Excellent start to Rally Australia for Brendan

Brendan and Rhianon have finished an incredibly tough day one of Rally Australia fifth in the Production World Rally Championship (PWRC), putting them in eleventh place overall.

Rain started early in the day making the roads around Glenreagh extremely slippery and the pair battled hard all day to maintain their speed and consistency and get through the day's eight stages held over the region's shire and forestry roads, before heading back to Coffs Harbour for the Super Special stage.

With lower than expected temperatures, it was difficult to get enough heat into the hard compound tyres to give them any grip, and combined with the slippery clay surface, it was battle to stay on the road, let alone maintain a good line.

Despite the tough conditions, Brendan consistently set top-four fastest stage times, and on the evening's final two stages, the Super Special around Coffs Harbour jetty, the young Victorian finished inside the top ten overall on both occasions.

"The conditions today were incredibly difficult," Brendan said. "The road surface was so different to when we did our recce which made it really hard to know where the slippery and dry parts of the road were."

"On the morning pass of the stages we had to adjust our pacenotes so that they'd be right for the afternoon pass, but we're still really happy with the day's result."

Brendan's Subaru WRX ran perfectly all day and other than a couple of changes to the suspension which should suit the roads used on Saturday, the service crew have had little to do to the car.

Rally Australia continues tomorrow with another eight stages run south of Coffs Harbour around Macksville before returning for the Super Special again tomorrow night. The Rally wraps up on Sunday.
Visit Brendan's Photo Gallery for photos from Rally Australia.