Brad Markovic and Glenn Macneall have nabbed a heat win in the opening round of the 2015 Onslow Contracting WA Rally Championship (WARC), the Quit Forest Rally (QFR) around Busselton and Nannup.
“It’s a great result and means we’ve come away from the weekend with a solid haul of points towards the WARC,” Markovic said.
The Kalamunda local, who entered the EBC Australian Rally Championship section of the event to get a good road position, said his confidence was boosted by the Heat One win.
Markovic was also, in fact, the outright rally leader heading into Heat Two.
“This is just the second time Glenn and I have competed together in QFR and we worked really hard to get a good rhythm going,” he said.
“Our goal was to stay out of trouble.”
Unfortunately for the pair, Heat Two was marred by mechanical issues - an engine using a lot of oil - and a mishap on the gravel.
“About six kilometres from the end of a stage, we spun the car on a hairpin and the engine stalled,” Markovic said.
“It took us 11 minutes to get it going again.”
“Glenn and I were pushing the car back and forward to try to get it started,” the Auto One driver explained.
The incident cost Markovic valuable time, but, impressively, he was still fast over the stages and able to finish the rally in second place in the ARC 4WD class.
He and Macneall were also the first WA team in the ARC competition.
Markovic and Macneall’s next outing is the Trade Hire Donnelly Rally in six weeks.
The Maximum Motorsport-prepared Subaru WRX will have its engine rebuilt before the event.
Photo: Gemma Lucas, Drift Images
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