Porsche crew Jim Richards and Barry Oliver appeared to have little inclination to push any more than necessary, claiming only one win from the day’s first six stages, yet keeping an overall lead of never less than half a minute.
But ahead of them on the Competition-Modern timesheets the action was intense with Peter Rullo/Simon Iseppi (Nissan GT-R), Ben Searcy/James Marquet (Mitsubishi Lancer) and Jon-Paul Van Loenhout/Lisa White (Nissan GT-R) frequently setting the pace.
Searcy clung to second outright for most of the morning around Toodyay, but five of the stages were won by Rullo (one in a tie with Searcy).
Rullo was determined to show his pace despite being out of probable overall contention after a gearbox failure sidelined his car yesterday afternoon.
The rally ended prematurely for the local crew of David Heaton and David Bobowski, who rolled their Mitsubishi Lancer spectacularly after they crossed the finish line on the Coondle Highlands 1 stage. Neither was hurt.
In the other categories, Tolley Challis/Greg Flood led Competition-Classic with 30 seconds up on Paul Moltoni/Ian de Boer. Were were in Porsches.
Razvan and Ioana Vlad, in a Ford Fiesta, had a 93-second lead over Helen and Sharon Payne in a Mitsubishi Lancer, while Robert Buys/Sanja Aksamija (Porsche) led Bruce and Max Lake in a Datsun 240Z by 35 seconds after stage 16.
Competitors will complete 14 stages today, the most of any day in the four-day event which finishes tomorrow afternoon in Perth.
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