Batten Rescues Result from Certain Defeat

Team Hyundai Rallye driver Paul Batten and navigator Adam Wright rescued their stage one start line disaster at the East Gippsland stages with an inspired drive back into contention in the 2008 Rallydrive Hyundai Rally Series.  The crew lost 3 minutes with a mechanical problem on the usually reliable Hyundai Accent at the start of stage one on Saturday 10th May.  ‘The Accent was spluttering and wouldn't rev.  It cleared  itself after switching it on and off a few times and  didn't miss a beat for the rest of the rally" commented Paul Batten.  

"We asked the officials if they could change our start time, they weren't sure and it took over 2 minutes to get a definite answer" Said navigator Adam. "Paul wanted the time to be official so we waited another 50 seconds and left on the next minute. But according to the letter of the law we should have gone so the 3 minutes stuck. We wont make that mistake again, but its a hard way to learn a lesson"

"Its tough because there was nothing we could do sitting on the start line, and we thought the time would be changed. We were disappointed at the time but we put the problems behind us and focused on the job, you can’t afford to worry about things like that until you get to the finish line" commented a determined Paul Batten.

Paul and Adam were further hampered at the rally by overshooting the service control where they received a one minute penalty for booking in early . "This penalty was overturned, but we didn't feel like it was our day in the controls which was disappointing because we were working hard in the stages" said Adam. The pair then went about resurrecting their rally result with a spirited drive for the rest of the event including 3rd fastest outright time on stage 10.   
  
Eventually the team finished 2nd Hyundai and 11th Outright, 5 seconds behind Ross and Scott Allan who ended the event with their first win in the series.

"We were happy with our efforts in the car". Commented Paul "We knew we had to make the best of a bad situation and we kept pushing all the way to the finish. It was definitely character building!" He laughed "There are a few things we can improve on the car corner speed wise so I'm looking forward to my next drive. I would like to thank Hyundai and Kangan Batman TAFE motorsport." 

Kangan Batman TAFE’s Greg Moulden was concerned about the Accents stage one stage fright, ‘We’ll take the car home, look at the data, try to determine what happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Rallying is a learning tool for our students, and we are determined to learn from this”.  

Courtesy of Hyundai Genuine Parts.

All photographs © John Doutch