Brendan Reeves and Rhianon Smyth have finished Rally Tasmania in second place in their Subaru Impreza WRX STI after a faultless performance over three days of tough tarmac rallying.
Starting the day in third place, Reeves and Smyth moved up the leader board after rally leader Jim Richards was forced to withdraw from the event with steering rack problems in his Porsche 911 GT2 after just one stage of the final day.Â
The news of Richards' retirement spurred Reeves on, and he came out firing on the next stage, the 7.4 kilometre 'Mt Roland' test, pipping new rally leader Steve Glenney by half a second.
Reeves put in a consistent performance over the day's remaining six stages to finish second outright in the Modern category, just 23.6 seconds behind Glenney, also in a Subaru Impreza WRX STI.
It was a remarkable result for Reeves and Smyth who, just seven months ago, suffered a major accident that resulted in severe injuries to Smyth and a long rehabilitation.Â
Day one of Rally Tasmania was the first time Smyth had been back in the rally car since the accident, so to finish the event with a podium place was a satisfying performance.
"We've had another great day," Reeves said. "To just finish the event was the main goal but to take second place and be on the pace again so quickly is really satisfying."
"Rhianon did a fantastic job and it was great to have her back calling the notes again. I am really stoked with our result."
Final (Provisional) Results - Rally Tasmania (Modern category)
1. Steve Glenney / Alan Stean, Subaru Impreza WRX STI.
2. Brendan Reeves / Rhianon Smyth, Subaru Impreza WRX STI, +23.6s
3. Jamie Vandenberg / Simon Vandenberg, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IV, +1m32.6s
4. Simon Gillett / Kathy Norton, Subaru Impreza WRX STI, +3m35.0
5. Ben Searcy / Samantha Stevens, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IV, +3m49.1s
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