The Subaru drivers held a slender lead over Chris Anderson in the championship standings after the previous rally and will not be challenged for the title after Anderson did not register for the season-ending rally.
Anderson, who will be the 2010 WARC runner-up, got married in the United States last week and will not make it back in time to contest the much anticipated championship-decider.
“With only a five-round championship you really need to finish every round; that is what we planned to do at the start of the year and we seemed to have been lucky in that regard,” championship-elect Tom Wilde said.
“Leigh Hynes and I have spent many hours at his Busselton Subaru Service workshop preparing the car for this last rally, so even without Chris there we still plan to finish strongly,” he said.
One man who might challenge Wilde for the final-round win is former WARC winner Alex Stone who is making a return to the sport after 18 months competing in local BMX competitions.
Stone said he was looking forward to returning to competition in a Subaru WRX that he had been working on with his father while he was away.
“It was a little bit of a concern that the car was a little bit older but we do believe there is potential left in it so we wanted to get it out there and use it and not let it just sit around in the shed,” Stone said.
Stone has a new co-driver in Hannah Drury and they will spend the Western Safari rally getting used to each other and the car with the focus firmly on getting kilometres under the belt leading to a tilt at the WARC title next year.
Kiel Douglas and Anthony Paynter are the favourites to take out the 2WD championship but will face tough competition from second placed Razvan Vlad who has entered the rally with a new Ford Fiesta, which he recently imported from New Zealand. Blair Pugh and Travis White are also expected to challenge for the 2WD class line honours.
Even though the WARC is all sewed up, rally fans are encouraged to visit the Western Caravans spectator point located at special stages three and seven. ‘Wheels on Yirrigan’ is where the best spectator action will be with the first car expected through stage three at 13:20 on Saturday October 16 and stage seven at 16:40.
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