Evans is currently in Sweden with the Qatar M-SPORT WRT and with temperatures of -5 and snowing, the contrast to likely conditions in Canberra in February couldn’t be greater.
Meanwhile the team at Innate Motorsport is working flat out to prepare the two Ford Fiesta R2’s the team will field in the opening round of the East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship, the National Capital Rally to be held in Canberra in just 20 days!
The team took delivery of their first Ford Fiesta R2 on Friday 25 January after the car cleared Customs and AQIS at Sydney International Airport. Since then plenty of midnight oil has been burned as the team push to understand the car and fit the new gravel suspension to their mount.
With the first car ready, the team’s focus will now turn to Coppin’s regular ride for 2013, an ex-Harry Hunt Ford Fiesta R2 that the team hopes to collect from Sydney early next week. The car has never been used in anger but arrives in tarmac trim and will need to be converted to gravel specification.
“There is a lot more work to get the second car ready with the conversion to gravel spec,” Chief Engineer and co-driver Tim Batten said. “But I am impressed with the effort that has gone into the design and engineering of the package and I’m sure we’ll have it ready on time. You can see M-Sport’s years of rally experience everywhere,” Batten added.
The car's next appointment will be a forest test on 16/17 February where Coppin will really get a chance to put the car through its paces. “I can’t wait to get behind the wheel and see how it goes. I’ve been waiting for this moment for months and it won’t come fast enough,” Coppin said.
Then it’s time for a visit to the graphic shop for a new paint scheme for season 2013. The team’s livery and several new supporters will be revealed to the media at a launch on Monday 25 February.
“Everyone in the team is really busy at the moment but we can see it all coming together as we had hoped. We have two new cars, a new workshop, new truck and support from Ford and some new sponsors. I feel like I am living the dream,” Coppin said.
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