Brendan Reeves has taken first blood In the battle for the East Coast Bullbars Australian Rally Championship with victory in the Armor All Power Stage at Rally Victoria.

Reeves in a Mazda2 gained a valuable five points as championship leader Scott Pedder had a high-speed spin and very nearly crashed his Renault Clio.

Reeves was 0.3sec quicker over the stage from defending ARC champion Eli Evans.

“We’ve ticked one box now, and we’ve got two more to go,” said Reeves referring to the Power Stage and the upcoming two Heat’s of competition.
“I drove cool, calm and relaxed, even though I had one eye out for where Scott had gone off.”

Pedder was determined to win the stage, but the incident was a close call for the event his championship aspirations.

“Very, very lucky,” said Pedder.

“I just ran too wide, too wide into the ditch. It’s incredible we didn’t roll, the car really smacked into the bank and pivoted around in the air.”

Crews now return to service to prepare their cars for this afternoon’s short Heat One, with four forestry stages totalling just over sixty three kilometres of flat out action before returning to Lardner Park and the safety of service just after 7pm.

VIDEO:Power Stage Highlights