HYNES WINS W.A.R.C ROUND 4
   
Photos Courtesy of Paul van der Mey
Leigh Hynes and co-driver Stuart Percival in
their RMS Service Centre Subaru WRX took the top podium position after a close battle with
James Anderson and Ben Searcy in the 4th round of the
W.A rally championship at Donnelly River in the states south west.
Held on Saturday 28th July
the event was based around the picturesque Donnelly River holiday village and old timber
mill. This was the first visit by rally cars to the magnificent logging roads since the
ARC round went through there around 20 years ago.
Like most other state rounds this event used the
well liked format of pace note in the morning and rally in the afternoon and evening.
Starting car 1 on the road Hynes and Percival were a little worried about the wet roads
and the possibility of doing the first 3 stages before knowing any stage times of their
competitors. Therefore a well calculated pace was needed which certainly paid off with
them setting a 2nd fastest on SS1, 3rd on SS2 then
fastest time on SS3 to put them in 2nd place
outright, only 2 seconds behind the Anderson/Searcy Spec C Impreza.
Already 20 seconds further back was last
year’s state champion Alex Stone sitting equal with another former champ Dennis
Dunlop, doing well in his Mitsubishi Lancer. Next up was the Shell Racing Solutions SS4 at
23km. A very fast flowing stage with an extremely fast finish expected to see cars get up
to 200kph. The spectator point was in this stage also and they certainly weren’t
disappointed with Hynes going through at 10/10ths to take a commanding stage win by a
massive 15 seconds to Stone/Madlener with Anderson/Searcy a further 2 seconds back. This
gave Hynes a fairly comfortable 16 second lead heading into the mid rally service.
After service there was a delay due to an
unfortunate accident requiring the Ambulance to be despatched. Once a replacement arrived
the event restarted but unfortunately 2 stages had to be cancelled. A tough decision by
organisers but the correct one.
Heading out of service with now only two stages
remaining, the Hynes /Percival duo decided on a steady approach for SS5 but they went a
bit too careful giving away 14 seconds to Anderson leaving them with only a 2 second lead.
The final stage of the event was a repeat of SS4
so Hynes pushed hard through there again to take the stage by 6 seconds and win the event
by a slender 8 seconds ahead of James Anderson with a struggling Alex Stone 34 seconds
behind Hynes. Asked how he managed such a great drive Hynes said” Everything worked
really well, the Dunlop tyres and Drummond Motorsport Suspension just seemed to suit each
other perfectly for the conditions. Plus it’s now 6 events since I came back to the
sport after a 4 year break so I’m finally getting some confidence. Stuart did a
fantastic job with the notes and the RMS Service Centre’s car preparation is spot on.
The car was so easy to drive and with the super fast roads your confidence just grows
every kilometre”
The usual RMS Team manager Bob Nicoli was
overseas but his shoes were filled by the experienced Jim Carlton who had this to say
“A perfect day! All the guys had to do was wash the car and put fuel in, the only
problem they had was the spot lights started to flick on and off on the last stage. Leigh
and Stuart kept a cool head to take a comfortable well controlled win, even if it was only
8 seconds. Win at the slowest possible speed I told them at the start and that’s
exactly what they did”.
The W.A.R.C points now have James Anderson on
127, Stone on 121 and Hynes on 115 with 1 round to go. Still a close championship
considering the new points system of 40, 34, 30, 26 etc.
The final round is on 20th
October in the Mundaring Forest using some former Rally Australia roads.
For all W.A rally results see www.duetime.com.au |
