Nathan Quinn, fresh off his impressive World Rally Car debut at last year’s Rally Australia, has announced his surprise entry to the National Capital Rally in a front-wheel drive Peugeot 207.
“It’s great to be getting back out there,” beamed Quinn. “It’s always fun to get back out in the dirt, I’m really looking forward to being back in the ARC and having a really good run.”
His start in Canberra will be Quinn’s first outing in the East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship since 2010, when he had mixed results in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 at Rally Queensland.
Nathan Quinn drove a MINI World Rally Car at Rally Australia in 2013.The opportunity to compete in Canberra, Quinn explained, came from his long-standing relationship with Kumho Tyre distributor John Mills. The Peugeot 207 Quinn will run was last seen in the hands of young-gun Steve Mackenzie at last year’s Rally Australia.
“I’ve had a pretty good relationship with John (Mills) stretching back to when we last ran the ARC in 2010. I was actually going to use the Peugeot at Rally Oz last year before the opportunity to drive the MINI World Rally Car came up,” Nathan said.
“I’ve driven the Peugeot as a zero car, probably about one hundred kilometres worth, at a club Round prior to Rally Australia. It’s a good package, John has upgraded the suspension to new MCA, fitted a 6-speed gearbox, and while it’s a fairly basic tune it should be fun to drive.”
Quinn revealed that he’d been speaking with Mills about the opportunity to run the Peugeot in a number of ECB ARC Rounds this year, starting with Canberra and potentially following on to International Rally of Queensland later in the season.
“I can’t wait to get to Canberra, I just hope we have time to perform a test prior. Unfortunately I’ve never had much luck in Canberra, every time I’ve been there we’ve had an engine problem or a gearbox issue. It’s funny because when my dad rallied there too he said he always had similar problems,” said Quinn.
Nathan is setting himself some strong goals for Canberra, despite his time away from the sport and his limited time in the Peugeot he will drive. “I’m obviously two years behind the guys like Eli Evans driving these sorts of cars.”
“I know I’ll be off the outright pace at the start but by the end of the rally I want to be setting times up there with Eli and guys like Brendan Reeves,” added Quinn.
On a separate note Quinn is still riding the high of his World Rally Car debut at last year’s Rally Australia.
“That result has really opened some doors, and I’m still working on some really good options. The hardest part has been balancing the demands of work with following up the opportunities out there. I’m hopeful of being able to devote some more time to securing some further drives very shortly.”
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