South Australian rally star, Jack Monkhouse has hit the ground running in his newly rebuilt Nissan 200SX with a podium performance at the season opening event held around Canberra last weekend.
After some time out of the seat, Monkhouse continued to get quicker in each and every stage at 2013 National Capital Rally.
“I was really happy to have qualified in fourth for fully televised power stage and even happier to have finished that stage in third outright,” explained Monkhouse.
It wasn’t to be an easy start to the rally for Monkhouse.
“The first two stages in heat one were hard work, with the brake bias stuck on full front but we just did the best job that we could do.
“The crew rectified the problem at the first service and we managed to climb up to fifth outright for heat 1 and stayed there.”
The Monkhouse crew then made some radical suspension set-up changes to the car in two hour service and Jack came out blazing on Sunday morning and took managed second outright on the first stage of heat two.
Over the next four stages Monkhouse closed the gap to the leader and finished second on all of the last three stages, leaving the privateer driver between the two factory cars for the heat and third overall for the weekend.
“We are just stoked with the results, to be mixing it with factory teams with a car we essentially have built in a shed with my family and friends is a pretty cool thing.
“Big thanks to our fellow competitors who have helped us out - Simon at Speedie Contractors, Charlie from Cladtrans, and Mozza at Ultimate Subaru, as well as the guys that support us - Xtreme Clutch, Bond Rollbars, Autosport and Rallyschool.
“We are planning the remainder of the season and working out what comes next, watch this space,” smiled Monkhouse.
Photo: John Doutch
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