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The all-wheel-drive, turbocharged Evo VIII is the first outright contender built by Mitsubishi Ralliart principal Alan Heaphy and his crew at the team’s new headquarters at Dandenong in Melbourne. Preparations will be completed with half a day’s testing near Canberra on Tuesday ahead of almost 270km of competition over gravel roads in forests around the national capital at the weekend, with a short super special stage each day at Fairbairn Park.
TMR’s priority for the Rally of Canberra is to see the Evo VIII make it to the finish on Sunday afternoon. Impressive pre-season testing has given the team a quiet confidence, but Heaphy stressed that the true test will come in the Globalstar Australian Rally Championship – the world’s most competitive national rally series.
“We will start to ascertain our competitiveness now – Canberra will give us a very finite analysis,” Heaphy said.
“We will find our strong points and any weak points. The first day of rallying, indeed this first event of the new season, will give us a guide to where we’re at. It may even take two or three rallies for us to know precisely where we are in terms of our opposition.”
Pedder, one of the sport’s top privateers for several years and the Melbourne-based marketing manager of his family’s Pedders Suspension business, is looking forward to his debut as a factory driver - and with a new co-driver, Brisbane endodontist (or root canal specialist) Glen Weston.
Pedder finished second in the Rally of Canberra in 2002 and 2003 in an Evolution VI Mitsubishi Lancer with Paul Humm, and much as he would love to go one better this weekend is trying to contain his optimism.
Like Heaphy, Pedder’s focus is on finishing. “I would love to be on podium, but the main criteria must be to finish,” he said.
“If we’re in the top five I think we would be entitled to feel pretty pleased. Canberra is a very special event, a very technical rally that requires precise lines. But it’s a rally that really rewards commitment.
“The first three stages (the new 24.67km Laurel Camp, 9.33km Bluetts and mainly new 13.79km Glenlock, all west of Canberra) will tell us a lot. We’ll be getting data, getting a comparison.
“I’ve had a pretty good record in Canberra, although I crashed on the second stage last year.
“Once we get out on the gravel there will be a fine line to tread. I seem to do best on longer stages, and nine in Canberra are longer than 15km and another three are close to it.”
The Evo VIII will be TMR’s sole focus this weekend as Pedder’s former Evo VII that will be campaigned this season, with factory assistance, by Adelaide’s rising star Jack Monkhouse with Darren Masters will not appear until next month’s Forest Rally in Western Australia – the first round of the Australian drivers’ championship.
Rally of Canberra counts towards the Australian manufacturers’ championship and is the opening round of the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship.
Forty eight cars are entered - 19 outright contenders, including 10 internationals, and another 29 in the Capital Rally behind them.
Pedder and Weston, who has previously called the pace notes for John Goasdoue and Stewart Reid, are seeded sixth. Heading the seedings are last year’s winner, Dean Herridge, with new co-driver Bill Hayes, and Japan’s Toshi Arai and his British co-driver, Tony Sircombe, both in Subaru Impreza WRXs. Seeded third are Japan’s Katsu Taguchi with Australian co-driver Mark Stacey in an Evolution VIII Mitsubishi Lancer, ahead of reigning Australian champion and recent Rally New Zealand Group N winner Cody Crocker with his new co-driver, Dale Moscatt, in a Subaru. The fifth seeds are Finn Juha Kangas and Julia Rabbett for Les Walkden Rallying, now also in a Subaru. Immediately behind Pedder and Weston as the seventh seeds are New Zealanders Geoff Argyle and Jeremy Sinclair in another Evolution VIII Mitsubishi Lancer.
Mitsubishi has a long and proud record of success in Canberra, with Ross Dunkerton giving it four outright victories and Ed Ordynski two. Dunkerton also won the national rally in Canberra last year on the debut of the all-wheel-drive Mitsubishi Magna VR-X in which he went on to win the Australia Cup. He will be back in Canberra this weekend as TMR’s “coach” for newcomer Pedder.
Three long-time members of Pedder’s service crew will join TMR at each rally.
Rally of Canberra’s 17 stages comprise 268.76km of competition, but with liaison stages the event’s total distance is 705.94km. After a ceremonial start Friday night at Garema Place in central Canberra, the first of Saturday’s 10 stages begins at 7am, while Sunday first stage is at 7.40am with the finish mid-afternoon at Fairbairn Park.
The Toyota prototypes of Neal Bates, Simon Evans and Ben Barker, as well as Pedder’s young cousin Will Orders in a Subaru, will compete in the Capital Rally.