Heat 1 win for Brendo in Rally SA

Despite a few niggling mechanical problems, Brendo and Rhianon have finished Heat 1 of Rally South Australia with a comfortable lead of over one minute in the SARC component of the event.

Brendo started his charge early, winning the first competitive stage of the day by over 38 seconds, and he consolidated on the next, adding another nine seconds to his lead over South Australian Matt Selley.  By the second last stage of the day, Brendo had extended his lead to two minutes, but an electrical problem at the start of the final stage saw the pair drop 51 seconds when the engine wouldn't fire.  After a tense wait, the engine fired up again and Brendo completed the stage to take a 1 minute and 9 second victory for the day.

The wet roads made driving conditions quite difficult with Brendo explaining that by the time the SARC crews used the roads they were quite chopped up.

"It was disappointing to have the electrical problem on the final stage of the day," Brendo said, "but all in all it's been a pretty good day.  We can't be disappointed with the times we set - our times were up amongst those of the top third and fourth placed ARC competitors, and given that the road conditions were a little worse for wear by the time we used them, I am pretty happy."

Heat 2 of the rally was completed this evening with two runs of the Angaston Super Special with Brendo again winning both heats.  He takes a 2.6 second lead into tomorrow's final day which will see another eight stages of competitive driving.

VISIT BRENDO'S PHOTO GALLERY FOR GREAT PHOTOS FROM THE RALLY