Last minute entrants Dean Herridge and James (Jimmy) Marquet of Maximum Motorsport have won the MRF Tyres Boddington Rally, round three of the Onslow Constructing Western Australian Rally Championship (WARC).
In near perfect conditions with stages in great order, Herridge / Marquet won the first four of the event’s six stages and placed second on Stages 5 and 6.
Herridge said the car ran perfectly and he didn’t need to change a thing in the 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STI prepared by Maximum Motorsport for Graham Iddles who was unable to compete due to a date clash.
“It was a tough rally actually with a good compact course. The average speed was fairly slow around 75 kilometres per hour with lots of twisty technical sections and the gravel was slippery and loose. The car was moving around a lot,” Herridge said.
“We had the lead by the half way mark but with the afternoon sun, dust and tough stages, I thought, well, I can only lose the rally from here. So we took a tactical approach to finish on top, and yes, it feels good to a result. The amount of messages and support I’ve received has been really fantastic.
“I haven’t done a gravel rally in four years – the last one was a one-off event in Collie, and funny enough it was Jimmy (Marquet) beside me then too. Jimmy and I have only done two events together. We worked well together this weekend but there are things we can both improve on, but it was good to get a result knowing neither of us was at the limit.
“I was fairly nervous going into this rally after a decent break, I didn’t know where I’d fit in the scheme of things. The car was available at the last minute and I had a few people encouraging me to have a steer.
“I had the family with me cheering me on which was great especially since our youngest daughter hasn’t seen me rally on gravel much at all. Boddington had great spectator points so the family had as much fun as I did – anytime skidding around in the dirt is fun!”
Herridge suggested he could compete in more WARC event later in the year.
On the second step of the podium was Nick Box and co-driver Todd Payne in their Allstar Garage 2005 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX, finishing just 38 seconds behind the winners.
In third place trailing by 3:39 minutes was Mick Steele and co-driver Tracey Dewhurst in their Natrad Malaga Japline 2000 Subaru WRX STI.
Maximum Motorsport’s John O’Dowd and Kenneth Sheil were third fastest but incurred a one-minute time penalty for an early check-in, which saw them finish in fifth place outright.
2WD
In the 2WD category, Tom Wilde and co-driver Madelin Kirkhouse finished fastest in the Verandah Apartments 1993 Honda Civic, maintaining their WARC and 2WD Championship lead.
Razvan Vlad and co-driver Daymon Nicoli won the first stage, but finished all others in second, and thus finished ultimately in second place just 23 seconds behind in his MAXYRally.com.au 2004 Ford Fiesta.
In third place was Kody Reynolds and Anthony Staltari in their Trade Hire 1994 Subaru Impreza.
Clubman Cup & Clubman Masters
Half the distance of the WARC, the Clubman Cup and Clubman Masters is more accessible and aimed at enthusiasts.
The Clubman Masters is a new category in 2017 for any competitor who has competed regularly in the Clubman Cup series and has held a 2WD DPI (seeding) greater than 0.8500 for more than two years as of 1st January of any year since 2007, or has been a winner of any Championship or Series.
Winning the first two stages and the event in the Clubman Cup was MAXY Engineering’s Brock Nicoli and Daniel Adams in their 1994 Hyundai Lantra. Less than two minutes behind was MAXYRally Chris Bowley and Stephen Wade in their 2007 Ford Fiesta ST. Just three seconds behind was third place finishers True Blue Alarms Andrew Percival and Jim Pearce in their 1997 Honda Civic.
Network-IT and Backup4me Julian Wright and Ian De Boer in their 1971 Datsun 1200 Coupe won the Clubman Masters.
Results: MRF Tyres Boddington Rally
| Pos | No | Crew | Vehicle | Total | Gap 1st |
| WARC Outright | |||||
| 1 | 9 | HERRIDGE/MARQUET | Subaru Impreza WRX STI | 01:08:57.0 | + |
| 2 | 3 | BOX/PAYNE | Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX | 01:09:34.8 | +00:37.8 |
| 3 | 6 | STEELE/DEWHURST | Subaru Impreza WRX STI | 01:12:36.0 | +03:39.0 |
| 2WD | |||||
| 1 | 4 | WILDE/KIRKHOUSE | Honda Civic | 01:13:42.6 | + |
| 2 | 10 | VLAD/NICOLI | Ford Fiesta | 01:14:05.2 | +00:22.6 |
| 3 | 13 | REYNOLDS/STALTARI | Subaru Impreza | 01:16:19.7 | +02:37.1 |
| Clubman Cup | |||||
| 1 | 31 | NICOLI/ADAMS | Hyundai Lantra | 39:49.4 | + |
| 2 | 35 | BOWLEY/WADE | Ford Fiesta ST | 41:39.9 | +01:50.5 |
| 3 | 34 | PERCIVAL/PEARCE | Honda Civic | 41:44.2 | +01:54.8 |
| Clubman Masters | |||||
| 1 | 27 | WRIGHT/DE BOER | Datsun 1200 Coupe | 39:28.4 | + |
The MRF Tyres Boddington Rally was held on 3rd and 4th June and saw about 40 competitors tackle 94 competitive kilometres.
The Championship Standings
Leading the outright championship driver standings is outright winner of Round One and winner of the 2WD winner of the MRF Typres Boddington Rally, Tom Wilde and Madelin Kirkhouse who lead the driver and co-driver standings respectively. They also lead the 2WD championship.
In second outright just two points behind is Michael Steele (driver) and Tracey Dewhurst (co-driver).
In second place in the 2WD Championship is Razvan Vlad, and his co-driver Daymon Nicoli in driver and co-driver standings respectively.
Please visit www.rallywa.com/rallyevents/mrf-tyres-boddington-rally/ for more information.
Full details of current championship standings can be found via www.rallywa.com/points.
2017 Onslow Contracting Western Australian Rally Championship calendar:
Round 1: 25 March 2017 – Trade Hire Kin Kin Rally, Manjimup
Round 2: 21-23 April 2017 – Quit Forest Rally, Busselton & Nannup
Round 3: 3 June 2017 – MRF Boddington Rally, Boddington
Round 4: 8 July 2017 – Quit Experts Cup, Collie
Round 5: 9 September 2017 – Wheels on Yirrigan Kumho Tyre Kirup Rally, Kirup
Round 6: 14 October 2017 – Carringtons Safari, Chidlow
Round 7: 11 November 2017, Darling 200, Jarrahdale (2WD and Clubman Cup only)
