Victory for Brendan at Ada River Rally

In their second outing of the year, Brendan Reeves and Kate Raymond took outright honours in their Datsun 1600 at the Ada River Rally in Victoria’s south-east.

 

The event was round 2 of the Victorian Rally Championship and comprised 154 kilometres of competitive stages on what Reeves described as some of the best rally roads in the country.

 

Starting as car 4 on the road, Reeves was thankful to not have to sweep the heavy gravel from the roads, but the surface was still quite loose for the rear wheel drive Datsun. 

 

Reeves knew he would face strong competition in the 2WD class from Peter Schey (Ford Escort) and Tony Moore (Ford Fiesta), and was happy to finish Heat 1 in fifth outright, just ahead of them both.

 

 

Filling the top four spots at the mid-day break were a range of higher-spec vehicles including the Ford Fiesta Protos of Darren Windus and Justin Dowel, Tim Clarke’s Subaru Impreza and Danny Traverso’s Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX.

 

After a service break back at the rally’s base at Noojee, just north of Warragul, crews set off for Heat 2, a repeat of the morning’s four stages.  By now Reeves and Catford were familiar with the roads and they were confident of grabbing a podium position by the end of the day.

 

With a perfectly running Datsun 1600, and two of the top 4WD cars forced out with mechanical issues, Reeves was on track for a top three placing.

 

Schey and Moore both made their charge but Reeves’ pace increased and he took the overall lead on Stage 7. He maintained that lead in the final stage, finishing the heat 16 seconds ahead of Dowel.

 

 

Not surprisingly, Reeves and Raymond were rapt with their win.  Not only is the Ada River Rally Raymond’s home event, Reeves has a family connection to the area. His grandparents were originally from Warragul and it’s also the birthplace of his father, Mike, a former Victorian Rally Champion.

 

“We’ve had a fantastic event,” Reeves said.  “The roads were incredible and the car ran superbly all day.

 

“As always, Kate was great on the pace notes and to be able to hold off some strong competition and take not only the 2WD win but also outright honours, is awesome.”

 

Photos: Wishart Media