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Dominant Evans Seeks Fourth Straight Win This Weekend |
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Wednesday, 08 August 2007 |
Caltex-backed Toyota Rally star Simon Evans has been the dominant driver in the NEC Australian Rally Championship over the past 18 months and will this weekend be aiming for his fourth consecutive victory of 2007.
Evans and co-driver wife Sue, are well on the way to securing their second consecutive championship title, however this weekend’s Toyota Kluger Rally of South Australia is one event which has evaded them in the past. Their best result came in 2006 with a fourth place finish.
Across the opening three rounds in the 2007 series Evans has been in
scintillating form securing the victory in every event with a string of
six straight heat wins and has set the fastest time across a remarkable
48 out of 53 stages.
Should Evans be successful in the Barossa Valley and clinch his fourth
win on the trot he will establish a virtually insurmountable
championship lead.
"South Australia is an event that I enjoy, but I have never had a good result there,” said Evans.
"The roads are very smooth and, though they are fast, they are not too
dangerous - which usually means everyone goes flat-out and the field
stays bunched together."
Evans scoffed at suggestions that the pressure of continuing his incredible winning roll is building on him.
"I'm not feeling any pressure because we have done the work to build up
a big lead - I have put the pressure on everyone else to try to catch
me," added Evans.
"People have been talking about things like banning my car, which I
find quite funny because the car is the same as last year - we're just
doing a better job than everyone else.
"I'm approaching the event like any other - just getting in the groove and focusing on the next corner.
"Having never been on the podium in South Australia, I'd be happy to just do that this year."
The South Australian event is a favourite of team boss Neal Bates, who
is looking forward to trying out the lessons learned during testing in
the two-months since the last round on the flowing roads in the Barossa
Valley.
"South Australia will be about building on what we have learned about
the new car so far - it will be a bonus if we can achieve another good
result there," said Bates.
"I love this event because the roads have fantastic grip and you can
tell by the amount of fans that keep coming back every year that it is
really popular."
Evans and Bates will begin setting the Toyota Kluger Rally of South
Australia alight at the spectator-friendly super special stage at
Angaston Oval on Friday 10 August. Drivers head out to the forests for
the major part of the event on the Saturday and Sunday.
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