The Donnelly Rally run last weekend included plenty of drama up and down the big field of just under 40 crews, but for Macara and new co-driver Dianna Madlener keeping it tidy with times first or second quickest across the 8 stages gave them the win with a margin of just under 3 minutes.
This result is just what Macara was looking for after investing in the new mount, the win also bringing him back into mathematical contention for outright championship honours with just one event remaining on the calendar.
For the championship leaders heading into this round it would be a disastrous event. Leigh Hynes and Stuart Percival on board the WRX would get a great start taking the first and second stages, but an electrical fault on the next stage left the number 2 car stranded with no fuel pump and a loss of 12 minutes until the problem could be found and rectified.
Although setting fastest on all but one of the remaining stage the time loss was to great and 11th outright would be the best the pair could salvage.
For Lee Mcilroy and Ash Ridden taking fourth outright for the event now puts them as the new leaders of the 09 series. A clean run maintaining top 6 times in seven out of eight tests would be just rewards for a solid drive and a good season to date. They will now take a 3-point lead in the standings with the Safari round to be run in just under a month’s time.
Other notable results would come from Chris Anderson and Ben Searcy. Anderson’s speed would net him bag of third fastest and a second fastest stage times to signal that he is well and truly back in the game after a long break.
Another WRX punter making his way back to form is Tom Wilde. After crashing earlier in the year he and his co-driving sister Narralie put in another clean run to take 3rd outright for this round.
First two wheel drive went to the always hard charging Blair Pugh on-board the well sorted Escort, with the Clubman Cup battle going to young gun Travis White.
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