After surprising herself with a Heat victory at the last Round in Western Australia, Molly Taylor has exceed even her wildest dreams by claiming outright victory at the National Capital Rally in Canberra.
The day started with three stages on the south western side of Canberra and Eli Evans blasted out of the blocks to claim the opening stage win, looking to make up for his retirement yesterday, taking an instant lead of 12.7 seconds over second placed Taylor.
“We pushed hard in that last stage and managed to get a decent gap. It’s good because we did push and I was able to get the rewards for that, I’ve just got to get into a groove,” commented Evans.
A repeat of yesterday’s suspension failure saw Steve Mackenzie limp to the end of the stage and back into retirement. “We’ve hit a rock or stump and it’s bent the strut again and got a flat. We managed to limp through the stage and get back here (to service) so we’ll fix it and get out and do the arvo stages,” he explained after trying desperately to make repairs on the roadside.
In the 4WD series more frustration too for Mark Pedder who completed the first stage saying that the car would run well and then for two to three seconds at a time the engine power would flutter.
“It just doesn’t fill you with any confidence especially when you’re hitting crests in fifth and sixth gear! So we’ve decided to pull the pin, and regroup properly ahead of the next Round in Queensland,” said a downcast Pedder.
Onto the 16 kilometre Cottage stage and once again Evans was untouchable in the Citroen DS3, moving a further 2.5 seconds ahead of Taylor’s Renault with Adrian Coppin third and Harry Bates once again proving his remarkable speed to claim fourth.
“I struggled to get a rhythm on the first stage, the second felt much better,” said Taylor at the stage end.
With the longest stage of the day ahead, the 20.38km Tidbinbilla, Adrian Coppin launched a surprise attack and found his way past Taylor to move into second place. All this despite Coppin admitting he eased off after feeling a knocking coming from his gearbox.
“It’s supposed to have four bolts holding it on, it’s currently got just one! That’s put us into second now and it’s a case of consolidating and getting some good points,” Coppin said when he arrived back at the midday service.
In the lead, Evans had opened a gap of 27.5 seconds to Coppin, Taylor just behind in third. “Little bit of work to do this afternoon but as long as I keep neat and don’t make any mistakes I think we can get the time back,” Taylor said.
Even with a decent lead Evans said he was not happy with his shock settings and attributed it to testing with just one spare in the car but running today with two. He said that he felt the rear of his Citroen was sitting down and that the car was ‘pushing’ in corners.
After claiming victory on yesterday’s opening Heat, Tony Sullens confirmed that he’d had some big moments on the morning’s opening stages and had decided to ease off the pace. The tactic found him in fourth place, and over a minute off the lead of his teammate Evans.
In the 4WD’s Justin Dowel had a slender 3.8-second lead at the lunch break over Mick Patton. “I’m not driving very well, I’m still trying to find the feeling with the car while trying to drive cleanly and not make anymore mistakes,” said Dowel.
While Patton commented: “Took me a bit to get going this morning, we dropped too much time on the first stage!”
Despite being on his first outing in Canberra, Marcus Walkem in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X was finding today’s stages more to his liking and was within easy striking distance in third. “I've really enjoyed the roads this morning, more tight and twisty than yesterday,” he said.
With a repeat of the morning’s stages left to round out both the day and the weekend, Coppin pounced in his Citroen, setting the fastest time ahead of Evans and Taylor.
Fourth placed Sullens was looking to bounce back too after a lacklustre morning and was setting strong split times in the early half of the stage until the bonnet came loose on his Citroen and flew up. “Well that was interesting,” explained co-driver Julia Barkley. “Today is not our day!”
The penultimate stage was to throw the 2WD field on its head. Having settled into a strong second place Coppin was looking to cruise home and secure a decent haul of points. It wasn’t to be though, his Citroen grinding to a halt with an unknown electrical gremlin that took he and co-driver Erin Kelly almost three and a half minutes to resolve.
That bumped Taylor up to second, and based on her finishing position yesterday, and Evans's non-finish during Heat One, she was on course for her maiden round win. With one eye on the result and another on the Championship, Taylor eased off, allowing Evans to take the Heat win by 1m17.8s, but in the process taking the win for the weekend.
“Incredible, for everyone I think. The afternoon could have gone ten different ways depending on what we did and what everyone else did,” Taylor exclaimed at the finish.
“I knew we had a chance to win the rally but was also thinking about the Championship points as well, especially considering some of our main competition had problems. It was a balancing act and I think I might have a few grey hairs ,” she added.
With Coppin falling down the order the runners up podium positions resolved the way of Sullens in second and an incredible third for 20-year old Harry Bates.
“After the second stage this morning I’d given up on any kind of result, but the way the cards fell has given us a really good result. I'm really happy and really proud,” said Sullens.
While for Harry, the son of rally legend Neal Bates, the result was beyond words. “I didn’t expect that at all, especially in our car compared to who we’re up against. Can’t believe it, (it's) a bit surreal!” he beamed, a smile on his face from ear to ear.
There was a late position change in the 4WD’s as well, with leader Dowel suffering two unexpected punctures on the very last stage. “Disappointing finish, had a good lead going into the last stage but unfortunately two punctures on the last stage put us back to third.”
That allowed Marcus Walken to jump ahead of not only Dowel but also Patton to claim the Heat win and secure second for the weekend. “It’s probably only just starting to dawn on us now actually. We just kept plugging away today and we ended up here. We came here with no real expectations so to come away with second, yeah we’re stoked!”
While the win for Patton and co-driver Bernie Webb, both Canberra locals, capped off another cool, calm and collected weekend from the Mitsubishi driver. “Great end to a long day! Justin had us earlier in the day but we managed to sneak past him on that last stage to take home victory for the weekend. We’re pumped but really hard luck for Justin.”
In the Classics it was once again Neal Bates walking away with victory but as he explained it it had been anything but a simple weekend. “Actually one of the toughest rallies I’ve ever done, feels like we just finished the East African Safari! We had punctures, we ripped a brake line off and had no brakes, a couple of spins. You name it we’ve done it this weekend!”
Co-driver Coral Taylor was quick to point out that Bates had an added reason for a difficult weekend - he’d been thinking about son Harry throughout the course of the rally.
“For sure he was thinking about Harry the whole rally. I thought I was really bad worrying about Molly, but I’ve realised after this weekend I’m actually pretty good, then again I’ve had a lot more practice,” Taylor explained.
That left the identical Toyota Celica RA40 of Clay Badenoch to claim second and the BMW M3 of Tony Quinn to slot into third.
The Side-by-Side Rally Challenge looked to be a forgone conclusion for Michael Guest, the new turbo-charged Can-Am Maverick setting some fearsome times that even Cody Crocker was struggling to even get close to.
But a drive belt failure yesterday cost Guest dearly, and even though Crocker struggled with brakes today he had enough in reserve in the Polaris to take the win ahead of the similar car of Iain Hughes, leaving Guest third.
“I had Greg calling all the tight corners about a kilometre before them to get on the brakes early enough to actually make it,” explained Crocker of his problems today. “The tables have definitely turned. Guesty has got some speed there but we still got the win and we’re very happy with that.”
For Hughes it was a demanding but an ultimately fulfilling event. “Very long, very tough rally. I can safely say I think ice has more grip than what we had out there. We had a few big moments including up on two wheels into a bank which I thought was game over.”
Local Rhys Pinter, performing above and beyond in his diminutive Ford Fiesta R2, received the Kumho Tyres Spirit of the Rally award in recognition of his hard charging performances over the weekend.
The East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship now moves onto its first International event of the year, the Rally of Queensland, on the weekend of June 19 to 21. Held on the Sunshine Coast, the event also marks the third Round of the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship meaning the ARC crews will have a chance to gauge themselves against some of the regions best drivers.
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