Sunday
7th April 8:00am Fourth
element added to round 2 of ARC Clear
country skies, clouds of red dust, and a bushfire
marked Heat One of WA’s Respect Yourself Forest Rally. Now a fourth
element has been added – water. Overnight
rains have laid the dust, left pooling puddles and added a slick surface
layer to the already slippery WA ball-bearing roads. 54 cars
start today’s leg of the event, with the first car on the road, the
Subaru Impreza WRX of Possum Bourne, looking the firm favourite. Bourne,
the reigning Australian Rally Champion, silenced detractors who claimed he
was having trouble adapting to his new Group N mount with a convincing
11-second win in yesterday’s opening leg of the rally. The
rain-slicked roads are not expected to cause Bourne major problems, but
the reduction in dust will be a huge advantage to following cars. Each Heat
of the rally is timed as a separate event with points scored going towards
the Championship, so today’s heat represents a whole new opportunity for
Bourne’s rivals. Victorian
privateer Scott Pedder made much of the running in yesterday’s Heat with
challenges coming from Mitsubishi’s Ed Ordynski, Michael Guest, Osamu
Yamaguchi and Spencer Lowndes. Mechanical
problems thwarted a hard-charging Simon Evans in Heat One, while local ace
Dean Herridge was slowed with a bent steering arm early in the day’s
stages. Both will be back with a vengance today. One man
that won’t be back is Subaru’s Cody Crocker. The engine of the current
Group N champion’s Impreza expired at the end of yesterday’s first
stage and team mechanics were unable to repair the damage overnight. Heat Two
of the Respect Yourself Forest Rally gets underway at 8:13am and will
conclude at noon.
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