Fullerton Gets Behind Rival Batten For Alpine

This weekend’s Alpine Rally will see NEC Australian Rally Championship driver, PBR’s Paul Batten step out of his 2006 Subaru Impreza WRX and into his father Mike Batten’s Datsun 1600. Ironically the 2007 rally.com.au Rally Challenge winner is being sponsored by his main rival in the NEC ARC, Bruce Fullerton through his company Fullerton Financial Services.

It is not the first time Fullerton has offered support to Batten, he generously offered them use of a car for the NGK Rally of Melbourne after a heavy accident at the Great Lakes Rally left the team without a car heading into the final round.

While Batten and co-driver Craig Jones were able to purchase and rebuild a new car in time for the final round, the offer of support highlighted Fullerton’s determination to help young up and coming drivers make it in the sport.

Batten will be competing in the Datsun with his father in the navigators seat – a role reversal since they were last paired together in 2003.

“The Alpine is an event I have always wanted to drive ever since I navigated for Dad back in the 2003 event,” said Paul Batten.

Mike Batten who has a successful driving history himself - a three time New South Wales State Rally Champion he isn’t too sure how he will fare in the navigators seat.

“It is going to be totally different to an ARC event, it runs under a classic car format and has quite long stages – it harks back to the rallies of the 70’s and 80’s where just finishing an event was a big achievement,” said Batten.

“To be honest I'm just looking forward to hanging the tail out in the datto and having some fun after the pressures of this years ARC," he continued.

"There has been some hard work getting the car ready and the guys from Seldom Seen Engineering in NSW have done a great job building the motor and sorting the suspension. I would also like to thank Russell from Stuckeys Tyres and Dave from Pitman trucks for their continued support".

The Alpine rally is based around the coastal town of Lakes Entrance, on Victoria’s east coast and will see stages run on both Saturday and Sunday. Batten will be car 8 of 113 cars, the rally is hugely popular with its classic car format and there will be some nice machinery running.

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