For Leigh Hynes, not winning the second round of the WA Rally Championship was NOT an option.

The Busselton Subaru driver was the top seed in the Trade Hire Donnelly Rally on Saturday and went hard from the get go.

His bright orange Subaru Impreza hit speeds of up to 187km/h on the fast, clean stages and he and co-driver Stuart Percival blitzed the field in the first three stages to take a 70 second lead.

“That’s always our tactic. We just go flat out from the start. That way there’s a bit of a buffer if we have any problems,” he said.

It proved a smart move for Hynes and Percival because, in the third-last stage of the Donnelly Rally, their car developed a brake line issue. With no opportunity for service, they were forced to run 41 competitive kilometres with no rear brakes.

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Donnelly’s Clubby Corner

Two in a row for Snaddon.

Matt Snaddon and co driver Blake Thompson in their Trade Hire Toyota Corolla once again headed up a Clubman podium identical to the Quit Forest podium with Jason Lowther/Matthew Teape again in second spot and Andy van Kann/James Marquet again in third.

The competition was extremely close with no less than 5 Toyota’s, Steve Vass’s Datsun and Carl Rattenbury’s Escort all within striking distance of a win. Stage 3 brought the demise of Carl’s very quick Escort with a snapped axle. Steve Vass had minor electrical problems losing a minute over the pack.

After the service Vass lifted the pace taking stage 4 by 22 seconds over Snaddon. Steve’s charge came to a disappointing end when he slipped of the road and bogged in stage 5.

By the start of the last stage in darkness, Snaddon had the victory under control but all places from 2nd to 5th were up for grabs in the long fast stage. Van Kann relished the night stages taking second fastest in both stages to pull up from fifth place to the third and getting within 10 seconds of Lowther’s second spot

The Experts Cup should again prove both close competition and close camaraderie amongst the clubbies.