Dale Moscatt is used to splitting his time between local and international rallies, but this year he is in the unique position of co-driving for a pair of fairly well known brothers – Scott and Mark Pedder.
Having spent the past two seasons with Scott Pedder vying for, and last year winning, the Australian Rally Championship, Moscatt will continue to partner Scott as he steps up to the WRC2 Championship in 2015.
“Being able to work with Scott to help make his dream of winning an Australian Rally Championship a reality was incredible, and to now be able to also help him in moving up to WRC2 this year, well that feels even better. Scott is chomping at the bit to get up to Europe and into this R5 car and they’re all events I’ve done and love so we really can’t wait,” said Dale.
“It’s also no secret that I love the Australian Championship too though, it’s been a big part of my life and career to date, so being able to also continue in that this year alongside Mark, well yes I’m very happy to be able to do that too!”
With the news last week that Mark and Dale will debut a Peugeot 208 Maxi Car at the opening Round of the East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship, Moscatt says it’s an exciting period ahead for him.
“Mark genuinely loves the Championship as much as Scott and I, but I also know that he’s super pumped this year not only through his own personal desire to be out there in the forest competing but also to be helping the sport on what will hopefully be a new growth period. It’s also a big motivation for him to run this Maxi Car, he wants to help increase the numbers, to support the events, but don’t get me wrong either, he’s very competitive too and we’ll be out there going as fast as possible as well.”
While two-wheel drive remains the outright Championship in the ECB ARC this year, Dale knows the importance of Mark’s move to bring the first Maxi Car into the sport locally.
“I’m really looking forward to this year, I’ve not been in a Maxi Car before so I’m looking forward to seeing how it performs. I’ve won two (Australian Rally) Championships now, and although we won’t be eligible for the outright title this year being in a four-wheel drive car, being able to still be there giving it our best and supporting both the Championship and our sport as a whole is a great feeling.”
“Mark doesn’t like to lose, let’s face it no one likes to lose so we’ll still be going as quick as we can, and with the 4wd series cars now being seeded amongst the ARC field, also getting an increase in the tv coverage, plus featuring in the power stage, the numbers should hopefully grow this year”.
Being the first with a new car though presents its own challenges, and Moscatt is realistic about the year ahead.
“The Maxi car is still a bit of question mark in that we don’t know about true performance or reliability in the configuration we’ll be running this car in yet. But we have a great team behind us, Race Torque are at the top of their game and know how to wring the most out of cars. They’ve put their necks on the line to invest in this project and certainly wouldn’t have gone into this if they thought the thing was a lemon,” Dale explained.
“As for the Forest Rally, well it is certainly one of my favourite events, and it should suit that style of car as well. Things are running a bit tight logistically to get the car here in time, but assuming the car is good when it arrives then we should be in a pretty good position to have a quick test at the event in Nannup and then hopefully hit the ground running come the Power Stage on Friday morning.”
So what about the differences between the brothers, is Dale expecting any challenges swapping from one seat to another?
“Scott and Mark actually have very similar notes so that makes life a lot easier from my side. I’ve done a bit of work with Mark over the years and we also ran together late last year at the Asia-Pacific Round in China so I’m looking forward to making the two campaigns work together this season.”
“In terms of driving style I could probably describe Mark as maybe a tad calmer in the car most of the time. But that’s a good thing as Scott is probably the most ridiculously competitive guy ever (apart from myself) and it’s a fair task keeping that excitement and aggression under wraps at times, but in saying that everyone has their own way of going about getting the best out of themselves so as the co-driver I’ll just do my best to support both of their strategies.”
“I guess the boys maybe do take slightly different approaches, but the common thread (with me included here) is that we all absolutely love the sport. Scott and Mark are both very busy guys running the Pedders Suspension business so it’s part of my job to try and take some of that pre rally organizational load off, but they both still squeeze in a lot of homework and preparation for these events themselves too. We speak just about every day on the phone and are definitely all on the same wavelength as to what we want to achieve here and that makes these projects really enjoyable for me. We all turn up and just get on with the job at hand, mostly without any fuss or drama and all having as much fun as we can along the way,” Dale concluded.
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