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South Eastern
Automobile Club competitors featured strongly in round 2 of the
South Australian Rally Championships held at Robertstown on the
weekend. Gary Brown and Adelaide based co-driver Mike Dale driving
their Buildpro/Coates Mitsubishi placed 2nd outright,
finishing a mere 24 seconds behind round winner Matt Selley/ Joana
Fuller in a Subaru WRX.
Coonawarra based
driver Trent Brand and Jeremy Brown drove their S & J Automotive WRX
to 3rd outright finishing just 7 seconds behind Brown. Brand and
Brown fought throughout the day swapping stage times and outright
placing.
Robertstown lived up
to its reputation of being the most demanding round of the series
with a number of crews succumbing to the rough and rocky conditions.
Series leaders Declan Dwyer/Claire Dowling were forced out of the
event in stage 5 with mechanical problems, while local crew Paul
Heenan/Adam Branford failed to finish the event due to gearbox
failure in the night stages.
Craig Neave with
stand in co-driver Nathan Lowe battled suspension problems in their
Multi Metals Sigma, but managed to finish the day in 18th
outright and 3rd in P4 class.
Jason Sims and
Damien Wilson drove a consistent race in the Blue Lake Cranes Datsun
180b finishing 9th outright and 2nd in P3
class. The pair was fighting for position all day with Adelaide’s
Gavin Fowler and Warren Neitz in a Datsun 1600.
In the outright
standings after round 2 Trent Brand/Jeremy Brown are well placed in
the top 3, while Brown/Dale have improved their position, are down
the leader board having failed to finish the first round due to
gearbox problems.
Crews will now
prepare for round 3 which is an all tarmac event which will be held
in the Kuitpo area of the Adelaide hills. It is the first time such
an event has been made part of the championships. |
