WA’s Brad Markovic and Glenn Macneall have had mixed fortunes at Lightforce Rally SA, which was run over fast forestry roads around the Barossa Valley and Mount Crawford Forest regions, on the weekend.
In Heat One, the pair celebrated their first podium finish of the 2016 Kumho Tyre Australian Rally Championship season.
Markovic and Macneall finished third behind Victorian Brendan Reeves and Molly Taylor from NSW.
Brad Markovic on his way to third place in Heat 1. (Photo: Peter Whitten)“Molly beat us by just two seconds overall in Heat One,” Markovic said.
“We gave her a 25 second head start in morning and managed to claw back nearly all that time in the last four stages.”
In Heat Two, Markovic started strongly but his Subaru WRX STI clipped a tree on the second stage of the day.
“We were coming up to the final lefthander of the stage and I accelerated too early and too hard,” he explained.
“We spun around and did a fair bit of damage. The back wheel was just hanging off.”
Markovic and Macneall missed the next two stages of the rally while the Maximum Motorsport team worked to repair the righthand rear of the car.
“We probably could have got back out there quicker, but we wanted to make sure the car was definitely right,” Markovic said. “The guys did an amazing job.”
From there, the plan was to try to salvage some championship points and, once they rejoined the competition, Markovic and Macneall were third and fourth fastest on the final two stages.
Brendan Reeves was the winner of Heat Two, but, with not all competitors registering to earn points, Markovic and Macneall earned the third highest haul of ARC points from the event.
“That was one of the big positives from the weekend,” Markovic said.
He also praised the Lightforce Rally SA organisers who were, at the eleventh hour, forced to drastically change the event because of heavy rain.
“The cutting and pasting they did of stages was sensation,” he said. “The format of using stages twice worked really well.”
Markovic and Macneall now turn their focus to the final round of the ARC, Kennards Hire Rally Australia around NSW’s Coffs Coast from November 17 to 20.
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