Brendan Reeves and Rhianon Smyth took victory in the 2009 Rally of Lithgow held today. Run as a round of the NSW State Rally Championship for the first time, the event consisted of stages totalling 142 kilometres of gravel stages.
Reeves led the event from the first stage, and eventually won the event by over four minutes after Michael South was forced to retire due to mechanical problems on SS1. Road conditions were quite rocky and crews were faced with very dusty conditions in the three night stages.
Using the event as another chance to gain more pace noting experience and time behind the wheel, Reeves was really pleased with his result.
"Once again I really enjoyed this rally," he said. "The car performed brilliantly and despite us never having competed in it before, everything went to plan."
"We didn't have spotlights fitted for the night stages so we tried to get a sizeable lead at the end of the daylight stages to allow us to back off at night. Thankfully, that went to plan and we were able to ease off for the final two stages."
It was a successful day for the Reeves family with Brendan and Rhianon's brother, Nathan, winning the Rally Bonnie Doon in Victoria, with Rory Lyle calling the notes.
Reeves' next event is Targa Tasmania where he will drive a Mazda 3 MPS for Mazda Motorsport. The event gets underway on April 28.
A Rally of Lithgow report and final results will follow shortly.
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