Ryan Smart and John Allen have taken their second ARC victory at the International Rally of Queensland in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland today.
Following victory for Smart at the Quit Forest Rally last month, Ryan was confident and hoped to
repeat what he did in Perth, taking the lead early and maintaining it throughout the rally. Things
didn’t go as smoothing as planned making it a nail-biting finish right to the last stage.
Ryan and John finished Leg One in third place after having a number of troubles throughout the day.
“Everything just seemed to go wrong today, we had the power steering belt come off after hitting a
rock, and then issues with the diff that was putting us in and out of three wheel drive, not to
mention some of the close calls off the road and an intercom failure.” Ryan said at the end Leg One.
“ We’re just glad to be here and hopefully we’ll have a good clean run tomorrow.”
Luckily this was the case and Ryan chased down Pedder and Dowel steadily through the day,
decreasing his 32.4 second deficit. Before entering the final stage Smart and Allen were placed third
in their Smart Motorsport Corolla with only 2 secs to leader Mark Pedder and 1.5 secs to second
placed Justin Dowel.
“ With 34 kms in this stage I’m just going to do my best and drive as fast as I can” Ryan said at the
final refuel.
Ryan and John put in an amazing time taking the overall victory by 13.4 secs to equally second
placed Dowell and Pedder, and winning Leg 2 by 29.7 seconds over Pedder.
“After everything that went wrong yesterday, it was just so good that everything went right today
and we were able to pull out the victory. I’m absolutely stoked.” Ryan said at the podium
presentation.
“I think there will be a big party tonight!”
The next round of the Australian Rally Championship is the Scouts Rally SA in the Barossa Valley 30th
– 31st July.
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