Former Subaru Australia factory driver Dean Herridge has indicated that he’s enthusiastically keeping an eye on this year’s Bosch Australian Rally Championship with the very real possibility of returning at a later date to take care of what he regards as “unfinished business”.
Based out of his family run business in the suburbs of Perth, Herridge, who has focused his attention on tarmac rallying over the past four years, indicated his desire to return to the pinnacle of gravel rallying in Australia to claim the one prize that has eluded him – a Championship title.
“I’d dearly love to take care of some unfinished business,” he said. “My focus has been on our tarmac programme for a little while now, but of course gravel rallying is still my great passion and I’m really happy to see the changes that have been made to the ARC for this year.”
“The sport really needed a good shake up and I think what Scott (Pedder) has been able to achieve in a very short amount of time is really exciting – it really lights the fire in me to get back out there.”
It was suggested that Herridge may make a late notice appearance at the opening Round of the Bosch Australian Rally Championship in Busselton, Western Australia, but commitments at Targa Tasmania have scuttled plans.
“It would have been perfect to run at our home Round, unfortunately Targa runs the weekend before and there literally isn’t enough time to ship cars from one side of the country to the other with enough time to convert them from tarmac to gravel.”
“I will be a very keen observer though, our company (Maximum Motorsport) is running two cars for local drivers, including my old gravel car, so I’ll be able to gauge how things are going first hand,” Herridge continued.
Does that mean there is potential for Herridge to mount a come back later in the year? “I’ll have to see how things go; we’ve tied most of our resources up in the tarmac programme. I’m definitely thinking about what we might be able to do next year though, the changes to the ARC are really exciting and it adds an awful lot of great reasons to come back and fight it out!”
And Herridge is keen to get even further involved with the sport outside of the car. “I’d be interested in being more involved in helping shape the sport for the future, to use that knowledge I’ve had over the years running as a privateer and as a factory driver.”
– Credit: www.rally.com.au