He’s been quick to admit that wrapping his mind around the setup and handling of his Citroen DS3 has taken a fair amount of getting used to, but Tony Sullens came away from the recent Scouts Rally SA quietly confident that he’s found the right level of aggression to get the best out of the front-wheel drive rally car.
“I’ve also learnt from that weekend, that if you lean on the car a bit more it gets better and better. Also if you take a few risks it comes to you,” Tony said. “It’s about learning to be aggressive with the car but not overly aggressive, that’s it 100%.”
Tony has previously explained that his aggressive driving style wasn’t adapting as well as he’d hoped to the DS3, and he’s mindful of being smooth and consistent in his approach. At Scouts Rally SA though he admitted that prior event experience was playing a much bigger factor.
“Experience is a lot of it for me, I’m old but I haven’t done a lot of rallies, and that’s the difference. The Brendan’s and the Scott’s know where they can string three corners together, and go flat over this bit, and I just don’t know that stuff yet and that’s a second here and a second there and it adds up to a lot!”
“I’m as fast as anyone where I can see (the road) but it’s where I can’t see the road and I don’t know what the note should be that I’m struggling. It’s hard during recce at 50km/h to know if you’re going to fire off into the trees or not at full rally pace,” Sullens continued.
Sullens, who spent more than a decade campaigning all-wheel drive Subaru Impreza’s, has at times looked dumbfounded by the handling of the Citroen and he looked as puzzled as ever in the slippery conditions in South Australia until the weather improved at the roads started to dry.
“The conditions didn’t help because I’d arrive at the corner, I’d hear the note, but the surface didn’t look good and straight away I’d start to doubt myself. But then you get around the corner and you curse yourself because you know you could have gone round there flat, but until you do it a few times you just don’t know.”
“I know I gave a lot of time away on the forest stages over the weekend. Ok if there hadn’t been all the water, if the roads had have been dry, I’m sure I would have been a lot closer. But not really knowing when you jump out of the ruts, and that you might sail off into the trees, that was always at the back of my mind,” he added.
Looking ahead to the next Round, Rally Australia, Sullens is hoping for dry road conditions to continue to build both his confidence and experience, and to start to put some of the valuable lessons he’s learnt so far this season to good use.
“I expect Coffs will be dry, and I expect that the competition will be much closer together on roads that are more predictable. I’m looking forward to it, I think the longer events just give you more opportunity to get in the car and get a good feeling going,” Tony said.
Coates Hire Rally Australia is the local Round of the World Rally Championship as well as the East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship. Held in Coffs Harbour on the NSW Mid-North Coast, the event kicks off on the 11th to the 14th September.
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