Brilliant result for Brendan at Mitta Mountain Rally

Brendan Reeves and Kate Catford have finished the Mitta Mountain Rally with a provisional 2nd outright after their first event of the season. With strong competition in the opening round of the 2021 Victorian Rally Championship, it was a positive start to the year in a car that Reeves is continuing to fine tune.

Reeves and his team worked tirelessly until the night before the rally preparing his Datsun 1600 for the event, and the effort paid off.

Heat 1 started after Reeves’ name was the first of the top three seeded drivers to be drawn from a ballot meaning he would be first car on the road.  Sweeping the roads in a 2WD car was a challenge but as Reeves commented “at least we had no dust to contend with!”

The morning’s four stages totalled 73 kilometres and Reeves said he felt confident with the car from the get-go.  The engine performance of the Datsun was strong and Reeves and Catford finished the opening Heat in second position.

Half of Heat 2’s opening stage was a repeat of the first stage of the day and this was the only occasion all day when Reeves wasn’t sweeping the roads.  He put in a solid drive and won the stage.

On the final two stages of the day, the car was a little down on power and worn tyres were creating a few difficulties.  The pair lost time on the final stage of the day - a 37-kilometre steep, downhill stage - when the too-soft tyres caused a spin on a slow corner.

Determined to push on and get to the finish, Reeves and Catford battled on, finishing the Heat in 3rd place.  The overall result sees them provisionally second outright for the event, a fantastic result in a 2WD car.

Provisional first place went to Adrian Stratford and Kain Manning in a Ford Fiesta.

Image: Wishart Media

See more photos of Brendan and Kate in action at the Mitta Mountain Rally > here