
Photo: ARC Media

Photo: ARC Media
Off the blocks for the Mazda
Auty and Mitchell started the event with purpose and three straight stage wins, including a 40-second win in the second stage gave the Mazda drivers some breathing space early on. Reading made up for lost time in the middle section of the heat, claiming the next three stages but an incident on the eighth saw Reading’s day done, allowing Auty and Mitchell to cruise to eventual heat honours with the next four stage wins. It was going to take something miraculous to knock Auty and Mitchell off the summit, and the event was effectively all but over by the third stage of the final day as the Mazda ran the fastest time in the opening two stages. A win on the final stage was the perfect ending to the duo’s solid weekend and gave them more to cheer about as well as their well-deserved top five finish. Click here to view Heat 1 resultsReading shows fighting spirit
Bodie Reading was going into the event with everything to play for as it was his first hit out for 2019. With his idol Simon Evans also competing in the ARC, the 22-year-old was ready to show what he had in his national debut. Unfortunately, the first heat was one to forget for the youngster with the local Tasmanian failing to finish the final four heats of the day, as well as losing a lot of time in the day’s second stage. The bad day didn’t prevent him from going hard in the second heat and the move paid dividends with Reading and Mitchell taking out the heat win. The duo fell behind the winning Subaru in the opening two stages of the day but managed to win the next three, including comfortable 30 second wins on the 14th and 16th stages.
Photo: ARC Media
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