Plans to debut his Peugeot 208 ‘Maxi’ car at this weekend’s Quit Forest Rally have been interrupted for Mark Pedder, who has been forced to make a last minute switch to the Super 2000 Volkswagen Polo he ran at Rally Victoria last year.
“Unfortunately the car and engine have been delayed,” explained Pedder. “We’re still expecting them to arrive this week but it just doesn’t give us enough time to get prepared the way we’d like so we had to make a call at the end of last week.”
“It’s frustrating, I was really looking forward to getting in the ‘Maxi’ car, and we had even planned that if it arrived today we’d pull a full 48 hours to get the car ready in time to test,” added Mark.
Pedder said he’d approached Justin Dowel late last week, who is running a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X at the Forest Rally, and asked if he’d allow him to run the Polo S2000 again.
“I spoke with Justin, explained the situation, and he was happy to let me drive the Polo in WA. I’m grateful to him, it would have been a shame to have to sit out the opening round because of shipping delays!” said Mark.
“I’ve driven the Polo twice, I know it’s a good car, it just lacks a bit of power compared to some of the other cars. I’m confident though that on the loose surface in WA it won’t be such a problem, plus it’s such a light, nimble car, that could well play into our hands if others struggle for traction.”
Pedder’s run at Rally Victoria last year was hampered by reliability concerns and he’s hoping that a solid test on Wednesday will ensure that they don’t encounter such problems again this weekend.
“I know what the car is capable of if it’s reliable, that’s going to be the key, so I’m remaining really hopeful we have a good, clean run all weekend and we can secure a good result before turning out attention to the ‘Maxi’ car before the next Round in Canberra,” added Mark.
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