Major changes have proven effective with the Taslo team of Sloan Cox and David Calder taking victory at the prestigious Whariti Peak hillclimb near Woodville last weekend.
Prior to the team's first competitive event on gravel in their brand new Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X, testing was carried out with former national rally champion Geof Argyle to fine tune the suspension settings.
As well as the gravel debut for the Evo X, it was also the first time that the Cox/Calder pairing had sat in the same car. The top seeded pair worked well together, easily adjusting to each other's styles in the car.
The weekend started well with the car immediately on the pace, however the third run brought disaster, with gearbox failure ending the team's day early.
The gearbox was changed the following morning, however the replacement was a standard gearbox, meaning Cox had to remember to use the clutch with every gearshift.
The team missed three of the day's five runs, however two was all that Cox needed to secure first place, almost six seconds faster than second placed Peter Trotter.
The team are happy with the potential of the car and Sloan’s confidence in it is high, however more testing is still required before the opening round of the New Zealand Rally Championship, Rally Hawkes Bay, in just under a month’s time.
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