The RallySchool.com.au rally team of Brendan Reeves and Rhianon Smyth have finished Heat 1 of Scouts Rally South Australia, round 3 of the ECB Australian Rally Championship, in third place.
Crews contested eight stages on forestry and shire roads today in the Gawler region and by the end of the day, and almost 100 kilometres, just 41.5 seconds separated first from third places.
Reeves' Mazda2 ran faultlessly throughout the day allowing the young Victorian to finish with a clean run of the stages. Reeves made a number of set-up changes throughout the day to suit the differing road conditions and will make more changes overnight to chase some additional speed for tomorrow's Heat 2.
The heavy rain the Gawler region experienced earlier in the week had cleared by this morning and today's conditions were dry, allowing the Mazda2 to get plenty of grip on the super-fast roads.
"We had a fantastic day," Reeves said. "We're rapt to finish Heat 1 in third place and claim 30 Championship points."
"There were lots of different surface types on today's roads so it was sometimes tricky picking the surface conditions on corners when we were under brakes. We made a few changes to our set-up throughout the day to try and counter this and we were pretty happy with the results. The stage times between Eli (Evans), Scott (Pedder) and myself were really close all day."
"The Mazda2 ran perfectly today and I'm looking forward to getting back out there again tomorrow and increasing the speed a bit."
Heat 1 of Scouts Rally SA was won by current series leader, Eli Evans, in a Honda Jazz, with Scott Pedder (Renault Clio) finishing second.Â
Scouts Rally SA resumes tomorrow. Heat 2 consists of seven stages with the podium finish due to take place at 3.30pm (local time).
Results Heat 1, Scouts Rally South Australia
1. Eli Evans/Glen Weston, Honda Jazz, 57:53.6
2. Scott Pedder/Dale Moscatt, Renault Clio, +18.7
3. Brendan Reeves/Rhianon Smyth, Mazda2, +41.5
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