Dylan King and Abbey Hayes overcame the slippery conditions at the Trade Hire Karri Rally round of the Onslow Contracting Western Australian Rally Championship to claim a convincing win over last year’s champions Garry Whittle and Stephen Vass.
The course, situated in the Wheatley Forest near Manjimup, comprised of two stages - one borrowed from previous years and a completely new stage. The recent rains on the new stage made conditions slippery, giving headaches to those who weren’t driving four wheel drives. Even one of the recovery trucks needed assistance exiting the stage.
4WD
Dylan King / Abbey Hayes (Photo credit: Paul van der Mey)The first two stage wins were claimed by John Macara (Pickering Brook) and Lee Tierney (Hillarys), but their luck unfortunately turned in SS3 when their Asiat Instruments Mitsubish Evo lost a turbo hose putting the rally stalwarts out of the lead.
Dylan King (Glen Forrest) and Abbey Hayes (Floreat), who had been close behind Macara and Tierney in the first two stages, went on to win the remaining four in their Subaru STI to become overall winner. King said it was a combination of luck and focus that clinched the win for the DK Earthworkx team.
“We were lucky that John Macara dropped out. We had a bit of drama ourselves when a kilometre into the second stage we lost fifth gear, but we managed to get to the end and win the rally,” said King.
“We’ve had a fairly bad streak the past two years now and more recently when we blew an engine at Forest Rally and had to basically rebuild it by the side of road, so we wanted to get back on track. The aim was to win and that’s what we did – we are more than happy with the result!”
Outright second went to last year’s winner Garry Whittle (South Bunbury) and co-driver Stephen Vass (Thornlie) in the Rezolt Subaru WRX, coming almost 2 and half minutes behind the leaders.
There were three teams battling it out for third, Michael Steele (Sorrento) and Alex Butler (Balcatta), Doug Tostevin (Wattle Grove) and Tammy Adams (Roleystone), and John O’Dowd (Gooseberry Hill) and Ben Searcy (East Victoria Park). Third place was held by Tostevin and Adams until the penultimate stage when the driveshaft broke on their S-Technic Subaru STI, leaving them to complete the rest of the event in three wheel drive.
In the end it was the duo of Steele and Butler in the Japline Subaru STI that clinched third, just over a minute behind Whittle and Vass.
2WD
The conditions quickly reduced the amount of competitors in the two wheel drive category, with both the Onslow Contracting team of Shane Harmer (Beechboro) and Nicholas Anyan (Gosnells), and Mike Joss Racing Team of Mike Joss (Roleystone) and Megan Logue (Wandi) leaving the road to hug the trees. Thanks to the safety equipment required in the cars, the teams all walked away from their incidents, but the cars didn’t fare so well, and were unable to finish the event.
After battling gearbox issues for the past two years, Raz Vlad (Padbury) and Daymon Niccoli (Parkerville) made a triumphant return to WA rallying in their MAXYrally Ford Fiesta, winning the round in the 2WD category.
“This year is going a bit better than last year for us – we were able to complete a rally with almost no issues, this is the first time in a long time,” said Vlad.
“We’ve got a new gearbox, which was main source of the problems we have had the past couple of years. The new gearbox went in at the end of last year and has been perfectly reliable so far.
“Our main competition crashed out very early and Sean Keating didn’t turn up at all - so it was hard to find the motivation to go fast when we didn’t really have too, but we tried.
“Unfortunately I won’t be in Perth for Boddington but we’ll be back at Collie. Daymon thinks he might give navigating for his brother Brock a go at the next round if they can fix his car in time.”
Second place was a battle between David Farnworth (Merriwa) and Alexandra Martin (Darch) in the Allout Towing Services Toyota Corolla FX-GT and 17-year old newcomer Kody Reynolds (Busselton) and Anthony Staltari (Floreat) in the Trade Hire Subaru Impreza – with both of them completing SS3 in equal time. Reynolds and Staltari ended up the victors for second place managing to put a 20 second buffer between themselves and Farnworth and Martin.
“We had a great weekend. The Karri Rally was my first round writing pace notes,” said Reynolds.
“We were a little cautious on the first run through, writing your own notes can make you a little unsure whether you should commit to some corners, but as we got through it we were getting more and more confident, which showed in our times.”
Clubman Cup
Asian-Pacific Rally Championship competitor Mike Young (Bayswater) was out to have some fun in Peter Barnes’s (Colloongup) Verandah Apartments Honda Civic, while Barnes stepped into the co-driving role for the first time.
“I had an absolute ball. This was my first experience doing a Clubman rally and the first time I have ever been on roadbook, and I loved every moment,” said Young.
“I’ve done a few slippery rallies before so I am quite used to it. I think there was an advantage to being in a front wheel drive, because we don’t get as sideways as a rear wheel drive would have.
“Peter did a fantastic job co-driving. Considering it was his first time co-driving, I was really impressed.”
Young and Barnes came first, with Kiel Douglas (Kalamunda) and Ashley Burton (Parkerville) just over a minute behind them in a Holden Commodore. Dene Courtis (Mt Nasura) and Daniel Adams (Roleystone) were the next to cross the finish line 13 seconds later in the Askwith Safe Company Toyota Corrola FX-GT.
It was the first Western Australian rally event for husband and wife team Chris Bowley (Greenwood) and Beth Bowley who finished all four stages without a scratch to be seen on their Ford Fiesta, grinning from ear to ear and still happily married.
Competitors now focus on the MRF Boddington Rally on the 5th of June, which will be the third round of the Onslow Contracting Western Australian Rally Championship.
For further information on the Western Australian Rally Championship rounds, spectator viewpoints and results please refer to www.rallywa.com.