In an ominous sign for his rivals Simon Evans will debut a secret weapon when the East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship resumes next month in Canberra.
It was revealed at the recent Quit Forest Rally that Evans Motorsport had acquired the pair of Honda Jazz’s previously campaigned to Championship victory in 2012 and 2013 by Eli Evans.
“Originally Honda had said they would never part with the cars,” explained Peter Evans, who ran the Jazz’s for Eli and Mark Pedder on behalf of Honda during the 2012 and 2013 seasons.
“When Honda decided to withdraw (from the ARC) at the end of the 2013 season, and we asked if they would sell the cars it was a definitive no. But we stayed in touch and I continued to ask because you never know what might change. And when I asked this year they said yes.”
Peter Evans purchased both of the Jazz’s, minus their original engines, in a deal reminiscent of when he purchased the Honda Civic Type-R from Honda at the conclusion of the 2011 Championship season.
The acquisition of the Jazz’s means that Simon Evans will step out of the Civic Type-R and into one of the Championship winning cars for the upcoming National Capital Rally, held from the 15th to 17th May.
“We’re definitely moving into the Jazz for Nat Cap, and that’s a good thing,” said Simon.
While Simon was able to take eight stage victories in Western Australia, plus the ARMOR ALL & STP Power Stage, he was hampered by minor reliability issues in the Honda Civic and a used engine that he felt was drawing to the end of it’s competitive life.
“A new engine is coming for the Jazz, because we ran Eli’s old engine in WA. Because we knew the Jazz was coming we didn’t spend too much money on the car (Civic), we wanted to see how we’d go with what we’ve got,” he explained.
“The car proved to be reasonably reliable, even though we had a few niggling issues, and the speed was there. The old Civic wasn’t too bad, it’s a bit heavy, and it’s an older car but it’s a good car.”
So with the Evans Motorsport team throwing all their efforts at getting a Honda Jazz in fighting shape in time for the National Capital Rally, Simon says he’s fully aware that he still has some work to do.
“No way am I expecting to come out in Canberra in the Jazz and blitz everyone. It’ll take time to set it up for the way I drive. It’s definitely lighter, and we’re going to have more power, so it’s definitely going to tick all the boxes but it’s still going to be a massive fight with guys like Eli (Evans) and Molly (Taylor).”
While Peter Evans believes that the team has some engineering work ahead of them before the Jazz is ready to remerge.
“We have quite a bit of work to get the engine installed and setup. We ran quad throttle bodies on the Civic and we intend to do the same on the Jazz, however the amount of space under the bonnet is posing some issues.”
“That’s where most of the work is focused right now, but we’ll be in Canberra and I know Simon is itching to give the new car and engine a proper debut!” Peter added.
Which leaves just one question – what will happen to the second Jazz? “For now it’ll get parked in the corner of the shed!” laughed Peter. “But it’d be nice to give it to Eli as the car that he won his first Australian Rally Championship in.”
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