teach an old dog new tricks.”
With Sullens’ Citroen sustaining a fair amount of use and abuse over the Western Australian weekend, the driver from the NSW Central Coast jokingly admitted he was in two minds about effecting repairs.
“Canberra is probably my scariest event, I’ve only ever done it the once last year. I was joking with the team that maybe I don’t even want to try to fix the car in case we roll it up into a ball of snot again!” laughed Tony.
“Seriously though I’m looking forward to each and every rally this year. I’ve got a lot more confidence in driving the car, the pace notes, and just overall being able to show more respectable stage times against the top guys like Simon (Evans) and Eli,” continued Sullens.
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