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Evans Makes It Three Straight In Canberra PDF Print E-mail
Sunday, 03 June 2007
Defending NEC Australian Rally Champion Simon Evans has extended his winning streak to three straight round victories by taking to the win in the Capital Rally of Canberra aboard his Caltex-backed Toyota Corolla Sportivo today.

For the third consecutive round Evans and co-driver wife Sue was the dominant package as they led from the outset and recorded the fastest stage time across every one of the 15 tests contested in the forests surrounding Canberra.

The Victorian driver has now posted the fastest time on 58 of the 63 stages contested in the opening three rounds of the Championship aboard the same car which carried him to the 2006 Title.

Cumulative times at the end of both rally heats saw Evans finish 3m09.7s ahead of his nearest ARC competitor, Dean Herridge who snuck home for second ahead of Evans’ team-mate Neal Bates.

Such was Evans' performance that he even demoralised the coinciding Asia Pacific Rally Championship round - finishing well clear of its leading driver, Subaru's Cody Crocker.

"I had a ball at this event - I reckon I was giggling to myself for half of it. It just goes to show that all of the hard work pays off. Everything that the team does and that I do is all paying off at the moment,” said Evans.

“I earmarked yesterday as my day because it was really technical, tight and very difficult to read the roads - I've always been strong in those types of stages. The roads today were a lot less technical, there was more grip available and they were easier to read - the sort of stages where everyone tends to be close together.

“It's a great start to the season, and it is exactly what I wanted to achieve - but I've got a lot more to achieve this year.

“We had a problem in Canberra last year and we really wanted to make up for that this time - I think we've done a pretty good job of that.

“Beating Cody Crocker in the APRC was a personal goal of mine, and we did that this weekend too - I'm feeling very fulfilled at the moment but there is a long way to go this season."

Bates staged an impressive comeback in opening heat after a puncture yesterday morning to make it a pair of podium finishes for the Caltex-backed Toyota outfit.

The Canberra local dropped from second in the ARC to fifth after the problem, before fighting back to third with two stages remaining. The cut tyre had placed Bates too far behind Dean Herridge to attack for second, so Bates consolidated third place across the final two stages.

Bates continued his impressive form during the debut for the new-look Caltex-backed Toyota S2000 Corolla across today’s seven stages and set the second fastest time of the ARC competitors on the fast, open and flowing 12th and 13th stages.

Courtesy of his dominant early season form Evans holds a handy 71 point lead over Bates after the opening three rounds in the six-round Championship.

"For this car's very first rally, this is an incredibly good result. It is probably the toughest rally in the country and to come through that totally unscathed, apart from an unfortunate cut tyre is a real credit to the team,” said Bates.

“There has been an enormous amount of work go into the building of this car. They are an amazingly talented group of people that have put together a great car. To do what we did over this weekend with a totally new car was remarkable.

“When it came down to the fight for second at the end of Heat Two, we had the speed - if it wasn't for the cut tyre yesterday we would have been second overall as well.

We need to get a bit more grip from the car, and hopefully we can get some more weight out of it, but I am very satisfied with where we are starting from.”

The next round of the Championship will be contested in South Australia on August 11/12.

2007 NEC Australian Rally Championship - Round Three Capital Rally of Canberra

Heat One Results – Top Six
1. Simon Evans (Toyota Corolla Gp N(P)) 1:18:07.3
2. Dean Herridge (Subaru Impreza WRX Gp N) +1:56.8
3. Neal Bates (Toyota Corolla S2000) +2:37.5
4. Will Orders (Subaru Impreza WRX Group N) +3:43.8
5. Spencer Lowndes (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO Gp N) +3:51.0
6. Brendan Reeves (Subaru Impreza WRX Gp N) +4:48.4

Heat Two Results – Top Six
1. Simon Evans (Toyota Corolla Group N(P)) 1:05:51.5
2. Neal Bates (Toyota Corolla S2000) +58.5
3. Dean Herridge (Subaru Impreza WRX Group N) +1:12.9
4. Eli Evans (Subaru Impreza WRX Gp N) +1:19.4
5. Spencer Lowndes (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO Gp N) +1:30.6
6. Will Orders (Subaru Impreza WRX Group N) +1:44.1

2007 Capital Rally of Canberra Overall Top Six
1. Simon Evans (Toyota Corolla Gp N(P)) 2:23:58.8
2. Dean Herridge (Subaru Impreza WRX Gp N) +3:09.7
3. Neal Bates (Toyota Corolla S2000) +3:36.0
4. Spencer Lowndes (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO Gp N) +5:21.6
5. Will Orders (Subaru Impreza WRX Group N) +5:27.9
6. Brendan Reeves (Subaru Impreza WRX Gp N) +7:27.4

2007 NEC Australian Rally Championship Top Six after Round Three (Unofficial)
1. Simon Evans (Toyota Corolla Group N(P)) 243
2. Neal Bates (Toyota Corolla S2000) 172
3. Dean Herridge (Subaru Impreza WRX Group N) 162
4. Brendan Reeves (Subaru Impreza WRX Group N) 108
5. Will Orders (Subaru Impreza WRX Group N) 98
6. Michael Guest (Ford Fiesta S2000) 92
 
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