Quattro flies to Heartland Rally lead after day one

Keough and co-driver Pip Bennett only won two of the opening day’s eight stages, but they hold a five second advantage over the Ford Escort RS Cosworth of Glenn Brinkman and Scott Beckwith.

The mighty Quattro didn’t complete the day’s action without issues, however, with a broken gear lever, a fuel filter issue and a bent steering arm all to be contended with.

There were four stage winners on an extremely dry and dusty first day, with 2023 winner, Tom Dermody, and Stuart Bowes also making scratch times.

However there was bad news for Dermody when his 2.5-litre Ford Escort stopped with a camshaft sensor failure at the end of stage four.

Bowes recovered from a stage four puncture to sit in third place, but two minutes and 15 seconds from the lead, while top seed Nathan Quinn sits fourth in his Mazda RX2.

Quinn suffered by running first car on the road throughout the day, but will be hoping to make up some of his 2m30s deficit on the long second day.

Darkie Barr-Smith sits fifth in his new Holden Commodore V8, 40 seconds clear of James Leoncini’s Toyota Corolla, with Jeff David seventh in his gorgeous Porsche 911 RS SC.

In the South Australian Rally Championship component of the rally, Matt Selley and Hamish McKendrick lead the way in their Lancer Evo 8, but the unlikely Mitsubishi Magna of Guy Tyler and Tania Wearing sat just 12 seconds off the pace on stage times alone.

Tyler and Wearing, though, suffered on the last road section, losing plenty in late times.

Bowes and Mark Nelson are fourth in the state title race in his big Mercedes-Benz, ahead of Victorians Darren and Michelle Crozier (Subaru) and Rob and Jane Hunt’s Mitsubishi.

After 96 kilometres of stages on Friday, more dry and dusty conditions predicted for Saturday, and crews face a marathon day behind the wheel.

While there are only six stages to negotiate, they entire over 220 kilometres of competitive driving, with two stages over 71km in length.

The biggest test will be at night a with a whopper 71.90km stage to contend with – a real challenge if the wind drops and dust becomes a problem.

Full results from the Shannons Rally of the Heartland can be found HERE.