Although he only competed in three rallies this year, 2017 has been a positive one for Brendan Reeves with plenty of time in the driver’s seat.
In January Reeves headed to Monte Carlo to write the gravel notes for Hyundai World Rally Team driver Hayden Paddon in the World Rally Championship season opener.
This was just part of Reeves’s involvement with Hyundai this year. He again performed gravel crew duties for Paddon at both Rally Corsica and Rally Germany, and also assisted Hyundai engineers with the tuning and testing of the new i30 N at the Mount Panorama circuit in Bathurst.
On a competitive note, in March Brendan and co-driver Ben Searcy contested the Eureka Rally in Ballarat, round 1 of the Australian Rally Championship, in Reeves’s Subaru Impreza. Reeves competed in the Victorian Rally Championship section of the event.
Brake failure in Heat 1 of the event caused their retirement but they bounced back in Heat 2 to finish in first place.
Next up was Rally Coromandel (August), where Reeves drove the Force Motorsport Mazda2 AP4. For this event he was again co-driven by Searcy and the pair had a dominant win, making it two wins from two starts for Brendan at the Coromandel event.
Brendan Reeves in action at Rally Australia in 2017. Photo: Timo Anis
With the assistance of his many supporters, to whom he is extremely grateful, Reeves and his regular co-driver, Rhianon Gelsomino, finished off the year by entering Rally Australia, the final round of the World Rally Championship in November.
The pair brought the Force Motorsport Mazda2 from New Zealand especially for the event and despite a short time frame to prepare for the rally, they made the start line.
Rally Australia got off to a great start for Reeves, finishing day one in 13th place overall and as the highest placed Australian. Unfortunately on day two an accident forced his retirement from the event.
Throughout the year, Reeves has also spent many weekends training rally drivers at the track on his property in regional Victoria.
Reeves is still working on his rally program for 2018 but plans to get behind the wheel as often as possible.
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