From the high of claiming the opening two rounds of the Australian 4WD Rally Series, came the low of mechanical retirement for Mick Patton at the recent International Rally of Queensland.
The Canberra driver though says he’s determined to hit back on at the biggest event of the year, September’s Coates Hire Rally Australia.
“I was gutted to fall short in Queensland,” said Patton. “After two great events before (Queensland), it does leave you feeling quite empty to drop out with mechanical issues.”
Patton and co-driver Bernie Webb had opened a handy lead over Kent Lawrence’s Mitsubishi and Mark Pedder’s Peugeot after the opening stages on the Saturday only to see their advantage evaporate with gear selection issues.
The weekend started really well, and then we started to hit problems. It was a massive blow. We know we’ve got the speed, and we’ve got the car but we got caught out by a bit of an issue outside our control,” explained Mick.
With the problem repaired the Repco sponsored Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X started strongly on the second day, claiming the opening stage, only to once again hit gear problems, this time the gearbox itself failing.
“We ended up rejoining the rally at the last time control and finishing third, so from a points point of view it wasn’t a disaster,” Patton continued.
“The car went back from Queensland to the Race Torque workshop in WA, it’ll be freshened right up for the challenges of a full week event. The same for Bernie and I, we’ll spend the next two months solidly preparing for the challenge of Rally Australia.”
With the local round of the World Rally Championship running over three full days it represents the steepest challenge competitors face this season, and it’s a challenge Mick Patton is sincerely looking forward to.
“I’m really looking to Coffs, we know we have the pace to challenge and win!” he exclaimed. “I look at Queensland as a glitch, now it’s a case of putting that behind us and coming out swinging. It makes me more positive to come out and fight back even harder and faster.”
“You take what you can get when you can get it in motorsport,” he added philosophically.
“Equally though I was so happy for Mark (Pedder) and the boys at Race Torque to give the ‘Maxi’ car it’s first win. It’s great for the team and great for the sport to have new challengers like the ‘Maxi’ car out there.”
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