Defending WA Rally Champions Leigh Hynes and Stuart Percival will hit the gravel flat out when round two of the WA Rally Championship (WARC), the Trade Hire Donnelly Rally, kicks off on Saturday May 10.
The pair has had plenty of success at the event which covers 150 kilometres of fast and narrow roads around the old Donnelly Mill, near Bridgetown.
Hynes and Percival have claimed victory four times in the Trade Hire Donnelly Rally’s seven year history, including back to back wins in 2012 and 2013. This year, the aim is to make that three in a row.
Hynes saidthe event was his favourite rally of the WARC season because of the smooth high-speed roads.
“The roads are just so fast and it suits me, Stu and the car really well. We can run the car a bit lower and softer for this event which make it work so much better.”
The Trade Hire Donnelly Rally is a chance for Hynes and Percival to grab valuable championship points after a less than perfect start to the season. The Busselton Rally Sport team retired from the season opener, the Quit Forest Rally, after rolling early in the event.
Hynes said he’s not too worried about having no points on the table: “We’ve won the championship three times before after taking zero or little points from the first round.
“We just need to come away from Donnelly with a win,” he added.
The Busselton Rally Sport team has been working tirelessly to have their Subaru WRX ready for the event and Hynes said: “The boys from LRT Custom Engineering have done a great job on the roll cage and Donnybrook Panel Beaters took care of the body work for us.”