As Adrian Coppin prepares to compete at the ninth Round of the World Rally Championship, the tarmac Rallye Deutschland, comes news that experienced navigator Dale Moscatt will join him.
“Unfortunately my regular co-driver Tim Batten is extremely busy with work commitments, and we realised pretty early on that he wouldn’t be able to come with me to Germany,” said Coppin.
“I’ve known Dale for a while, and of course we compete against each other in the ARC, so when I decided that I was definitely going to take up the chance to go to Germany I asked him if he wanted to come too and he thankfully said yes.”
For Moscatt it was a chance to both repay a favour and to help Coppin as he continues to progress in his rally career.
“Last year driving back from Rally Queensland we had a problem with our recce car and Adrian went out of his way to help us. I said at the time that if there was anything I could ever do to help him I would and before I knew it this opportunity sprung out of nowhere to go do Rallye Deutschland with him,” explained Dale.
It will be a welcome return to the World Rally Championship for Moscatt who featured regularly at the sport’s highest level in 2008 and 2009 alongside rapid Russian Evgeny Novikov.
“Germany is actually one of the only WRC events I’ve never been to, so it’s exciting for me to tick another one off the list and to help Adrian out in the process.”
Moscatt is hopeful that his vast experience on both the WRC and in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge will help Coppin as he gets to grips with the extremely diverse tarmac roads of Germany.
“I have done Rally France, which is only a couple of hundred kilometres away and has very similar vineyard roads like those found in Germany. Everything I know says it’s a very tough rally and you always see a very high level of attrition,” said Moscatt.
“Adrian’s total tarmac experience was gained doing a European Rally Championship Round in Croatia last year, and those roads a very, very different to the type he’ll face in Germany.”
“Our aim heading to Germany is to get through to the finish and gain a heap of experience. Doing the full three days of a WRC is like doing two entire ARC Rounds in one weekend. It’s going to be a massive challenge but an exciting one too!” Dale added.
Coppin admitted he was deeply disappointed to not have Tim Batten in the car for the German adventure, but was keen to make the best use of Moscatt’s years of co-driving experience as he continues to refine his skills.
“As a driver you’re always trying to find new ways to improve every aspect of your rallying, not just how to drive faster. I’m really excited to work with Dale to see what tips and tricks he can teach me with my pace noting,” Adrian said.
Coppin and Moscatt have entered a regional Italian event in the week prior to Germany in order to build their experience working together, including writing pace notes from scratch.
“They call them Ronde rallies in Italy. Basically they are a single stage run multiple times, so it’ll be a great way for Adrian and I to get up to speed pretty quickly,” commented Dale.
“And then between that event and the following weekend we’ve picked some roads we want to drive together and just practice writing pace notes so we can really get a good system going before we get Germany for the rally proper.”
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