MRT ready after major accident

Team News from MRT

MRT ready after major accident

With less than 4 weeks behind them, the Sydney based crew of Brett Middleton and Andrew Benefield are set to renew their Forest battle this coming weekend.

The recent round of the Australian Rally Championship help in Caloundra last month, The Falken Tyres rally Qld, was a huge set back for the team, after steadily coming to terms with the highly tuned Subaru Impreza WRX STi.

"This is a new car for us this year and every event we have been getting faster and faster, as I both learn how to drive the car and the team learn how to tune it" Brett said

However after climbing to within 6 seconds of 5th outright they clipped a bank and careered off into a Pine tree. The resulting damage extended from front to rear of the car, bent tail shaft, cracked gearbox, bent rear differential cross member; the car needed a huge rebuild.

Thanks to team partners, Premier panel beating and Standox Paints, the car was back on the road in no time.

Workshop staff at the teams headquarters, MRT Performance worked day and night to ensure the car was ready for this coming weekend.

"We haven't had an accident like that for some time" said Co Driver Andrew Benefield (who suffered a cracked vertebrae and chipped tooth). Brett was pushing the car pretty hard, and was full of confidence, it's a pity, as we had 5th outright al but sew up" he added.

Ironically the team they were chasing for 5th also crashed on the very same corner, and they limped out of the stage and retired!

"It would have been easy to simply have a break form the ARC, and miss Coffs, however this is effectively our home event and we have great support locally" Brett said. "Pelican Beach Resort has been our home away form home now for over 3 years so we HAD to come back" he added!

MRT still has a fighting chance to win the privateers cup for the ARC, but also the outright category for the NSW state championship series that this event is also part of.

The "Rally NSW" starts at the Coffs Harbour showgrounds this Saturday, at 10 am, with heat one finishing back late Saturday afternoon and Heat two running similarly Sunday.

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