Nathan Quinn's popular victory in the 2020 Alpine Rally cemented his reputation as one of the best rally drivers in Australia.
The Coffs Harbour driver wasn't really being touted as a possible winner of the rally, but in retrospect, he probably should have been the favourite!
Quinn and co-driver, Ray Winwood-Smith, have done countless rallies in their self-built Mazda RX2 this year, all with the end goal of challenging for victory in the biggest event of the season.
Throughout the year Quinn continually changed gearboxes and gearbox and diff ratios trying to find the sweet spot that would make the RX2 competitive.
It paid off in spades.
Of all the contenders, he was the one with the most miles under his belt, the driver who was most at one with his car and, as it turned out, the one most able to withstand the challenges of everything the Alpine Rally car throw at you.
An ecstatic Nathan Quinn celebrates his Alpine Rally win. Photo: Peter Whitten
And didn't it throw everything at them!
Bushfires, bone dry stages with thick dust, then drenching rain that made the stages a quagmire and forced an early finish to the event. It had it all.
Remarkably, the specification of Quinn's Mazda RX2 is almost identical to the similar car that his father, Martin, ran successfully in the 1980s.
"We started the project with the specification that dad's car ran, then moved in all directions to try and improve things," Quinn said after the Alpine.
"We have updated suspension and things like that, but no matter what we tried, we kept coming back to the specs that Dad was running in the 80s.
"The car has been fantastic and a joy to drive."
Sometimes in rallying, there's nothing new under the sun.
Always the joker, this was a sticker on Nathan Quinn's Mazda RX2.
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