Drivers Prepare To Fight It Out For Rally Challenge Crown

The rally.com.au Rally Challenge has been one of the hottest contested titles in the 2007 NEC Australian Rally Championship and will come down to the wire at the final round of the Championship, the NGK Rally of Melbourne, to be held in the Yarra Valley 9 – 11 November.

With Fullerton Financial Services Bruce Fullerton / Hugh Reardon-Smith and PBR’s Paul Batten / Craig Jones tied in first place on 200 points and a further three competing teams with a realistic chance of winning, the battle for the 2007 rally.com.au Rally Challenge title promises to create a buzz in the forests.

Fullerton Financial Services’ head to Melbourne after a strong result in the Great Lakes rally of NSW which saw the team win the rally.com.au Rally Challenge for the weekend and move into equal first alongside PBR’s Batten for the year.

This season’s move to a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI has proved successful for the Full-On Rallysport team, with good results in Queensland, South Australia and NSW leaving the team in strong contention to take the title leading into the final round.

“The Great Lakes rally was a great result for us, with our first round win of the year,” said Reardon-Smith. “Better yet, all the car needed was some basic maintenance to be ready for Melbourne.”

The win also moved the team into 14th outright in the NEC Australian Rally Championship, despite missing two of the six rounds.

“The NGK Rally of Melbourne is a new event for us,” said Reardon-Smith. “However, so was the Great Lakes Rally, it just makes Thursday, the recce day, one of the most important days of the event – we have to get the pace notes right, and so far this year our pace notes have worked well.”

The Full-On Rallysport team also includes 2 more key personnel – Rob Reddiex and Richard Harris, who make up the service crew and have kept the car running perfectly all season, so all 4 Full-On Rallysport team members are working towards a strong finish to this season.

It would be an understatement to say that PBR have had a hectic lead up to Melbourne. After a clean and incident free season, the crew left the road during the second heat of the Great Lakes Rally and the heavy impact saw the teams Subaru Impreza WRX damaged beyond repair.

While finances are tight for the self funded team, PBR decided to take the risk and invested in a complete rebuild to have a car ready to compete in Melbourne. With most of the parts arriving in the past two weeks, co-driver Jones and team mechanic Sarah Panayi have been working around the clock to get the car ready for Melbourne.

“The off in NSW was pretty traumatic for both of us, it really shook us up,” explains Batten. “However, we’re not going to let it affect our focus going into this round, we’re approaching Melbourne like we’ve done at each event this year, concentrating on our own race and not the people around us.”

“Melbourne will be a little different as I’ve got Bruce [Fullerton] to think about, I’ll definitely be thinking about the championship, but I won’t go all out for the round win, if we can stay in front of Bruce then we can win it [the Rally Challenge].

“The car should have a really good set up, we had some ideas we were hoping to implement to the old car but never got that chance and we have been able to include them in the rebuild so if we can make them work I really think we can keep improving,” said Batten.

Away from the two front runners a further six teams will battle it out for the NGK Rally of Melbourne honours and the 2007 title is by no means secure in the hands of either Fullerton or Batten.

Mazparts WA’s Derek Reddie, Fusion Motor Sport’s Mitchall Hall and Truckmate Racing Team’s John Berne could all steal the title if things go their way, and if the competition throughout the year has been anything to go by, Fullerton and Batten will have a fight on their hands.

Victorian’s KME RS’s Brenton Kaitler and Bayside Gas Applicance’s Liam Dunn will be out to impress in front of their home crowds and are a good chance to take the round win, while NSW Bearing’s Ray Baker will travel down for the event adding to the strength of the field.

Courtesy www.rally.com.au

All photographs © www.hubblephotografix.com