News - Saxon Safari Hobart Tasmania, Rd 4 heat 2

Team News from MRT

Saxon Safari Hobart Tasmania, Rd 4 heat 2

Sydney based team, Brett Middleton and Andrew Benefield, restarted heat two, Sunday however after several lacklustre stage times, chose to withdraw from the event and save their efforts, for their planned assault on the New Zealand World rally Championship next month.

Starting special stage one, Middleton was over cautious and dropped time to the crews they were beating in Saturdays Heat one.
"partway into the stage I was sure we had a flat tyre, and drove conservatively as a result, on inspection at the end of the stage all the Falken tyres were fully inflated and ok. Other crews then complained of similar problems in the now very slippery stage" Brett said.

The team swapped tyres to 215 D softs for the next two stages, these tyres being the better choice for the "average" road conditions.

Special Stage Two
Middleton pushed harder on this (faster) stage and was a little closer to crews, such as Evans, Warren and Pedder, however still not "on the pace"
"I didn't want to take any risks, and I pushed myself to forget Heat Ones indiscretion, however this is not easy and I was convinced it was myself not the car"

Special Stage Three.
This was the stage in Heat One that the MRT crew went "off" and obviously they were keen to forget this. The stage was a lot faster in many areas and not in others!
Many loose rocks had been thrown around by the previous days cars and the several corners where cars could "cut" the apex were even worse. Given many corners were 5th gear the road was a challenge. (remember this is a B double semi trailer haul road to the top, and the complete opposite on the return, with the finish not far from the start)

"The stage became very "loose" on the return and in this area we must have got a flat, (like many other crews), the road was in some cases like a rail track, there were so many rocks! We did not realise the tyre was going flat and it must have been a slow leak as we only realised when we exited the finish control." Brett said.

At that stage we decided it was not just my driving, but possibly also the car. It was very hard to drive straight on left hand corners We were also worried about a wheel bearing noise and didn't want to end up stuck in the forest." Brett added

MRT withdrew at the end of the next stage, electing to prepare early and be ready for New Zealand. The car leaves for the Australian mainland by boat Monday lunchtime and then is transported 1000 km North to the New South Wales Capital city, Sydney.
It will be stripped at the workshop of MRT Performance and taken to Premier Panel Beating, for new roof, rear quarter panel, rear drivers door skin, bonnet and a fresh coat of paint.

Hey at worst the car will look great, at best it will go as fast as it will look, with its new Group A engine.

Best wishes
Goes to Michelle Murphy and Rick Bates, whom in the first run in their newly purchased (ex Michael Thompson 2 door STi) went off in Heat Two. Delays in getting up to the road resulted in the next car on the road, to arrive with no sign of the crew, the driver slowed and slipped off the road, only to hit Michelle whom was climbing up the bank.
Thankfully Michelle was airlifted to hospital with broken ribs, a broken wrist a little worst for wear, the fantastic Motorsport Safety crew whom attend all ARC events were on the scene to assist and proved that safety is everything in Motorsport.

Get well soon MM, from all of us at MRT, plus Rick needs you back in the car!!.

Final results.
The WRC cars again proved invincible with some small chinks in their results, Possum had gearbox problems late in Heat two and Neal a flat tyre and a whopper of a high speed spin. Well done to both teams, the speed and commitment of both crews is a great show to watch.

Whilst Ed Ordynski and Cody Crocker had a close battle in the group N cars. Simon and Sue Evans threw everything at it for heat two with a good result, whilst young Mark Thompson completed day two in the top ten with a steady result for the weekend. Marks speed will be hard to beat when he gets a few more ARC events behind him.

OVERALL POS	DRIVER CO-DRIVER	VEHICLE	CLASS	OVERALL TIME	DIFF.
1	Bourne Vincent	Subaru Impreza WRC2000	P5	1:01:36	0:00:00
2	Bates Taylor	Toyota Corolla WRC	P5	1:02:55	0:01:19
3	Crocker Foletta	Subaru Impreza WRX Sti	N4	1:04:02	0:02:26
4	Ordynski Stewart	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 6	N4	1:04:59	0:03:23
5	Herridge Carlton	Subaru Impreza WRX RA	N4	1:05:26	0:03:50
6	Warren Judd	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 4	P5	1:06:16	0:04:40
7	Evans Evans	Subaru Impreza WRX Sti	N4	1:06:26	0:04:50
8	Lowndes Randell	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 5	N4	1:06:34	0:04:58
9	Shepheard Corkeron	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 6	P5	1:07:15	0:05:39
10	Thompson Boddy	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 5	N4	1:07:35	0:05:59

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