Brayden Wilson is the 2019 Queensland Rally Champion, after securing the title at the final round last weekend.
Wilson had a comfortable lead over the rest of the competition heading into the Hinterland Rally and only needed to steer his Mitsubishi Evo 9 to the finishing line.
But luck didn't appear to be on his side, when he and co-driver, Blake Wilson, were forced out of the event with mechanical issues in their Lancer Evo 9.
Fortunately for Wilson, the event was taxing on a number of crews, with around 20 different entrants having mechanical issues throughout the day, including title contenders Melinda Bergmann and Larisa Bigger, who found themselves out of the event after just two stages.
With both Wilson and Bergmann out of the event, all eyes were on Glenn Brinkman, who was the only other driver with any chance to steal the championship from Wilson’s grasp – but the 2018 NSW Rally Champion needed to win the event to force the count back.
Alongside Harvey Smith in another Evo 9, the duo started well after posting the fastest time on two of three first stages, but their fortunes turned in the fourth stage and the leaders succumbed to the pressure.
Brinkman eventually finished in fourth place, thus handing the relieved Wilson the title.
Brayden Wilson is the 2019 Queensland Rally Champion. Photo: via Facebook
“I was pretty stoked to take home the championship and knowing the amount of work we put into the car, it was a big sigh of relief to be honest,” Wilson said.
“We knew we had to finish well and we were anxious heading into the event. However, as soon as we had the failure, even more nerves kick in, especially with the championship on the line. It was not a fun way to end.
“We lost the clutch in the first (stage), but because it’s a sequential gearbox, we just kept going and ended up doing five stages and making it to service, but we then made the call to retire after finding an extra few problems with the car.
“We were pretty anxious when we found out what was wrong with the car after the first stage. We had a few hours to wait and to be honest, I had hopes that Glenn wouldn’t win and we were a bit fortunate when he faced issues himself.
“It’s been a lot of hard work that has gone into getting the job done this year, but we got there in the end which is just fantastic. Hopefully we can celebrate more in the future.”
While Brinkman may not have won the title, his fourth place moved him into clear second ahead of the round’s winner, Ryan Smart, who snuck ahead of Bergmann to finish the year on the podium.
Despite not attending the event, Alan Stean was crowned the 2019 co-driver champion after both Blake Wilson and Larisa Biggar failed to finish the event.
While Smith managed to score points alongside Brinkman, it wasn’t enough to replace Stean nor Wilson in the top two positions, therefore he settled on the final step of the championship podium.
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