Brendan Reeves indicated last month that Rally Victoria would more than likely be his last event in the Rallyschool Mazda2, and team owner Mick Ryan confirmed that both funding and time constraints on his team will probably see the car parked in 2015.
“I don’t expect to run next year,” confirmed Ryan of the Mazda2 which burst onto the ECB ARC scene midway through the 2012 season in the hands of Simon Evans, and which has been driven to success over the past two years by Reeves.
“I’d say the huge amount of time my guys have put in over the past three years to build and run the car is the main reason. “I’ve asked a huge amount of them, our guys are all volunteers, so now it’s time to give them back their lives!” Ryan continued.
The Rallyschool Mazda2 has developed into one of the front-running cars in the Championship, battling to fourth behind the dominant Honda of Eli Evans and the Renault duo of Tom Wilde and Scott Pedder during the 2013 season, and leading the 2014 points race up until the round in Coffs Harbour this year.
“I can confirm it is not part of my 2015 vision to run the Mazda. I would consider selling it, or it can sit in the corner of the workshop. Mazda have a new Model '2' out soon, so we might consider a face lift if it’s an easy upgrade," Ryan added.
It is known that Reeves brings some personal sponsorship funds to help run the Mazda2, with Ryan estimating the total running budget to be in the order of $120,000 per season without any wages, and a large percentage of that funding currently comes from Rallyschool.
"Time away from the family is also something to be considered here. With the rally week of testing, recce, media day, Power Stage, and two full days of rallying, even flying the key people in and out uses 18 of the 20 days of the annual leave from a regular job.”
Ryan openly admitted that he’d tapped into both the Rallyschool business and his own personal funds to compete this year. “To be honest I was prepared to pull the pin after WA this year, and I would have unless I hadn’t already made the commitment to Mazda to do the season. The Rallyschool business has been quieter the past two years, all these things have a knock on effect.”
"To be honest, winning the Championship is not a motivating factor for me, personally. Some drivers would sell their children to do that. “We started this project because I like the G2 rules, I thought it gave great options to build a really cool race car, and as a small operation we could show what was possible. Unfortunately manufacturers appear to sell cars on 5 star airbags and fuel efficiency now, not high performance."
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