Brendan's 2017 year in review

Although he only competed in three rallies this year, 2017 has been a positive one for Brendan Reeves with plenty of time in the driver’s seat.

In January Brendan headed to Monte Carlo to write the gravel notes for Hyundai World Rally Team driver Hayden Paddon in the World Rally Championship season opener.

This was just part of Brendan’s involvement with Hyundai this year.  He again performed gravel crew duties for Paddon at both Rally Corsica and Rally Germany, and also assisted Hyundai engineers with the tuning and testing of the new i30 N at the Mount Panorama circuit in Bathurst.

On a competitive note, in March Brendan and co-driver Ben Searcy contested the Eureka Rally in Ballarat, round 1 of the Australian Rally Championship, in Brendan’s Subaru Impreza.  Brendan competed in the Victorian Rally Championship section of the event.

Brake failure in Heat 1 of the event caused their retirement but they bounced back in Heat 2 to finish in first place.

Next up was Rally Coromandel (August), where Brendan drove the Force Motorsport Mazda2 AP4. For this event he was again co-driven by Searcy and the pair had a dominant win, making it two wins from two starts for Brendan at the Coromandel event.

With the assistance of his many supporters, Brendan and his regular co-driver, Rhianon Gelsomino, finished off the year by entering Rally Australia, the final round of the World Rally Championship in November.

The pair brought the Force Motorsport Mazda2 from New Zealand especially for the event and despite a short time frame to prepare for the rally, they made the start line.

Rally Australia got off to a great start for Brendan, finishing day one in 13th place overall and as the highest placed Australian.  Unfortunately on day two an accident forced his retirement from the event.

Throughout the year, Brendan has also spent many weekends training rally drivers at the track on his property in regional Victoria.

Brendan is still working on his rally program for 2018 but plans to get behind the wheel as often as possible.