Rodda and Langfield piloted their aging Rally Power Motorsport GC8 Subaru Wrx STi to victory along the fast flowing Robertstown roads, based a few hours north of Adelaide.
Prior to the Walky 100, Rodda, Langfield and the Rally Power Motorsport team were sitting in 2nd outright in the championship, 17 points behind leaders Michael and David Krichauff in their newer Wrx STi.
“After mechanical issues caused a disappointing result at Scouts Rally SA and being a bit off the pace at Adelaide Hills Tarmac Rally, we felt the championship had started to slip through our hands,” stated Rodda.
During the event preparation the Rally Power team did as much as possible to make sure the car would be reliable for the event, as any issues would hamper the fight for the championship.
“To win the championship we knew Robertstown would be a must win event! We did everything in our power prior to ensure the car was 100% as well as making sure our pacenotes were also spot on. On the day it was all up to us in the car, we had a job to do, and we pulled it off!” explained Rodda.
Rodda and Langfield set out to beat previous years’ stage times to ensure they would be on pace. They succeeded by beating most times by a substantial amount despite stages being slipperier than last year. Showing their desire to win the pair also only managed to drop a few seconds being daylight and night runs on the stages in the second half of the event.
At the conclusion of the event the pair walked away with the victory after winning eight of the twelve stages, building a lead of thirty-eight seconds over fellow competitors Gary Brown and Mike Dale in their Mitsubishi VR4.
“I’m very delighted to have won the 2013 South Australian Rally Championship, especially securing it with a final round win! It has been a dream of mine since starting competition in rallying seven years ago, and first being introduced to rally twelve years ago as a ten year old. It makes all the late nights and hard work all worthwhile!” expressed Rodda.Langfield also added “Like James, I have been rallying for almost a decade now and this result has come from experience and a lot of help and guidance from many people along the way. I only joined Rally Power at the start of the season but was immediately impressed by the professionalism, attention to detail and determination of James and the whole team. A lot of factors have to go your way to get to this result and this team has all the right elements in place to ensure they do!”
Rodda, Langfield and the team wishes to thank all the event organisers, volunteer officials and event sponsors who take the time, sometimes months in advance to make these events run as smoothly as they do.
They would also like to thank fellow competitors who make the competitions very enjoyable and challenging, but are always willing to help out when in need!
Rodda added, “I would personally like to thank our team, Matt Parker, Dillon Pederson, Matt Holt and both of my parents for the massive help and support in the lead up and during events. Without them, results like this would not be possible.”
“I would also like to thank all co-drivers who have been with the team, mentoring me from the start, building competition skills and pacenoting up to a point of being at a championship winning level!”
“Another big thanks to all of our supporters and sponsors, without the generous help and support from them it would be impossible to achieve what we have!”
Rodda would also like to thank Southern Districts Car Club and the CAMS Junior Development Program (JDP). Rodda began the competition path by becoming a graduate of the first generation JDP students in 2005!
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