“We really had a troublefree weekend, everything went perfectly and the car has finished without a scratch on it,” Ryan said.
“Not to say it was an easy rally by a long shot, the roads were very slippery and the Unrestricted ARC cars are fast, especially in a straight line. We just did what we had to do.”
After the first two Super Special Stages under lights in Busselton it seemed that the Smart Motorsport Corolla might be chasing the ARC cars of Shepheard, Pedder and Dowel for the rest of the rally, but as soon as the team hit the dirt Ryan was able to take the lead pulling 17.1 secs from Shepheard in the first two gravel stages on Saturday.
It was the same story again on Sunday with Ryan and John grabbing an 11 sec lead in the first 19.07km Brockman stage.
It was only up from there with Ryan and John having four stages wins, taking it to eight stage wins for the rally.
This was the first rally that Ryan has had John Allen in the co-driver’s seat with him, as his sister, Rebecca, has recently moved to the UK to co-drive for Molly Taylor in the WRC Academy.
“John did a brilliant job this weekend. We are really working well in the car together. I do also wish I could have shared this victory with my sister as she has co-driven for me in pretty much every rally since we started in our Datsun 180B in 2007.
“This is the first ARC that we haven’t competed in together.”
Ryan and John’s team mates, Simon and Margot Knowles, finished Heat 2 in their Otech Corolla in ninth position.
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