Last weekend’s Rally Australia round of the Australian Rally Championship (ARC) was disheartening for local WA co-drivers Bill Hayes and Glen Macneall, with both their teams suffering from mechanical gremlins that were hard to pinpoint.
Bill Hayes said both he and driver Molly Taylor went into the event hoping to diminish the eight point championship lead that Eli Evans and Glen Weston held over them. However, they struggled to translate great drives into great times.
“It was fantastic to be at Rally Australia, and we’ve come away with good points - but it was a really frustrating weekend from a championship point of view. We felt we had prepared well for that event but we just weren't on the pace, and haven’t been able to pinpoint why,” said Hayes.
Taylor and Hayes finished the event in third place, 4 minutes 18 behind Evans and Weston. The sibling duo of Steve and Brent Mackenzie split the two teams in second place.
Mark Pedder and Glen Macneall’s event was frequently interrupted by mechanical mishaps which plagued their Peugeot 208 Maxi right from testing and finally saw them retire from the event on the last stage.
“Even though the car is in development we weren't expecting to have as many problems as we did. However, when the car was running well - we were up there!” said Macneall.
The Hyundai i20 Proto of Justin Dowel and Western Australian co-driver Toni Feaver was also was unable to finish the event. However, Feaver was upbeat saying they were able to sufficiently test the new vehicle and were happy with the car’s development. Read full release here