Up to four drivers could come away with the 2009 West Australian Rally Championship at the end of the running of the fifth and final round of the state series.
Lee McIlroy, who is currently leading the championship has a three-point advantage over defending Drivers' Champion Leigh Hynes. McIlroy has consistently bagged points on each of the four rounds so far and will be looking to take it all the way this weekend. He has drawn car one on the road and with temperatures forecast for the high thirties and very little rain in the lead up, the roads will be well and truly dusty. This round will also revert back to the route chart format.
“The car finished in great shape after the Donnelly River round and we have just been doing routine maintenance on it in preparation for this event.”, commented McIlroy.
For Hynes, currently second in the championship, the preparation has been a little more intense with a rewire of the entire fuel pump electrical system. This was the cause of his problem in the last round which stopped the car mid stage, a heap of time lost until he fixed the issue and continued in the event.
Hynes and Pervical have drawn car 2 on the road so they will be able to keep a close eye on the black Subaru of the leaders.
“We will need to get off to a fast clean start and try and get a gap on Lee and then keep him at least 4 points away. This has been a good and bad event for me in the past but in general I enjoy driving it and will just keep an eye out for some of the rougher bits," Leigh Hynes said.
Two other crews in the event have a mathematical chance of winning the series. John Macara and Tom Wilde will certainly be there and pushing hard. Macara comes from a win on the last round debuting his EVO 9 in great style. John is also somewhat of a blind rally specialist and will certainly feature at the pointy end.
Young gun Tom Wilde had an up and down start to the season. He was very quick on the opening heat of round one the Quit Forest rally, but had a big off and has since been driving to finish. That said he’s proven that he has the speed and so is certainly capable of posting times at the top of the time sheets.
The Western Safari will be conducted in the Mundaring area utilizing some of the ex-Rally Oz roads and will include nine stages totalling just over 130 kilometres of competitive distance. Thirty-seven crews have entered the final round of the series with this event also including a round of the Clubman Cup Championship.
The event kicks off this Saturday afternoon with organisers providing a good spectator point just off Great Eastern Hwy near Chidlow only 45 minutes from the city of Perth.
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