The Sunshine Coast’s Ryan Smart with co-driver John Allen has taken out Heat One of the Quit Forest Rally in Western Australian today.
“It’s so great to win a heat, we were really on it today and I don’t think I have ever driven as committed to my pace notes as I have done today,” Ryan said at the finish in Nannup.
“The ARC cars seem to be a lot faster than last year and I had to drive flat out to get ahead of them.”
After finishing last night’s super special stages in 6th place and 7.7 secs down, Ryan’s plan was to attack from the start and get ahead as quickly as possible. He achieved that, taking 17.1 secs from Steve Shepheard after the second forest stage today.
Ryan and John topped the time sheets on four out of the ten stages today, building confidence with each one.
“I’m just so relieved and happy that we did it and I’m looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow.”
Ryan and John’s teammates and fellow Toyota drivers, Simon and Margot Knowles, also had a fantastic day rounding out the top ten, but it was not so great for the Junior members of the team Luke Page and Tiffany Bake-Schaefer who retired with a mechanical problem.
Heat Two of the Quit Forest Rally begins tonight with the Busselton Super Special Stages.
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