MRT Press Release

MRT announces NEW rally car!

Brett Middleton, of The Middleton Rally Team, purchased Cody Crocker's 1999 Subaru Impreza WRX Rally car last Thursday. When asked about the new car, the grin on Brett's face showed the excitement shared by the whole team.

After competing in the Honda Civic VTi-R in the highly competitive Formula 2 category for three years now, it was time for the team to make a move. Competing against "Possum" Bourne, in his Subaru Impreza WRC, and Neal Bates in his Toyota Corolla WRC, Brett expects to take podium finishes throughout the year, however the team's ultimate objective is to win the Windscreen's O'Brien Privateers' Cup.

"Heaps of our clients and supporters keep asking why we don't run a Subaru," explains Brett. "We constantly have three or four WRX's in the workshop every day. With the amount we have learned about these cars, both for the street and rallying , it's a logical progression to compete in one ourselves."

Brett and the team made a decision a couple of months ago to step up to the next level. They have been researching which cars are available now for about six months, assessing approximately 7 different choices of cars.

The Subaru was the obvious choice!

The team then started going through the list of possible cars, as they decided a pre-built car was the best choice. "We are going to have to put a lot of effort into this car to learn a different style of rallying," commented Brett. "There's a lot more to know on the cars, and a lot more to go wrong if you don't know what you're doing."

Finally they followed up on a suggestion and called Subaru Australia to register their interest in Cody Crocker's 1999 Group N winning WRX. After two weeks of negotiation, the team finalised the sale of the car last Thursday. Delivery is expected at the workshop in Ryde in the next two weeks.

"Once we get the car, we will just start getting used to it. We've set ourselves a huge challenge to be competitive next year, but we're all so excited to have a new car, we're looking forward to it," comments Brett.

With the development of team's 2000 Team Partner Package, MRT will be working on a number of exciting projects next year. Brett wouldn't comment on who they had approached to join them for next year, but did say they were expecting to have their package fully funded by Christmas, with the official launch of the team planned for January/February next year.

It promises to be an exciting year ahead for the team. Brett promises more updates as news comes to hand

-- story ends --

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