Scott Pedder and his co-driver Dale Moscatt (Renault Clio R3) have won Heat One at the Quit Forest Rally, the second round of the East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship (ARC).
Pedder/Moscatt extended their overnight lead from the opening stage this morning and took the Heat victory by 32.8 seconds over current ARC leaders, Brendan Reeves/Rhianon Gelsomino (Mazda 2).
“It’s fantastic to come here and have a great day,” Pedder said.
“The roads here in WA are real drivers roads, the surface is very unique and obviously being here seven or eight times is a huge advantage. Tomorrow’s stages are no different really to today’s in character so there is no reason why we can’t go out there and do it all again,” he continued.
Dale Moscatt added, “We think the technical nature and the slippery (ball-bearing) roads play into our hands and it panned out that way today so we can’t be anything but happy.”
Adrian Coppin and Tim Batten (Citroen DS3 R3T) leap-frogged their Citroen teammates Tony Sullens and Julia Barkley (Citroen DS3 R3T) on SS7 Koala to claim second, and then extended their lead to just over 6 seconds by the end of the Heat.
Local driver Tom Wilde’s lead of more than 1 minute in both the West Australian Rally Championship (WARC) and East Coast Bullbars 4WD National Rally Series ended in heartache on SS8 Ferndale 2 when he left the road causing too much damage to his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 for him to continue in the Heat.
Dylan King and his co-driver Lee Tierney took advantage and took the Heat One (WARC and ECB 4WD National Rally Series) honours by more than 2 minutes over Robert Webber/Anthony Chudleigh in second and Doug Tostevin/Tammy Adams in third.
“We couldn’t be happier with taking Heat One,” King said. “We’ve had a fair few dramas on the way but now we’re here and we’ve won it so we’re happy.”
“Tomorrow we just want to do the same as we’ve done today and just keep it on the road really. We have no real changes to the car, the centre diff is working again now which we ran half of the day today without so that’s going to make a big difference tomorrow as well,” he continued.
The Side-by-Side (all terrain) Heat was won by Cody Croker/Greg Foletta (Polaris RZR 1000 XP) who had a 2 minute 31 second advantage over Michael Guest/David Green in second, and a 3 minute advantage over Nathan and Les Chivers in third.
At the end of the fourth forest stage for the Moto competitors (SS7 Koala) Ben Grabham (KTM EXC) has a comfortable 1minute 13 second ahead of Graeme McKinley (KTM 505 SX) in second with Nathan Grech (Can-Am Renegade XXC) third.
With two stages remaining Jason and Paul Lowther (Toyota Corolla) lead the Quit Forest Rally WA Clubman Cup Series, which is held over eight stages on Saturday, with Carl and Tracey Rattenbury (Escort Mk1) in second and Duncan Leighton and Marc Louden (Ford Escort Mk1) in third.
The Quit Forest Rally will be held from the 4 – 6 April in the Busselton and Nannup and is celebrating its 30th Birthday in 2014. The event is the second round of the ECB Australian Rally Championship, the first round of the West Australian Rally Championship and will also include competition for WA Clubman, Side-by-Side, Motorbike and Quad entrants.
For full results and spectator information go to www.rally.com.au
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