RallySport Magazine September 2016

Miss Consistent. Molly Taylor
drove superbly once again.
need to adapt to the conditions better,”
he said.
A broken driveshaft then meant he
lost time, and dropped to fifth for the
heat.
Mark Pedder’s cruel run of bad luck
continued as well, with his Peugeot
blowing an engine and cutting his rally
short.
The night stages threw up plenty
of dramas. Running first on the road,
Evans was eager to make use of his
considerable night rallying experience,
and while he set a strong fastest time
on the first of the two stages, it came at
Leading SA competitor, James
Rodda was fourth in Heat One.
“It’s ridiculous. There
were thousands of
kangaroos out there
and we were lucky to
only hit one.”
a cost.
Another altercation with a kangaroo
just 300 metres from the end of the first
night stage did considerable damage
to the Subaru, including smashing his
driving lights and holing the radiator.
He limped through the final stage,
but dropped a whopping 13m44s to
Reeves, and eventually finished the
heat seventh (although luckily, fourth of
the ARC pointscorers).
“It was ridiculous,” Evans fumed back
at service. “There were thousands of
kangaroos out there and we were lucky
to only hit one. It’s ruined our day, and
possibly our championship!”
Reeves hit trouble too, when a water
splash on the Telephone Road stage
destroyed his Subaru’s air cleaner. The
team had a spare, but the rally leader
had to make do with a low on power
engine for the remaining night stage.
His exhaust leak had also worsened,
with the heat build up melting the front
sway bar mounts.
However, Reeves would not
relinquish his lead, taking the heat one
honours by over two minutes after a
drama filled day.
The consistent Taylor steered her
way through all the drama to finish
the day in second place (and the top
ARC pointscorer), while Brad Markovic
grabbed his best result of the season so
far, taking third place in his Subaru, just
two seconds behind the factory WRX.
James Rodda put in a great drive to
be fourth outright and the top South
Australian home in his Lancer Evo 9,
with Windus rounding out the top five.
SEPTEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 21