Scott Pedder returns to Europe this week to prepare for his next outing on the World Rally Championship, the 72nd Rally Poland.
Pedder has had a tumultuous introduction to the highly competitive and fiercely fought WRC2 support category, having had significant highs and lows during his first two events in Portugal and Sardinia. But the reigning Australian Rally Champion says that he’s putting his experiences, both good and bad, to use in fast tracking his progress.
“I always knew it’d be a massive ask to go from a front-wheel drive in the Australian Rally Championship to battling against National and Regional Champions in the WRC2, especially in a car I’d never driven before in the Ford Fiesta R5,” said Scott.
“But sometimes you learn more from your mistakes, and after two very tough rallies I’m really excited to be heading to Poland and using that knowledge and experience I now have and putting it to good use.”
Rally Poland, since returning to the World Rally Championship in 2009, has become renowned for its incredibly high-speed roads. Pedder says the nature of the stages plays to his strengths and he takes a lot of confidence to the event.
“Drivers talk about Poland being as fast as Finland, just without the big jumps. That’s exciting for me, I’ve felt most comfortable on fast roads as I’ve learnt the Fiesta this year, and during my career as well. I go to Poland really keen to get back in the car and tackle some of those absolutely flat out stages!” Scott commented.
The build up to the weekend starts today with a full day test in the Ford Fiesta R5, with Pedder keen to continue the setup work he started in Sardinia. “Between Portugal and Sardinia I made some radical changes to the diffs in the car, so it’ll be a case of fine tuning those for the Polish roads,” Scott explained.
“Also the nature of the events, with much smoother, softer roads, means almost every component in the setup of the car will be different to Sardinia. The springs, shocks, roll bars, they will all have been changed in preparation for the nature of the roads in Poland.”
“Also the conditions will be much cooler than we experienced in Portugal and Sardinia, and we know that will play our hands with tyres. The DMACK tyres we’re running this year love the sorts of conditions we’ll face, and they have done extremely well in Poland previously,” added Scott.
The opening Leg of the rally could provide the biggest test for drivers, with over 150 kilometres of stages with no servicing until the very end of the day. “This rally will be won on pure speed, but also reliability. The action on Friday is probably the longest day in the Championship season without service, so it’s going to be a massive challenge for everybody.”
“I learnt an awful lot from the first two events we’ve contested,” continued Scott. “And I’m really looking forward to applying that in Poland – I can’t wait!”
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