The three-day event based out of Adelaide is the fourth round of both the Bosch Australian Rally Championship and the South Australian Rally Championship.
There are 55 entrants including WA’s Tom Wilde and Lee Tierney who are a close second on the 4WD ARC leader board to NSW rivals Michael Boaden and Helen Cheers. Just two points split the teams.
Wilde said he’s going to go ‘flat out from start to finish’ in his Pedders Suspension Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X.
While the 25-year-old driver said he’s pleased about 40 per cent of the event is new for 2012: “I normally do quite well on fresh notes so hopefully that plays into my hands.”
Wilde is confident and determined heading into the event but laments his team is running out of money: “This could well be my last rally for the year and one of the reasons I want to win at Adelaide.”
Also competing in Rally SA for the first time, and looking to make amends for a couple of difficult rallies, will be Nicholas Box and Ash Ridden in their striking zebra-patterned All Star Garage Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX.
After a bad crash in the Quit Forest Rally and being forced out of the International Rally of Queensland with mechanical issues, the pair is seventh on the 4WD ARC points table.
Box said he was still recovering from the broken elbow he suffered in QFR.
“My arm is about 80 per cent. I have to drive with two arms and I don’t like that,” he said.
In the two-wheel drive ARC competition, John Bruinsma and Adam Tillett are aiming for a podium finish. They also want to put on a show for the spectators in their Holden Commodore VE SS.
“Our car is the only real two-wheel drive in the Australian Rally Championship that you can actually go to the shops and buy and, from a spectator’s point of view, I think that’s really exciting.”
Bruinsma said the car would test a new brake system in Rally SA after a ‘brake guru’ from Performance Friction designed pads and rotors specifically to give it more braking torque.
Also heading to Adelaide are last year’s Australian two-wheel drive champions Razvan Vlad and Damon Nicoli.
It’s the first time this year the pair has competed outside of WA and they will run their Ford Fiesta at the South Australian Championship level.
Nicoli, who recently trained at the Australian Institute of Sport as part of the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport’s young competitors program, will put into practise what he learnt.
“Damon loved his time at the AIS in Canberra. Short term we will try out the nutrition and fitness tips that he got,” Vlad said.
Scouts Rally SA 2012 incorporates three heats and starts next Friday morning.
The service park is based in Adelaide and the event takes in the scenic roads of the Barossa, Mount Crawford and Murrayland regions.
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