The leading duo of Brendan Reeves and Scott Pedder will take differing approaches into the next Round of the East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship this weekend in Queensland.
Unlike the previous two Rounds of the Championship which are fought out separately over Saturday and Sunday, the International Rally of Queensland is the first of two endurance events where the entire weekend is counted, so if either driver hits a problem or retires it could severely impact their title chances.
For Reeves, who leads the title race by 34 points, Queensland will be about minimizing risks and taking a measured approach to the events sixteen special stages. In comparison Pedder has said he’ll be maintaining his aggressive, flat out from the word go style.
“For me the endurance aspect of Queensland is familiar because these are the types of rallies I’ve been doing in the WRC and the US series over the past two to three years,” Reeves said.
“If anything I’ve had to learn to adapt to the sprint style that the other ARC Rounds run to. So to have both days of the rally count towards the outright result, I’m actually feeling very comfortable about that.”
While Pedder is planning a far simpler but far more aggressive tact to make up the points shortfall he currently has. “My plan is to win as many stages as I can, and by doing so put a heap of pressure on Brendan to make a mistake. If I can do that then we’ll win the rally,” he explained.
“Based on how fast Brendan, Eli and I drove in Queensland last year I don’t think you can afford to drive at anything less than ten tenths even on these longer events. Certainly you can’t go out there an drive at eight tenths, and you might not be at ten tenths all the time either, so I’ll probably be at 9.8 or 9,9!” Pedder laughed.
The pair might not have the fight all to themselves though, with the Citroen DS3 of Adrian Coppin sitting just 9 points adrift of Pedder after two consistent results in Canberra and WA.
“At the back of my mind though I need to make sure I get to the finish,” Pedder commented. “And I’m sure Brendan is thinking the same. Because if we both have problems then it would be incredibly easy for Adrian to sneak ahead of both of us based off consistency alone.”
Reeves is banking on his incredible performances at the opening two Rounds to stand him in good stead when he takes the start line in Queensland this week, the rallyschool.com.au team continuing to perfect their Mazda2.
“Our car has been performing incredibly well, so I’m really looking forward to get backing into the forests this weekend. The team has also been working incredibly hard to get the car in the best shape, including a full engine pull down,” said Brendan.
Reeves had cause for concern at the last event in Western Australia when he detected a ticking noise in the engine, only for the problem to mysteriously disappear. When the rallyschool.com.au team pulled the engine down they found that a tiny piece of metal had broken off the inlet but had passed through the engine without causing further damage.
“I think we were incredibly lucky,” Brendan said. “We think the ticking noise was actually the piece that broke off sitting on top of the piston. But when we pulled everything apart the piece was no where to be found.”
The Walkinshaw Racing team has been burning the midnight oil too on Pedder’s Renault Clio, including installing a new computer control system that has allowed them far greater flexibility in tuning the car’s two-litre engine.
“The Clio comes from Renault with a factory locked ECU, and I always felt that the power figures they claimed weren’t quite matching up with reality. Now that we have our own ECU we’ve been able to verify that that was correct. I don’t think we have bridged the performance gap to the engine in Brendo’s Mazda, but we’re now closer than we have been,” explained Pedder.
Reeves, Pedder and Coppin have all entered the Asia-Pacific segment of the event in Queensland, meaning they’ll be eligible for both APRC and ARC points. With the APRC cars starting first on the road all three drivers will have a slight road position advantage.
“Road position is probably going to be the big difference in Queensland, plus being careful not to cut corners or hit any rocks that could cause a puncture,” Reeves said. “For me the nature of the endurance events means you need to be cautious, you need to think ahead and you need to be there at the finish.”
The ARMOR ALL Power Stage kicks off on Friday morning in the forests north of Brisbane, before the ceremonial start at Kings Beach in Caloundra on Friday evening. The rally action gets underway on Saturday morning in the forests around Imbil and Kenilworth, and continues through to Sunday afternoon and the champagne finish where the winner will be crowned.
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