After being one of the star drivers in the Rally America Series, Brendan Reeves is looking forward to showing that form at this weekend’s International Rally of Queensland on the Sunshine Coast.
Reeves has easily won the two-wheel-drive category in a Ford Fiesta both in Oregon and Pennsylvania; plus was hot on the heels of the leading all-wheel-drive turbo-charged entries.
This weekend Reeves will be back aboard the Mazda2 aiming to go better than third place at Rally SA behind the Honda of Eli Evans and the Renault of Scott Pedder.
“Rally SA was our best event so far in the car, with two third placings, and we’re hoping that some changes will see us just as competitive this weekend, and even taking some stage wins,” said Reeves.
“Today (Wednesday) we’ve got a full day testing, where we’ll test some new MCA rear shock absorbers in the car, and we’re confident that it will make the car even more competitive.
“We added a new rear wing to the car in South Australia, which helped with the high speed stability of the car, but we still lacked rear grip in the low speed corners.
“The new suspension should help to alleviate those problems and make the car a lot nicer to drive on the slower, twistier stages which Queensland is renowned for.”
“We definitely want to finish in the top three and be closer to the leading Hondas and Renaults. We’ve generally been about 0.3 seconds per kilometre off the pace of championship leader Eli Evans, so to breach that gap would be great.”
Four-time Australian Rally Champion, Simon Evans, is attending test session and will drive the Rallyschool.com.au Mazda2 to give his valuable feedback on the car’s handling.
Evans drove the car in last year’s ARC, and his input is much sought after by the team.
After starting on Friday evening the International Rally of Queensland will be held over 21 special stages with a competitive distance of 223 kilometres.
After qualifying on Friday evening, the top five competitors in the Australian Rally Championship will contest the 2.02 kilometre Power Stage around the Nambour Showgrounds.
The rally proper gets underway on Saturday morning, with 10 stages, the longest being the 21.22km ‘Derrier’ test, run twice during the day. On Sunday, a further nine stages await the remaining crews, before the podium finish in Imbil, north west of Caloundra.
Australian Rally Championship points after Round 3 : ARC Outright
| Position | Crew | Car | Points |
| 1 | Evans/Weston, | Honda Jazz | 243 |
| 2 | Pedder/Moscatt | Renault Clio | 214 |
| 3 | Wilde/Hayes | Renault Clio | 155 |
| 4 | Reeves/Smyth | Mazda2 | 124 |
| 5 | Monkhouse/Allen | Nissan Silvia | 108 |
| 6 | Boaden/Cheers | VW Polo | 106 |
