RallySport Magazine October 2016

took three minutes longer to complete
than the similar length SS1 and 2, with
Smart/McCarthy duo taking the win in a
touch over 10 minutes.
But Bishop and Woolley would not
make it out of service after the end of
the first leg, with a broken oil cooler
ending their championship season.
The teams also reported that the
roads were challenging. Many of the
roads were narrow with many yumps
and bumps along the way. This meant
that many would improve their times
on the second loop, being more aware
of the road conditions.
Ryan Smart showed his class by
taking all four stage wins in the second
loop. He would stretch his lead over
Menzies/McGowen by a massive 37
seconds on SS5, improving his SS1 time
by 24 seconds.
He would continue, taking SS6 by 18
seconds, SS7 by 5 seconds, and was the
only competitor to break 10 minutes on
SS8. He beat Menzies/McGowen by 23
seconds with a time of 9min 53sec.
The second loop took its toll on the
field with a number of retirements
including Jamie Yule/Kirstin Winarta
(Mitsubishi Mirage) having a broken
axle; Allan Clunes/Gavin Wieland
(Mazda) with a broken gearbox. Ian
Reddiex/Mike Mitchell’s Toyota and
Rodney Reid/Belinda Reid’s Mitsubishi
would also retire.
The final two stages would take place
at night and while there was concern
about dust, the cars ran at two minute
intervals and the dust problems proved
to be not as bad as feared.
Smart/McCarthy would take both
stages to take a comfortable win,
winning by 3min 26 seconds from
Menzies/McGowen, with Swart/Davis in
third.
Kent Lawrence would take fourth,
which was enough to grab second in
the championship behind Bishop, and
just ahead of Menzies.
After missing
the title this year,
he will be back for
another title shot
in 2017.
The P6 category
was taken by Todd
Webster/Ryan
Preston’s Subaru,
with Peter Flynn/
Dominic Corkeron
taking P4.
In a strange
quirk, Webster/
Preston finished
Rob Bishop and Neil
Woolley are the 2017
Queensland Champions.
Melinda Bergmann,
Subaru Legacy RS.
on exactly the same time as the Subaru
of Melinda Bergmann/Larisa Biggar,
both taking fifth place.
Upon their return to the stages, the
Dillon brothers took P3 - and last of the
classified finishers, despite suffering
from delaminating tyre issues, resulting
in them only having two clean stages.
Clay Weston/Brendon Wrigley took P2
class in their Ford, with Keith Fackrell/
Tony Best’s BDA Escort taking the
Historic class.
An interesting side note was that
Weston and Fackrell were competing
for the 2WD honours. Fackrell took
eighth at Benarkin with Weston ninth -
which could have tied them on points.
That battle wasn’t confirmed at the time
of writing.
The Multi-club event took place
over eight stages with Glenn Mitchell
and Peter Clydesdale’s Escort taking
Historic, John Keen/Ray Priest’s Subaru
taking P5, and Steve Allmark/Chris
Miller’s Subaru taking P6. Finally, Allan
Arney and Matthew Roe in a Torana
would take the Novice prize.
Despite their bad rally, Rob Bishop
and Neil Woolley took out the 2016 MRF
Tyres Queensland Rally Championship,
and will look to defend their title in
2017.
Marius Swart finished
third in his Super 2000 VW.
OCTOBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 49