Brendan Reeves and Rhianon Smyth have completed a very successful weekend at the International Rally of Whangarei, finishing second in the Pacific Cup and third outright. The Aussie duo also took out second place in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship in their first gravel rally in almost ten months, and only their third rally for the year.
Day two of Rally Whangarei was not without its challenges. Torrential rain and strong winds made road conditions treacherous, and Reeves also battled with a slipping fifth gear for much of the day. On some of the longer and more open road sections, Smyth was forced to hold the gear level in fifth from the co-driver's seat!
Reeves consistently set second-fastest stage times today despite struggling on the same soft compound tyres for the whole day. With only mediums as an alternative, he opted to stick with the softer compounds rather than risk losing time on the mediums as he did on Day 1.
A day long battle with former World Rally Championship driver, Alister McRae, had Reeves and Smyth in fourth place overall until the last stage of the day when they set a blistering time and beat home the Scotsman by half a second.
"We are rapt with our result today," Reeves said. "Yesterday was frustrating with the couple of small issues we had, but today was fantastic."
"I have never driven in such heavy rain," he added, "it was really tricky out there today but you soon forget about that when you finish on the podium!"
Reeves and Smyth will now head into the International Rally of Queensland full of confidence. With this weekend's Pacific Cup and overall rally winner, Hayden Paddon, not competing in Queensland, Reeves is confident of another good points haul and taking the Pacific Cup title after just two of the three events in the Series. Rally Queensland takes place from July 31 to August 2.
Photo: APRC.tv
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