Heat 2 of Scouts Rally SA, round four of the ECB Australian Rally Championship, has been a frustrating one for Victorian brother-sister duo Brendan Reeves and Rhianon Gelsomino.
Driving their rallyschool.com.au Mazda2, the pair were keen to improve on yesterday’s second place in which they finished 12.5 seconds behind Scott Pedder/Dale Moscatt (Renault Clio) after the opening day’s three stages in treacherous conditions. Heavy rain in South Australia created extremely difficult driving conditions for competitors on the opening day and when Reeves lost use of his windscreen wipers, his task was made even harder.
With eleven stages to contest in Heat 2, Reeves started the day confident he could match Pedder (who trails Reeves by 16 points in the championship race going into this event) but a battery issue, some set-up concerns and then the cancellation of five of the day’s stages due to accidents and impassable roads, meant the task was going to be a difficult one.
Reeves stayed in touch with Pedder throughout the morning’s stages despite struggling with the car’s balance and beat his rival on Stage 11, a re-run of the day’s first stage. After making changes to the Mazda2’s set-up at each service break, Reeves was feeling a lot more confident with the car’s balance and his speed increased but just as he hit his rhythm, the following three stages were cancelled leaving only the short Super Special Stages around Gawler’s Showgrounds, to be contested.
Of these three stages, Reeves won two, making it three stage wins from nine stages, and he finished the day 47.2 seconds behind Pedder.
“It’s been a very long and frustrating day, ” Reeves said. “We were confident of matching Scott today and just as we were starting to hit our straps, three of the afternoon stages were cancelled which was a real shame.
“Hopefully we can continue on with our improved pace tomorrow and take the Heat 3 honours.”
There were to be 40 championship points on offer today but due to stage cancellations crews contested less than 50% of the stages so the points distributed may be reduced accordingly.
Heat 3 of Scouts Rally SA will see crews contest another ten stages with a further 20 championship points on offer.
Scouts Rally SA Heat 2 results
1. Pedder/Moscatt (Renault Clio);
2. Reeves/Gelsomino (Mazda 2), +47.2;
3. Coppin/Batten (Citroen DS3), +2:22:0;
4. Sullens/Barkley (Citroen DS3), +02:30:1;
5. Tyler/Reed (Renault Clio), +07:44:4.
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