Simon and Sue Evans in the Tanksformers Subaru have won Heat One of the Scouts Rally after a consistent and clever performance in the rolling hills of South
Australia.
After stretching their lead through the day to as much as 22 seconds, second placed Scott Pedder and Jon Mortimer fought back in their Pedder’s Suspension Rally Team Mitsubishi but were unable to make any significant gains. At the lunchtime service Scott accepted that Simon and Sue’s lead was too much to bridge and he would be focussing on taking heat wins to help win the event- assuming he can win tomorrow’s heat two.
It was an outstanding performance by the Tankformers crew. Despite being gifted 12 seconds by the errant Scott Pedder last night, they won by more than that margin, proving they were and are the team to beat this weekend in South Australia.
At the lunchtime service, Simon Evans was prepared to admit that his 20+ second lead was “handy” as he would now be able to just back off a little to preserve the car and ensure the pressure remained on Scott Pedder who, despite normally being unflappable, has displayed a few frayed edges of late.
Third place for the heat went to Active Rallysport’s Justin Dowell and co driver Matt Lee. It was a great return to the ARC after missing the recent Coffs event. Some gearbox issues troubled them during the day, but were not enough to stop them taking third for the heat.
Nathan Quinn and David Green in the Allied Air Conditioning Mitsubishi were a model of consistency- finishing fourth in every stage and fourth on the day and despite some good stage results were just not quite able to run with the top three.
After a great performance in last night’s Super Special Stages, Steve Shepheard was unhappy and lacking confidence in the critical Tweeden SS3. Some overnight tweaking and a good result in tonight’s Super Special Stages should see the Sachs sponsored machine back with the front runners.
Despite battling a misfire that shook the car and severly limited top speed, Eli Evans and Glen Weston in the Evans Motorsport Honda Civic Type R were able to not only complete the heat, but finish inside the top five and be first front wheel drive car home.
Tonight sees Heat Two begin under lights at the Angaston Super Special Stage facility ahead of tomorrow’s nine remaining stages.
Heat One Scouts Rally SA:
01) Evans/Evans (Subaru Impreza) – 58m 12,2s
02) Pedder/Mortimer (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX) + 20,1s
03) Dowel/Lee (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX) + 01m 51,5s
04) Quinn/Green (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX) + 02m 27,1s
05) Shepheard/O’Brien-Pound (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X) + 02m 54,8s
06) Evans/Weston (Honda Civic Type R) + 03m 09,4s
07) Broaden/Cheers (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX) + 03m 20,1s
08) Fawcett/Morris (Subaru Impreza) + 05m 03,8s
09) Fullerton/Reardon-Smith (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI) + 06m 22,3s