Reid is “living the dream” of driving one of rallying’s most iconic rally cars.
Reid’s Ford Escort RS1800 is the same specification as the RS1800 of WRC driver Mikko Hirvonen and is built by leading specialists, Historic Rallysport in the UK.
The QUIT Forest Rally was Reid and co driver Iain Stewart’s first run on a gravel event in the team’s brand new car. It’s only other outing was in the tarmac Rally Tasmania in February where Reid placed in the top five.
“I had not had any real chance to test the car on gravel,” Reid said after missing a test session. “The first two stages were scary, I was wondering where the centre and front diffs were!
“Last time I competed here was in a Toyota Corolla Group N (P) car – they just turn and go!”
Whilst Reid was never headed during the event, he enjoyed the chase by fellow Classic drivers Barry Lowe in his Autosport SA Commodore, and Dave Thompson in the thundering Falcon XY GT.
The Classics proved popular in the rally with many people looking at the cars at the end of the Busselton super special stage and at service. Reid fitted tarmac tyres for the super special – running on old rally tyres was not an option, as he didn’t have any.
All the Classic crews are part of the ever-growing Classic rally movement in Australia. ACRA ran a successful ARC Classic competition in 2010 and members thrilled thousands of spectators at ARC events.
The next event is the International Rally of Queensland where the cream of Australian classic cars will be there to thrill the thousands of spectators expected.
Photos: Stuart Bowes
SUBSCRIBE BELOW TO READ THE FULL STORY
