Nineteen-year-old Dylan King was the stand out performer at the recent Quit Forest Rally. In the ultra-competitive National 4WD Series he stayed out of trouble to sweep home for the victory, and in doing so raised some eyebrows in the service park with an incredibly high level of speed and maturity.
For a driver so young, and so new to the sport, King started the Quit Forest Rally with high hopes and he started well sitting third after the opening forest stage behind the rapid Tom Wilde and the vastly experienced Doug Tostevin.
“It was a crazy opening day. We’d had two punctures and then the centre diff failed which was a huge problem,” said King. “My biggest surprise though was the problems the other guys had. When I saw Tom (Wilde) off the road it was a strange feeling, I knew we were going to be in the lead.”
Despite the issues though, and with his rivals falling around him, King found himself leading the 4WD category at the end of Heat One.
“We couldn’t be happier with taking Heat One,” King explained. “We’ve had a fair few dramas on the way but now we’re here and we’ve won it so we’re happy.”
By the opening stage of Heat Two the 4WD field had been decimated down to just three competitors, with King leading the way from Tostevin and John O’Dowd.
And throughout the day King managed to not only hold Tostevin at bay but also stage by stage increase the margin to over a minute by the finish even though a rear strut top broke leaving the suspension bouncing around.
“I’ve sat with a number of drivers over the years but by far Dylan is one of the most impressive,” explained seasoned co-driver Lee Tierney. “He’s fast but always in control, at no point do I ever find myself thinking ‘Wow, that was close!’”
“All up it was a great weekend,” stated Dylan at the finish. “A few dramas yesterday but overall today was really good. When the strut top broke though I just kept telling myself to make sure I brought the car home, that’s all I was worried about.”
“To win the East Coast Bullbars 4WD National Series here at my home event is really encouraging. At the moment my focus is on the local State Championship but having had a taste of the ARC now I really want to try to get across to Rally Victoria at the end of the season.”
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