Highs and lows for Dowel in Forest Rally
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 Justin Dowel and Matt Lee have won their first stage in an Australian Rally Championship event, but have had a disappointing day in Heat 1 of the Quit Forest Rally, round two of the 2010 ARC.
Driving their Activ RallySport Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX, the heat started brilliantly for the Victorian duo, but mechanical problems put paid to a good result, and they finished the day in ninth place.
Based in Busselton south of Perth, the Forest Rally began on
Friday night with two tarmac stages around the city’s foreshore.
Dowel was immediately on form, finishing third on special stage one, and
then winning stage two – his first Australian Rally Championship stage
victory.
However, once the rally moved on to the gravel roads around Nannup on
Saturday morning, a broken rear driveshaft quickly put paid to their
hopes of a good result.
The Active RallySport team quickly replaced the driveshaft and the
centre differential and Dowel was fifth fastest on the following two
stages, but a two minute and 20 second penalty for being late out of
service dropped them further down the leader board.
A hard push through the final stages of the day enabled him to recover
to finish the day in ninth place.
While it was far from the result that the team had hoped for after
Friday’s night’s highs, they are hoping for a much better Heat 2 on
Sunday.
“It was looking so good last night, but this morning proved just how
quickly your fortunes can change,” Dowel said.
“The driveshaft failure was totally unexpected, but we have another day
of rallying tomorrow and the plan is to get as many points as we can
from Heat 2.
“We’ve changed the rear differential at service tonight, so we’re hoping
that everything runs well tomorrow.”
The Heat was won by Mitsubishi driver Scott Pedder, who finished the day
20.1 seconds clear of Subaru driver, Simon Evans. Darren Windus took
third place in a Toyota Corolla S2000, followed by young guns Ryan Smart
(Toyota) and Nathan Quinn (Mitsubishi).
Heat 2 of the Quit Forest Rally starts tonight with another two runs
around the tarmac super special stage in Busselton, before eight more
gravel stages around Nannup tomorrow.
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