Steven Shepheard and John McCarthy are knocking on the door of a podium in the Australian Rally Championship, with a flying fourth outright overall at the Sprint Auto Parts Rally SA last weekend aboard the OZ Tec Suspension Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 10.

With an ever improving car, and with Shepheard's confidence growing by the outing, the crew came home in sixth place in heat one, before turning on the pressure with a storming drive to fourth in the final heat of the championship.

Despite missing the first round of the season, the team earned sixth outright in the final championship standings.

After recently testing with world rally driver Chris Atkinson, the new generation Lancer produced its best result to date.

"We tried to implement what Chris had told us, focus and concentrate on the fast crests and be quick out of the slower corners, and it paid off," said Shepheard.

"We really started to get on top of it on Sunday, and I was happy with the times, and I know we can do more.

"After 98km on day two we were only a minute off the front runners, I think we can catch them, but I don't know if we have enough to do anything about Simon Evans."

The two main areas the team will continue to work on are pace notes and suspension set up.

"We have to develop the pace notes to be a lot more descriptive on flat out crests to give me some more confidence, because at the moment I was lifting off in some places where I shouldn't be," said Shepheard.

"The car started with a perfect suspension set up, unfortunately just not for the bumpy Australian roads, so with some more development in that department there will be more time gained."

The next outing for the OZ Tec Suspension Mitsubishi Evo 10 will be at Repco Rally Australia on September 3-6, with the event being the closest rally this season to the team's Brisbane base.

Before Rally Australia, the car will be converted back to PRC Group N rally specs, with changes to be made to the car's engine restrictor and exhaust system.

The GSA Wholesale Suspension Rally Team would like to thank OZ Tec Suspension, King Springs, Accord Body Works, Exedy Clutch, CES Racing Systems, Albins Off Road Gear and Mitsubishi Ralliart for their continued support in season 2009. 

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